Sr. Director, Sales & Operations Planning - U.S. AutoForce

POSITION SUMMARY

The Senior Director of Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) is responsible for designing, leading, and continuously improving an integrated Sales & Operations Planning function that aligns demand, supply, and inventory strategies to support revenue growth, service levels, and working capital objectives. This role will oversee Demand Planning, Supply Planning, and Inventory Management teams and serve as the enterprise owner of the S&OP cadence.

This leader will partner closely with Sales, Pricing, Finance, Merchandising (Marketing & Sales Enablement), Supply Chain, and Executive Leadership to translate commercial demand signals into actionable supply and inventory plans-ensuring the right tires are in the right locations at the right time, at the right cost.

This position is located onsite in Appleton, WI (relocation assistance can be provided).

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

S&OP Strategy & Governance

* Design and lead a best-in-class end-to-end S&OP process, evolving from transactional replenishment to a forward-looking, consensus-based planning model.

* Establish and own the monthly S&OP cadence, including demand review, supply review, inventory review, and executive reconciliation.

* Define decision rights, escalation paths, and governance to ensure timely trade-off decisions across service, margin, and inventory investment.

* Act as the primary facilitator between commercial and supply functions to drive alignment and accountability.

Demand Planning Leadership

* Lead the Demand Planning team responsible for generating a rolling, statistically informed demand forecast by SKU, brand, category, and distribution center.

* Integrate inputs from Sales, Pricing, Promotions, Customer Programs, and Market Trends into a consensus demand plan.

* Improve forecast accuracy, bias, and signal quality, particularly around seasonality, regional demand, promotions, and new product introductions.

* Partner with Revenue Operations, Sales Leadership, and Merchandising to align demand assumptions with revenue targets and pricing strategy.

Supply Planning & Procurement Alignment

* Lead the Supply Planning team to translate demand plans into executable supply and procurement strategies.

* Partner with suppliers and internal procurement teams to manage constraints, lead times, allocations, and inbound flow.

* Balance supplier commitments, capacity limitations, and service requirements while optimizing cost and risk.

* Proactively identify supply risks and develop mitigation plans (e.g., alternate sourcing, prioritization rules, safety stock adjustments).

Inventory Management & Optimization

* Lead the Inventory Management team responsible for inventory targets, policies, and deployment across the network.

* Optimize inventory investment to balance service levels, turns, fill rates, and working capital.

* Define safety stock, reorder parameters, and inventory segmentation strategies (e.g., A/B/C; X/Y/Z, core vs. non-core SKUs).

* Drive continuous improvement in excess & obsolete inventory reduction and slow-moving SKU strategies.

* Ensures process for PLM (Product Lifecyle Management) is documented and consistently followed.

Cross-Functional Partnership

* Partner with Finance on volume assumptions, inventory valuation, working capital, and forecast alignment with financial plans.

* Collaborate with Sales & Pricing to understand demand drivers, customer behavior, and deal impacts.

* Align with Operations & Logistics to ensure plans are executable within DC capacity and transportation constraints.

* Serve as a key thought partner to executive leadership on trade-offs impacting revenue growth and profitability.

Analytics, Tools & Process Improvement

* Champion the use of planning systems, analytics, and dashboards to support decision-making.

* Define and track KPIs such as forecast accuracy, service level, fill rate, inventory turns, weeks of supply, and forecast bias.

* Identify opportunities to automate, standardize, and scale planning processes as the business grows.

* Lead change management efforts to shift mindsets from siloed execution to integrated planning.

People Leadership

* Build, develop, and lead high-performing teams across Demand Planning, Supply Planning, and Inventory Management.

* Set clear objectives, career paths, and performance expectations.

* Foster a culture of accountability, data-driven decision-making, and continuous improvement.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required:

* 10+ years of experience in S&OP, Supply Chain Planning, Demand Planning, or Inventory Management, preferably in distribution, wholesale, or consumer goods.

* 5+ years of senior people leadership experience managing multi-disciplinary teams.

* Proven experience building or transforming an S&OP process in a complex, SKU-intensive environment.

* Strong business acumen with the ability to balance service, margin, and working capital trade-offs.

* Advanced analytical skills and comfort working with large datasets and forecasting tools.

* Exceptional communication and executive-level facilitation…