Collaborative Planning Manager

Carol Stream, 720 Center Ave, Carol Stream, Illinois, United States of America

Job Summary

The Collaborative Planning Manager is the critical link between the customer demand signal and the Maker's Pride constrained supply plan, ensuring an optimized, level-loaded plan across a 13-week horizon. This role owns demand and supply planning accuracy for a designated group of business, challenges and influences customer demand signals, and ensures compliance to production wheels, segmentation, and customer black-out calendars. Serving as the single point of contact on planner-to-planner calls, the Collaborative Planner works closely with plant finite scheduling in the 0–2 week horizon and corporate planning in the 13+ week horizon to deliver "One Supply Plan" that balances customer service, plant efficiency, and inventory health.

Key Responsibilities

Core Responsibilities

• Challenge and influence demand signals across customers to improve accuracy and align to realistic run rates and capacity
• Ensure supply is optimally planned at plants, with a level-loaded and smoothed schedule that supports service, cost, and operational stability
• Own demand and supply planning accuracy with a 13-week focus, driving continuous improvement in plan quality
• Own segmentation and production wheels for assigned lines, in coordination with the appropriate Supply Chain Directors
• Minimize unconstrained demand that is not scheduled, ensuring gaps are surfaced, resolved, or escalated
• Manage customer black-out calendars, ensuring compliance and appropriate usage of designated shifts

Weekly Activities

• Validate unconstrained demand "reasonableness" by comparing run rates versus forecast and challenging anomalies
• Ensure unconstrained customer demand is fully covered within the supply plan
• Ensure level loading and optimal scheduling across the 13-week horizon
• Document week-over-week changes and the drivers of "why" (demand change, rate change, operating shift changes, etc.) to support transparency and decision-making
• Own the translation of the unconstrained demand signal from the customer to the systemic entry of the constrained supply plan into SAP
• Ensure compliance to defined production wheels and elevate deviations as needed
• Partner heavily with plant finite scheduling on the 0–2 week horizon and with corporate planning on the 13+ week horizon to ensure "1 Supply Plan"
• Serve as the single point of contact on planner-to-planner calls for designated groups of business
• Own production wheels per line in coordination with the appropriate Supply Chain Directors
• Partner cross-functionally with Demand Planning, Customer Service, Plant Operations, Materials, and Commercial teams to resolve constraints and align on priorities

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations, Business Administration, Engineering, or a related field preferred. An equivalent combination of relevant experience and education will be considered.
• Experience:
  • 5+ years of Supply Chain planning experience across demand planning, supply planning, production scheduling, or S&OP
  • Experience in a multi-site manufacturing environment; food or CPG industry experience preferred
  • Demonstrated experience translating customer demand signals into executable supply plans
  • Experience working directly with plant scheduling and commercial/customer-facing partners
• Skills:
  • Strong knowledge of demand and supply planning processes, production wheels, segmentation, and level-loading concepts
  • Proficient in SAP and planning systems (Blue Yonder or comparable); advanced Excel skills
  • Strong analytical, problem-solving, and root cause analysis skills
  • Excellent communication and influencing skills; able to challenge demand signals and align cross-functional partners
  • Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities across short- and long-term horizons
  • Detail-oriented with a focus on accuracy, consistency, and documentation
  • Collaborative mindset with strong customer service orientation
  • Ability to travel to plant locations as needed (10–15%)

The pay range for this full-time, salaried position is $110,152-$165,228/year. Individual base pay depends on…