Sr Demand Planner

Role Overview

The Senior Demand Planner is responsible for overseeing all aspects of inventory demand forecast for all brands under your portfolio and lead a team to achieve the strategic and financial objectives of the enterprise. In addition, this role will serve as a critical tie‑in across multiple stakeholders to ensure optimal performance and end‑to‑end efficiency. By taking a lead role in enterprise projects and initiatives, you’ll enable Ulta Beauty and the Merchandise department to be bigger, better, together.

• Develop the full year sales construction by ensuring alignment between bottoms up SKU forecast and tops down category/season forecast within a marginal tolerance, highlighting root causes of future risks/opportunities.
• Manage and refine demand forecasts using historical sales data, market trends, and promotional activities. Tune forecasting parameters.
• Partner with merchants and merchandise planning to grow and drive the business. Analyze market trends, historical data and customer/sales insights to drive the business.
• Partner with FPA to provide insights into changes (sales, receipts) that impact overall financial performance and ensure decisions are made with a thorough understanding of the impact on the bottom line.
• Optimize inventory levels across multiple retail locations and distribution centers to prevent stockouts and overstocking.
• Leverage data visualization tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau) to present insights to leadership. Partner with buyers, category managers, and store operations to incorporate market intelligence into forecasts.

• Lead key engagements with the ability to craft a story and tell it through impactful visuals and produce alignment to actions and decisions.
• Anticipate implications of actions or decisions throughout the end‑to‑end planning process and proactively address as needed.
• Strategically evaluate evolving trends and recommend, lead and support the implementation of new ways of working, even in an ambiguous environment.
• Be obsessed with positive customer outcomes and demonstrate the ability to define business problems, metric outcomes and how they will be measured and monitored for broad utilization across stakeholders.
• Provide data‑driven recommendations to improve supply chain efficiency and financial performance.
• Identify opportunities to enhance demand planning methodologies and automation.
• Lead or contribute to system enhancements and integration projects.
• Utilize advanced analytical techniques, including predictive modeling, machine learning, and statistical analysis, to generate actionable insights.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree from an accredited college with a focus on Data Science, Statistics, Business Analytics, Computer Science, or a related field. A Master’s degree or MBA is preferred.
• 7+ years of demand planning, forecasting, or inventory management experience in a retail environment, with at least 1‑2 years in a leadership role.
• Proven track record of driving demand planning improvements and optimizing inventory strategies, knowledge of demand forecasting models (e.g., Time Series, Bayesian, etc.).
• Advanced proficiency in demand planning software (e.g., Manhattan – DFIO, SAP APO, O9, Blue Yonder, Kinaxis, Anaplan).
• Advanced knowledge of statistical techniques and concepts (e.g., multivariate regression, A/B tests, decision trees, etc.) and experience applying these to use cases.
• Experience using statistical computer languages (e.g., Python, R) and related frameworks to manipulate data and draw insights from large data sets.
• Experience with SQL and related data access and analysis tools to mine data, identify insights, and extract features.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills to communicate complex ideas to various audiences in both a technical and user‑friendly language.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively both in a team environment and independently by handling multiple projects, meeting deadlines, prioritizing appropriately, and responding to issues quickly and creatively with an open and positive attitude.
• Energetic and self‑motivated with a strong…