This is a hybrid position with 3 days a week in our Lake Forest, IL office.
The Manager, Demand & Inventory Analytics is responsible for overseeing the analytics portfolio supporting Demand Planning, Inventory Planning, and Integrated Business Planning (IBP) processes. This role partners closely with business stakeholders to identify business challenges, decision-support needs, and analytical opportunities, define requirements, and work with technical teams to deliver solutions that improve visibility and decision-making across the organization. The ideal candidate brings a strong understanding of demand planning, inventory management, and broader supply chain planning processes along with the ability to bridge business needs and analytics capabilities. They will lead analytics solutions and capability enhancements from concept through adoption, including requirements gathering, user acceptance testing, training, documentation, and ongoing support.
Key Responsibilities
Analytics Portfolio Leadership
- Own and manage the portfolio of Demand Planning and Inventory Management reports, dashboards, and analytical tools• Prioritize analytics initiatives and capability enhancements based on business value, stakeholder needs, and organizational objectives• Identify opportunities to improve demand visibility, inventory insights, forecasting effectiveness, and decision-support capabilities• Ensure analytics solutions remain aligned with evolving business processes and planning requirements
Business Partnership & Requirements Management
- Partner with Demand Planning, Inventory Planning, and Commercial teams to understand business challenges, analytical needs, and process pain points• Facilitate requirements gathering, process mapping, and solution design activities• Translate business requirements into clear functional specifications for analytics and technical delivery teams• Act as a trusted advisor on analytics capabilities, opportunities, and best practices
Solution Delivery & Adoption
- Collaborate with analytics engineers and technical teams throughout solution design, development, and deployment• Lead user acceptance testing (UAT) efforts and validate that delivered solutions meet business requirements• Develop training materials, user documentation, and support resources for analytics solutions• Drive user adoption and change management activities to maximize business value
Analytics Governance & Data Stewardship
- Establish and maintain standardized KPI definitions, analytical metrics, and business rules• Partner with analytics and data teams to promote consistency and accuracy across analytics assets and reporting outputs• Support data quality improvement efforts by identifying gaps, discrepancies, and process improvement opportunities• Ensure analytical outputs align with established planning processes and organizational standards
Continuous Improvement & Analytics Enablement
- Monitor solution adoption, stakeholder feedback, and business outcomes to identify enhancement opportunities• Recommend analytics solutions, process improvements, and decision-support capabilities that improve operational performance• Promote data-driven decision-making across planning functions• Stay informed on emerging analytics and decision-support capabilities relevant to demand planning, inventory management, and IBP processes
Cross-Functional Leadership & Execution
- Lead cross-functional analytics initiatives and coordinate efforts across planning, analytics, and technology teams• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement• Establish priorities and manage workload across multiple initiatives and stakeholder groups
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business, Operations Management, Analytics, Information Systems, or related field• 6+ years of experience in supply chain planning, business analysis, reporting, or analytics-related roles• Strong understanding of demand planning, inventory management, forecasting, and/or IBP/S&OP processes• Experience gathering business requirements and translating them into analytics, reporting, or system solutions• Experience partnering with both business stakeholders and technical delivery teams• Familiarity with business intelligence and analytics platforms such as Power BI, Tableau, or similar tools• Experience leading user acceptance testing, training, documentation, or change management initiatives preferred
Core Competencies
- Supply Chain Planning: Deep understanding of demand planning, forecasting, inventory management, and planning performance drivers• Business Analysis: Identifying business challenges and defining effective analytics and decision-support solutions• Stakeholder Management: Building strong partnerships across planning, commercial, operations, and technical teams• Analytics Enablement: Delivering insights and analytical capabilities that improve business performance and decision-making• Change Management & Adoption: Driving user engagement, training, and successful adoption of new solutions
Success Measures
- High stakeholder satisfaction with analytics capabilities, insights, and decision-support tools• Increased adoption and utilization of analytics solutions across planning functions• Improved consistency and standardization of KPIs, metrics, and reporting outputs• Successful delivery of analytics solutions and enhancements aligned to business priorities• Reduction in manual analysis and reporting effort through scalable analytics solutions• Increased visibility into demand, inventory, and service performance enabling better planning decisions
A reasonable estimate of the current range is $130,000-$145,000+ bonus + benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. At Novolex, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.
The benefits for this role include 401(k) plan with company match, comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, flexible spending and health savings accounts, paid vacation, and sick days, paid parental leave, paid holidays and wellness program.
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