Supply Chain Planning Manager, Demand Planning

At Niagara, we’re looking for Team Members who want to be part of achieving our mission to provide our customers the highest quality most affordable bottled water.

Consider applying here, if you want to:   

• Work in an entrepreneurial and dynamic environment with a chance to make an impact.   
• Develop lasting relationships with great people.   
• Have the opportunity to build a satisfying career.

We offer competitive compensation and benefits packages for our Team Members.

Supply Chain Planning Manager, Demand Planning

The Demand Planning Manager leads the monthly demand planning, CPFR/S&OP operating rhythms for an assigned portfolio and is accountable for strategic, business-aligned forecasting. This role translates data into clear business insight, aligns internal and external stakeholders around a single set of assumptions, and drives actions that improve forecast accuracy, reduce bias, strengthen the demand signal, and increase stakeholder confidence. The Manager leads through the team rather than serving as the primary day-to-day forecaster, ensuring analysts execute disciplined forecasting, system maintenance, reporting, and process standards. In addition, this role needs to oversee reporting and goal setting related to the sales forecast.

Essential Functions

Demand Planning Leadership and Forecast Governance

• Lead the monthly demand planning cycle and ensure tactical and strategic forecasts reflect the best available customer, market, statistical, sales, and operational inputs.
• Own forecast governance for the assigned portfolio, including documented assumptions, forecast changes, reasons for change, risks, opportunities, and required stakeholder decisions.
• Drive a consensus forecast by challenging inputs, reconciling conflicting views, and securing alignment across Customers, Sales, Business Execution, S&OP, Finance, FG Planning, RM Planning, and other partners.
• Maintain an unconstrained, business-aligned demand perspective while clearly identifying and escalating supply or capacity constraints through the appropriate planning process.
• Ensure forecast publication is timely, accurate, complete, and communicated to all required downstream stakeholders.

CPFR/S&OP and Stakeholder Alignment

• Lead CPFR/S&OP and demand review preparation and execution for the assigned portfolio, with clear objectives, agendas, pre-reads, decisions, and action logs.
• Ensure meeting content is concise, decision-oriented, and supported by a clear narrative.
• Use structured pre-meetings and targeted stakeholder outreach to resolve questions before formal reviews and ensure the right participants are prepared to make decisions.
• Build trusted working relationships with customer, Sales, Business Execution, Planning, Finance, and leadership partners; follow up when inputs, decisions, or actions are late or incomplete.
• Escalate material risks, unresolved decisions, missed commitments, and late or inaccurate customer inputs early enough to protect forecast publication and downstream planning.

Performance Management, Analytics, and Communication

• Own monthly and weekly performance reporting for the assigned portfolio, including forecast accuracy, bias, forecast attainment, forecast change, and other agreed demand planning KPIs.
• Identify and communicate the highest-impact forecast improvement opportunities, root causes, corrective actions, owners, and due dates.
• Provide clear explanations of forecast changes, misses, assumptions, and risks using data-backed insights tailored to customer, functional, and leadership audiences.
• Create consistent, standardized reporting and communication across customers and brands so stakeholders operate from the same data, definitions, and assumptions.
• Monitor action closure and verify that corrective actions improve performance rather than only document the issue.

Team Leadership and Accountability

• Set clear standards for analysts covering forecast quality, system maintenance, process adherence, meeting preparation, communication, and stakeholder follow-through.
• Coach analysts to convert data into actionable insight, communicate with confidence, facilitate effective demand discussions, and escalate issues with a recommendation.
• Hold the team accountable for timely execution, accurate work, documented assumptions, clean system inputs, and completion of agreed actions.
• Maintain individual development plans, conduct regular coaching, support engagement, assess capability and capacity, and build succession plans for critical responsibilities.