Senior S&OP / Demand Planning Manager
Location: Oxford - 2 days in the office
Salary: £75,000-£85,000
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Supply Chain Planning professional with a strong background in either Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) or Demand Planning, alongside a solid understanding of the other process.
The key priority is the ability to confidently influence senior stakeholders, communicate complex planning insights clearly and deliver challenging messages with confidence and credibility. This individual will bring cross-functional teams together, challenge assumptions where necessary and drive alignment across the business to support effective decision-making.
Working across multiple regions, you will help ensure demand, supply and operational plans are aligned with business priorities, translating data and forecasts into clear recommendations and actionable plans.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead and drive the S&OP Planning process, ensuring effective planning, governance and business alignment.
- Confidently present planning insights, risks, scenarios and recommendations to senior stakeholders, influencing decisions and driving clear outcomes.
- Build strong relationships across Sales, Operations, Production, Engineering and Finance to align priorities and resolve conflicting requirements.
- Challenge assumptions, manage competing priorities and deliver difficult messages confidently when plans, forecasts or capacity constraints require action.
- Translate complex data into clear, commercially focused insights that support strategic and operational decision-making.
- Drive cross-functional collaboration to improve forecast accuracy, supply chain visibility and planning effectiveness.
- Support capacity planning, inventory management and customer delivery through effective planning and risk management.
- Continuously improve planning processes, reporting and stakeholder engagement across the business.
About You
- Proven experience in S&OP or Demand Planning, with a good working understanding of the other discipline.
- Exceptional stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the confidence to engage, challenge and present to senior leaders.
- A confident communicator who can deliver messages clearly and credibly, including when communicating risks, difficult decisions or competing business priorities.
- Able to influence without direct authority, bringing different functions together to achieve a common goal.
- Strong analytical skills, with the ability to turn data into meaningful insights and actionable recommendations.
- Understanding of end-to-end supply chain planning, including forecasting, supply, capacity and inventory.
- Experience working within a complex, fast-paced or international supply chain environment.
- Strong ERP and planning systems experience.
The ideal candidate is not necessarily someone who has owned every element of S&OP and Demand Planning. We are open to candidates who have built their expertise in either discipline, provided they understand how the two processes connect and, most importantly, can confidently influence stakeholders and drive decisions across the business.
