Sales & Operations Planning Director

Main Functions

Lallemand Plant Care is looking for an S&OP Director to lead and oversee activities at the BU level. Reporting to the BU President & General Manager, the S&OP Director plays a key role in implementing and managing strategies and processes to align sales, production, and supply chain activities, ensuring they meet both intercompany and customer demand while optimizing operational efficiency. Working with minimal supervision and a high level of autonomy in decision making, the key responsibilities include creating balanced, actionable plans, optimizing inventory levels, driving forecast accuracy, and improving operational efficiency.

The role is accountable for governance, long‑term alignment, and business impact.

• Lead the S&OP process at a global level, ensuring alignment of sales forecasts, production plans, and inventory levels (24‑month horizon).
• Coordinate and facilitate regular S&OP frequent meetings with key stakeholders to review and validate demand forecasts, production plans, supply constraints, and production capabilities.
• Work closely with production planning and supply chain teams to ensure accurate production schedules, inventory management, and timely delivery of products.
• Analyze demand and supply data to identify gaps, risks, and opportunities, and provide recommendations for balancing supply and demand evaluating short and medium‑term.
• Collaborate in new projects related to product development/registration and technology transference providing insights about operational efficiency aspects and potential bottlenecks.
• Mediate interco transactions working as the focal point to evaluate and request internal supplying.
• Support SKU management process providing essential information to keep the ERP database and the packaging instruction library updated and accurate.
• Develop and maintain key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the S&OP process and identify areas for improvement.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to optimize the S&OP process, enhance forecasting accuracy, and streamline operations.
• Collaborate across functional teams to resolve supply chain disruptions, mitigate risks, and ensure smooth execution of the S&OP plan.
• Provide regular reports and updates to senior management on the performance of the S&OP process, highlighting key insights, challenges, opportunities and recommended actions.

• Negotiate and purchase strategic raw materials (semi‑finished ingredients for products globally sold in the Plant Care Business).
• Participate and bring insights to the corporate procurement council.

• Provide strategic leadership by setting objectives, defining priorities, and guiding manager(s) in daily operations such as recruitment, training, and performance evaluation. Promote continuous improvement and skills development to achieve departmental goals.
• The team is under restructuring and will consist of three members, including yourself.

• Internal:
  Site Directors, Production, Commercial, Regulatory, QC/QA.
• External:
  Freight forwarders, Brokers, Suppliers.

• University degree in Supply Chain, Operations Management, Engineering, Business, or a related field.
• Over 15 years’ of progressive experience in supply chain planning, demand planning, operations, or logistics, in an industrial or manufacturing environment.
• Proven experience owning and governing the S&OP process at a global or multi‑site level.
• Demonstrated ability to operate at executive level, influencing strategic trade offs between service, cost, inventory, and growth.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary and cross‑functional teams.
• Deep expertise of S&OP planning/Integrated Business Planning, long and mid‑term planning, production planning, demand forecasting, supply planning, inventory optimization, capacity trade‑off decisions, KPI definition, performance tracking, and risk management.
• Knowledge in interpreting market trends, supplier constraints, and economic indicators to adjust forecasts.
• Strong understanding of financial alignment, ensuring operational…