Job Description
Job Description BUILT ON FLAVOR. FUELED BY PEOPLE.
What's it like to work at Kinder's? Well, there's a lot of snacking and geeking out over what we all cooked over the weekend. Beyond that, there's also plenty of hard work. Because we don't just like flavor, we're obsessed with it.
With over 100 products sold nationwide, we're now a top-five brand in multiple flavor categories at Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, and more. We're not your typical CPG company. Privately held and founder-led, we like to think of ourselves as a pirate ship in a sea of cruise ships. Our crew is adventurous and fearless. We chart our own course and chase big ideas to make food unforgettable.
As we expand globally and approach $1 billion in revenue, we need more smart-and-scrappy, flavor-obsessed people to come aboard. If you're looking for a place where you can see the real impact of your work... this is it! Every day, you'll be part of a journey to add flavor to millions of meals and lives.
About The Role
Kinder's is growing rapidly, and we are looking for a strategic, analytical, and forward-thinking Senior Manager, Demand Planning to help shape the future of our demand planning capabilities. This role will play a critical part in translating commercial strategies, consumer insights, and market dynamics into accurate, actionable demand plans that support continued growth, operational excellence, and exceptional customer service.
The Senior Manager, Demand Planning will provide strategic leadership across assigned channels and categories, driving forecast accuracy, strengthening cross-functional alignment, and advancing demand planning processes and capabilities. This individual will serve as a trusted partner to Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain leadership, connecting short-term operational execution with long-term business objectives through the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) and Integrated Business Planning (IBP) processes.
Success in this role requires a balance of analytical rigor, commercial acumen, and influential leadership. The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced, high-growth environment, challenges assumptions, anticipates risks and opportunities, and brings a continuous improvement mindset to building scalable planning solutions.
Key ResponsibilitiesStrategic Demand Planning & Forecasting
- Lead the development and execution of comprehensive, data-driven demand plans across assigned channels, categories, and product portfolios, aligning forecasts with business growth objectives.
- Integrate historical shipments, Point of Sale (POS) data, customer insights, promotional activity, market trends, and commercial strategies to develop accurate short- and long-term forecasts.
- Apply advanced forecasting methodologies, scenario modeling, and statistical analysis to anticipate demand variability, identify emerging trends, and improve forecast reliability.
- Challenge assumptions and translate complex data into actionable recommendations that support informed commercial and operational decision-making.
Cross-Functional Leadership & Business Partnership
- Serve as a strategic planning partner to Sales, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, and other key stakeholders, ensuring alignment between commercial ambitions and operational capabilities.
- Lead collaborative demand reviews, facilitating productive discussions around forecast assumptions, business risks, growth opportunities, and planning trade-offs.
- Influence cross-functional leaders through data-driven insights, sound business judgment, and the ability to constructively challenge perspectives.
- Build strong, trusted partnerships that promote transparency, shared accountability, and proactive decision-making across the organization.
Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) and Integrated Business Planning (IBP)
- Provide leadership within the S&OP and IBP processes, ensuring demand plans are aligned with financial objectives, supply capabilities, and evolving business priorities.
- Translate commercial strategies into actionable demand scenarios, identifying implications for inventory, capacity, service levels, and operational performance.
- Partner with Supply Planning, Finance, and Commercial leadership to identify and resolve demand and supply imbalances while driving consensus around key planning decisions.
- Strengthen the connection between Sales & Operations Execution (S&OE) and longer-term planning, ensuring responsiveness to near-term changes without compromising strategic objectives.
Innovation & New Product Introductions
- Lead demand planning activities for new product introductions, product expansions, and other strategic growth initiatives.
- Partner with Innovation, Product Development, Marketing, and Sales to develop launch forecasts, evaluate assumptions, and assess potential demand scenarios.
- Monitor new product performance against initial forecasts, identifying trends, risks, and opportunities to improve launch execution and future forecasting methodologies.
- Support portfolio optimization by providing insights into product performance, demand shifts, and evolving consumer preferences.
Forecast Performance & Business Insights
- Establish and drive accountability for key demand planning performance metrics, including forecast accuracy, forecast bias, and other indicators of planning effectiveness.
- Conduct root-cause analysis of forecast variances, identifying systemic issues and implementing sustainable corrective actions.
- Evaluate demand trends and business performance to identify opportunities to improve inventory productivity, service levels, and working capital efficiency.
- Develop and present clear, actionable insights and recommendations to senior leadership, connecting demand planning performance to broader business outcomes.
Process Optimization & Planning Capabilities
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives to enhance forecasting methodologies, planning processes, data integrity, and cross-functional ways of working.
- Identify opportunities to leverage planning technologies, advanced analytics, automation, and improved data integration to increase forecast accuracy and operational efficiency.
- Establish scalable planning processes, governance, and best practices that support Kinder's expanding product portfolio, customer base, and operational complexity.
- Champion change management initiatives, helping stakeholders adopt new tools, processes, and planning disciplines that strengthen organizational capabilities.
Leadership & Organizational Impact
- Provide thought leadership and subject matter expertise across the demand planning function, elevating analytical capabilities and planning discipline.
- Mentor and develop planning talent, fostering critical thinking, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Lead complex, cross-functional initiatives that require balancing competing priorities, navigating ambiguity, and influencing outcomes without direct authority.
- Demonstrate strong ownership, sound judgment, and a growth mindset while helping build a high-performing, future-ready planning organization.
What You Bring to the Table