1. Position SummaryThe Customer Collaboration Manager serves as the primary demand-planning liaison between the company and its largest national retail and aftermarket customers. The role owns the company's Collaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment (CPFR) programs end-to-end - translating customer demand signals, inventory positions, and supply constraints into coordinated replenishment plans that protect customer fill rates and service levels.
This is a cross-functional, customer-facing position that blends strategic account collaboration with hands-on analytical and operational execution. The incumbent balances external relationship management with internal coordination across customer service, procurement, manufacturing/business units, logistics, and sales - acting as the connective sinew that keeps high-priority customer programs on track. Success requires equal fluency in customer relationship management, statistical inventory analysis, and day-to-day order orchestration. In addition to direct account ownership, the Manager supervises the Customer Collaboration group.
2. Key ResponsibilitiesA. CPFR Program Management- Own and facilitate recurring (weekly / bi-weekly / monthly) CPFR meetings and pre-meeting preparation sessions with major customers, organized by product category
- Set meeting agendas around a consistent framework: reviewing existing initiatives and progress, introducing new initiatives, and surfacing preseason status and shipment constraints.
- Build, maintain, and distribute category-level CPFR decks and supporting data files, including a written summary of key discussion points for each session.
- Maintain the cadence and continuity of the customer partnership, coordinating scheduling and stakeholder participation across both organizations.
B. Backorder, Fill-Rate & Service-Level Recovery- Produce and distribute recurring customer backorder (CBO), and top-outs reports, prioritizing the highest-impact shortages.
- Drive fill-rate recovery by soliciting ETAs and root-cause/delay explanations from internal business units and plants, then consolidating them into customer-facing commitments.
- Track anticipated vs. actual fill rates at the activity and category level, providing narrative commentary on significant shortfalls.
- Monitor and respond to customer supplier scorecards.
C. Cross-Functional Coordination & Escalation- Act as the single point of contact between the customer and internal functions (customer service, procurement, manufacturing/business units, logistics, and sales/account teams) for supply and replenishment issues.
- Escalate capacity constraints, lead-time extensions, and supply risks with proposed mitigation options.
- Coordinate documentation requests (shipment/delivery proof, EDI/transmission verification) to resolve customer disputes and compliance items.
D. Reporting & Communication- Generate and distribute recurring purchase order, backorder, and performance reports to internal and customer stakeholders.
- Maintain timely, professional written communication across a high volume of concurrent customer and internal threads.
E. Team Leadership & Supervision- Supervise the Customer Collaboration group, providing direction, workload prioritization, and coverage planning across assigned customer accounts and product categories.
- Set performance expectations, conduct regular one-on-ones and performance reviews, and support the coaching, development, and training of team members.
- Allocate customer and account assignments and balance high-volume, time-sensitive workloads across staff.
3. Qualifications / RequirementsRequired Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business, Analytics, or related field.
- 5+ years of experience in demand planning, customer collaboration, replenishment, supply chain analysis, or related supply chain function.
- Experience supporting large retail, aftermarket, manufacturing, or distribution customers.
- Advanced Excel skills, including the ability to analyze large data sets and build recurring reports.
- ERP/MRP system experience.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills with attention to detail.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate clearly across customer, internal, and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to manage high-volume, time-sensitive work while balancing multiple priorities.
- Experience managing supply, replenishment, backorder, fill-rate, or service-level issues.
- 2+ years of supervisory, team-lead, or people-management experience
Preferred Qualifications- Direct CPFR program experience with major retail customers.
- Experience with Power BI, SQL, or other reporting and analytics tools.
- Experience with customer/supplier portals and EDI transmissions.
- Knowledge of demand forecasting and replenishment planning, including projected demand, future supply, and anticipated-vs.-actual fill-rate analysis.
- Experience interpreting inventory, forecast, open order, and supply data to support customer-facing replenishment decisions.
Automotive aftermarket or retail replenishment experience
