Sr Principal, Integrated Business Planning; Business​/Commercial

Within Waters’ Transformation function, the Business Planning Excellence team is on a mission to improve both our customer and employee experience by establishing a connected planning network that enhances decision-making, improves visibility, and drives organizational performance.

As the Sr. Principal, Integrated Business Planning (Business / Commercial), you will be responsible for designing, implementing, and continuously improving a world-class enterprise-wide IBP process, with a specific focus on Management, Finance, Product, and Demand Reviews. This role will drive the evolution and adoption of cross-functional planning capabilities spanning Commercial, R&D, Supply Chain, and Finance functions, ensuring alignment between strategic objectives and operational execution.

You will collaborate with and influence leaders across the global organization, leveraging both domain expertise and colleagues on the cross-functional Business Planning Excellence team to design, deploy, and sustain best-in-class business planning processes, governance, and supporting technologies such as ML forecasting, Celonis, and SAP IBP.

This role will report to the Sr. Director, Business Planning Excellence.

Location:

Milford (US) or Wilmslow (UK)

• Lead the design and implementation of the Integrated Business Planning process, with a focus on Management, Finance, Product, and Demand Reviews

• Play a key role in the implementation and ongoing improvement of SAP IBP ensuring new processes are adequately supported

• Work within a cross-functional team of subject-matter experts from both business and technology backgrounds

• Partner with functional leaders to understand current business processes, identify improvement opportunities, and align future-state planning capabilities with business objectives

• Develop and maintain an IBP roadmap prioritizing process, governance, organizational, and system enhancements

• Design, validate, and deploy process improvements and system capabilities that support integrated planning and scenario-based decision making

• Collaborate with business and technology teams to leverage advanced analytics, machine learning, and digital planning capabilities to improve business insights and effectiveness

• Drive process harmonization, monitor adoption and adherence, implementing interventions where required to improve engagement and effectiveness

• Collaborate with stakeholders outside of Global Operations to ensure alignment with the overall enterprise, e.g., master data governance, and enterprise IT systems (S/4 HANA, SAP IBP)

• Build and attract high-performing talent while fostering a culture of continuous improvement

• 7+ years progressive experience in supply chain planning, finance, or operations, including working knowledge of one or more specific areas, esp. demand planning or finance or sales
• Experience building and managing cross-functional teams
• Process discovery, design, and implementation experience
• Knowledge of SAP capabilities, specifically SAP ECC, S/4 HANA, APO and SAP IBP
• Experience designing and deploying SAP-based processes and functionality
• Appreciation of UX best practices in the context of internally deployed solutions
• Strong project and program management skills, experience creating and executing multi-disciplinary projects
• Strong influencing skills, proven ability to work across organizational boundaries driving change and harmonization across a global organization
• Collaborative, listens and assimilates other viewpoints to come up with a better solution
• Agile and responsive, able to handle multiple priorities, act with urgency, and manage ambiguity
• Customer-centric, invests time in understanding customer requirements
• Results oriented, takes ownership and operates with high sense of urgency. Proven track record of solving problems, breaking down barriers and delivering results ahead of schedule
• Strong written and verbal communication
• ASCM/APICS certification a plus
• BS Degree in an Engineering, Science or Supply Chain discipline. Master’s Degree or equivalent industry experience preferred

(NYSE:WAT) is a global leader in life sciences and diagnostics, dedicated to accelerating the benefits of pioneering science through…