Forecast Excellence Officer

Job description

UNILEVER IS LOOKING FOR A FORECAST EXCELLENCE OFFICER

LOCATIONS : Brussels Office/DeBrug Rotterdam

TRAVEL REQUIRED : Frequent presence in other location is required (10-20%)

WORKING HOURS : Full time, other working arrangements can be discussed

LOCAL TERMS APPLY

BACKGROUND

The Integrated Operations Benelux team consist of various roles that make Excellent Execution a success. One of these roles is the Forecast Excellence Officer. Less time spent on Running the Business to reinvest in Growing the Business whilst Improving Customer and Employee Satisfaction is the vision of Integrated operations. Integrated Operations brings Customer Development, Supply Chain and Sales within Unilever Benelux together in realizing excellent execution. The 4 principles driving Integrated Operations are: end 2 end ownership, maximized automation, one version of the truth and continuous improvement. Team members within Integrated Operations embrace the vision and their daily work practice reflects the 4 principles of Integrated Operations. Integrated Operations effectively works in a cross-country setting, embracing cultural diversity and working in virtual teams.

Competencies key to make Integrated Operations a success, are:

· Practical creativity
· Enterprising behavior
· Ability to learn

JOB SUMMARY

The purpose of the Forecast Excellence Analyst is twofold, as the Forecast Excellence Analyst has the responsibility for the full-term volume demand forecast per cluster for the Benelux, as well as continuously improve the predictive model that helps with this volume forecast. In this role, the Forecast Excellence Analyst will contribute to the standard business process (S&OP), in close cooperation with the Performance Manager, Supply chain Specialist, Integrated Operations, Sales and the CCBT. This results in an exciting balance between strategic planning, analysis, actions plans resulting from this, and stakeholder and business management. Strong relations are essential in this role.

The forecasting part consists of full responsibility for the total volume forecast over different business categories for a rolling horizon of 18 months. The main focus is on the horizon of 2 - 6 months providing the business with a robust rolling volume forecast using category market intelligence. The Forecast Excellence Analyst is the driver of the demand volume forecast in the S&OP process (Business Forecast Process).

Further, within the Benelux, we are in a process of professionalizing our planning systems, building principles as artificial intelligence and machine learning into the planning process. The Forecast Excellence Analyst will have a role in continuously improving these predictive models. Hence, affinity with these principles combined with the ambition to be part of this journey, is important for the right candidate.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES
Demand Planning:
· Manage the predictive model
·
Responsible for both base and promotional planning (0-18 months)

·
Responsible for promotional predictive model with input of promotional parameters from sales.

·
Responsible for KPI's as Forecast Accuracy, Forecast Bias, Dispatch Rate, exceptions and outliers

·
Integrate top-down (IBP) forecast in bottom-up

·
Manage volume exception driven by sales input in overall volume forecast

·
Translate the innovation and relaunches forecast for the full horizon (0-18 months) in Visual Fabriq PLC manager driven by Pega input.

·
Manage Assumptions, Risks and Opportunities & translate to volume impact

·
Responsible for checking the predictive model for outliers

Business partnering:
·
Establish and maintain strong relationships with Performance Manager, Supply chain Specialist, Sales, Trade Category Management, Brand Building, and Business Partners for forecast optimization purposes and perfect execution of product launches.

·
Understand the dynamics of the business in order to communicate and distribute the correct information to the business (develop a high degree of business sense).

·
Report to the Forecast Lead BNX

KEY REQUIREMENTS
SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
·
Affinity with next generation planning principle, interested in upcoming new technology and adaptation, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning

·
Knowledge of systems, e.g. Visual Fabriq / SAP/ APO (Kinaxis) / Pega

·
Operational experience in either Supply Chain or Sales a pre

·
Experience in the area of FMCG is preferred

·
Languages: fluent in English and Dutch a pre

COMPETENCIES
· Practical creativity
· Analytical ability
· Enterprising behavior
· Influencing others
· Ability to learn

EXCITED ABOUT THE ROLE?

To apply, you must do so online. Please do not forget to upload your CV and a motivation letter. Your application will be reviewed against our requirements and we will be in touch shortly after the closing date to provide you with an update on the status of your application.

Please note this is a Direct Search led by Unilever. Applications from agencies will not be accepted, nor will fees be paid for unsolicited CVs.