Senior Global Planner

About the role

The role drives the long term planning activities as part of the S&OP cycle for the Cocoa business. The role provides the global positions by product & region, ensures alignment on one plan in close collaboration with the regional planning teams, steers the run of the tactical plan, participates in the S&OP/E and contributes to the continuous improvement initiatives

Key responsibilities include

• Steers and provides business guidance for the monthly long-term planning for Global Cocoa

• Ensure business guidelines are reflected in tactical plans and scenarios

• Accountable for accurate and timely information to support the S&OP/E cycles, with required views by product & region

• Supports the preparation of the various meetings as part of the S&OP/E cycle

• Provides visibility on the global/ regional position by product, at the relevant granularity, as well as the available to sell by region/product

• Main point of contact for the topics such as purchase, availability, capacity utilization, flows – for the full Cocoa network

• Guarantees the availability of Cocoa products for chocolate business needs and third-party sales

• Proposes options and solutions on how to best serve the customers at the most profitable cost, jointly with the Finance teams

• Defines the optimal level of Cocoa products inventory, in close coordination with the regional teams and other functions

• Contributes to the decision-making process by providing the accurate data, plans, scenarios and recommendations

• Ensure decisions taken are executed and adhered to across the planning teams, as well as with the other functions

• Reflect the strategic and S&OP decisions on the tactical plans

• Optimize global flows in line with profitability drivers of the business

• Provide and align on the production plans and external purchases for the full horizon (up to 24 months)

• Identify capacity & resources requirement to be in place to support agreed demand plan

• Coordinate and align with strategic planning team on capacity and footprint decision, to reflect relevant updates across all planning layers

• Contribute to various footprint related projects as required

• Ensure the alignment between the teams and consistency of the plans

• Engages the teams across the region, as part of one global planning team

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives

About you

• Bachelor’s Degree in Supply Chain, Finance, or related field

• 10+ years of experience in Global Supply Chain related roles in an international environment

• Prior experience in soft commodities with strong preference in cocoa

• Proficient in Microsoft Excel and with previous experience with SAP, OMP and other planning software beneficial

• APICS certification or proven work experience

• Fluent in English

• Intercultural exposure and experience, being comfortable in international environments

• Excellent communicator, with possess strong analytical and problem-solving skills

• Ability to lead and influence teams, and getting consensus for decisions needed

• Ability to solve issues with a proactive mindset

• Proactive, motivated to create value, anticipation

• Perseverance, never give up

• Dynamic/curious/passionate Able to work independently, as well as a strong team player

• Critical thinking

• Ability to work with multiple sources of data and uncertainty

• Ability to challenge and translate data

• Flexible and result-oriented

• Ability to align key stakeholders on common solutions

• Ability to easily adapt to changes and navigate in an uncertain environment