Demand Strategy & Intelligence Analyst

Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you.

As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don't compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits.

To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive to succeed here because we expect pace and agility, we insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact

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PURPOSE:

The Demand Strategy & Intelligence Analyst is a key analytical role within the Demand Planning organization, responsible for strengthening how internal and external demand signals are translated into the forward business outlook.

The role will integrate customer, market, syndicated, point-of-sale (POS), shipment, forecast, distribution, and commercial data to develop a holistic view of demand. By triangulating signals across multiple sources, the Analyst will identify changes in underlying demand patterns, determine their implications for the forecast, and help build scalable analytical capabilities that improve the organization's ability to anticipate changing business dynamics.

Working closely with Demand Planning and cross-functional partners across Sales, Sales Planning, Marketing, Finance, Category Management, and Supply Planning, this role will connect marketplace and customer dynamics with internal business performance and support fact-based decision-making across Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and shorter-term planning processes.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES AND DELIVERABLES

• Integrate internal and external data sources to develop a comprehensive and forward-looking view of demand and the drivers influencing business performance.

• Leverage syndicated and point-of-sale (POS) data, including Circana and SPINS, alongside internal shipment, forecast, customer, and commercial data to identify meaningful changes in demand.

• Analyze key demand indicators including velocity, Total Distribution Points (TDP), distribution gains and losses, customer performance, category trends, seasonality, innovation performance, and other relevant market signals.

• Triangulate external consumption and distribution trends with internal shipments, historical performance, forecast assumptions, and commercial intelligence to identify underlying changes in demand.

• Translate changes in demand signals into quantified implications for the forward forecast, helping the organization understand where and why the demand outlook may be changing.

• Develop analytical frameworks and methodologies that strengthen the organization's ability to convert customer, market, and commercial signals into actionable demand intelligence.

• Build and evolve scalable demand analytics capabilities using Power BI, Excel, and other available platforms to improve visibility, automation, and speed to insight.

• Partner with Sales, Sales Planning, Marketing, Finance, Category Management, and Supply Planning to incorporate relevant business intelligence into the consensus demand outlook.

• Support Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and Sales & Operations Execution (S&OE) through fact-based analysis of business performance, key assumptions, and changes to the forward outlook.

• Conduct forecast performance analytics, including forecast accuracy, bias, attainment, variance, and root-cause analysis, to identify drivers of performance and opportunities to improve forecast quality.

• Develop scenario and sensitivity analyses to quantify potential demand outcomes associated with distribution changes, customer execution, velocity trends, innovation, seasonality, and other commercial assumptions.

• Identify divergences across internal shipments, external consumption, customer expectations, and forecast assumptions and investigate the underlying business drivers.

• Support innovation and portfolio analytics by evaluating early performance signals, customer adoption, distribution development, velocity, and demand trajectory.

• Translate complex datasets and analytical findings into concise, decision-oriented insights for cross-functional partners and senior leadership.

• Help advance demand intelligence and demand-sensing capabilities by identifying new data sources, analytical techniques, automation opportunities, and methodologies that strengthen planning effectiveness.

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Qualifications:

Minimum education required:

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Economics, Finance, Analytics, Statistics, Data Science, or a related discipline.

Experience:

• 3–5+ years of experience in demand analytics, demand planning, commercial analytics, category analytics, business intelligence, sales analytics, or a related analytical discipline.

• Experience within consumer packaged goods (CPG), fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), retail, or another consumer-driven environment strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated experience integrating multiple data sources and translating analysis into actionable business insights.

• Experience working cross-functionally across Supply Chain, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Category Management, or related functions.

• Experience supporting forecasting, Integrated Business Planning (IBP), Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), or related business planning processes preferred.

• Experience working with syndicated market and POS data such as Circana, NielsenIQ, and/or SPINS strongly preferred.

• Experience developing analytics and visualization capabilities using Power BI strongly preferred.

Knowledge, skills, and abilities required:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability with demonstrated ability to synthesize multiple internal and external signals into a coherent view of demand.

• Strong understanding of consumer packaged goods demand drivers and metrics, including velocity, distribution, Total Distribution Points (TDP), rate of sale, consumption trends, customer performance, and seasonality.

• Ability to translate changes in market, customer, and commercial signals into quantified implications for the forward demand outlook.

• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills and strong proficiency with Power BI or comparable analytics and visualization tools.

• Strong understanding of forecasting concepts, forecast accuracy, bias, trend analysis, and root-cause analysis.

• Ability to distinguish changes in underlying consumer demand from timing, inventory movements, pipeline effects, distribution changes, and other factors influencing internal shipments.

• Strong commercial and financial acumen with the ability to connect detailed analysis to broader business performance.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to translate complex analysis into clear, executive-ready insights.

• Ability to independently identify patterns, investigate anomalies, develop hypotheses, and determine appropriate areas for further analysis.

• Experience with demand planning or enterprise resource planning platforms such as Blue Planner, SAP, or Microsoft Dynamics 365 is beneficial.

Working Conditions:

• Hybrid office environment with regular cross-functional collaboration.

• Ability to independently identify patterns, investigate anomalies, develop hypotheses, and determine appropriate areas for further analysis.

ADDITIONAL JOB DETAILS:

Base starting salary ranges from $76,000 - $95,000 per year. The base pay offered is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and internal equity. This role is also eligible for an annual incentive opportunity, awarded based on individual and company performance.

At pladis, our people are at the heart of everything we do. That's why we offer a competitive and comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health and well-being, including but not limited to:

• Medical, Prescription Drug, Dental, and Vision Coverage

• Life and Disability Insurance

• Voluntary Supplemental Benefits, including Hospital Indemnity, Accident, and Critical Illness Coverage

• 401(k) Retirement Plan with Company Match

• Education Assistance, including Tuition Reimbursement and Student Loan Repayment Programs

• Paid Time Off

• Generous Paid Parental Leave

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

• Wellness reimbursement program

• Employee Product Discounts

pladis is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings will be filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law. We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List. If you are a recruitment agency and wish to submit candidate to be considered for this vacancy, you must have agreed to, and signed, our terms of business. We will not accept CVs from any other sources other than those currently on our PSL. We will not pay a fee for any candidate that has not been represented by a provider on our PSL.