Manager, Demand & Inventory Analytics

Novolex is a leading manufacturer of food, beverage, and specialty packaging that supports multiple industries including food service, restaurant delivery and carryout, food processing, grocery and retail, and industrial sectors. Novolex manufacturing and sourcing expertise spans a diverse range of substrates including resin, paper, molded fiber, aluminum and more. We provide customers a broad array of stock and customized solutions with 120 product categories, 250 brands and over 39,000 SKUs.

The Novolex sustainability vision is built upon three pillars: our products, our operations and our people. Each is critically important to our growth and future as a business. These pillars form the foundation of our company-wide commitment to sustainability, helping us achieve our ambitious goals through our wide-ranging initiatives.

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…