Demand Planner

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Blackhawk Network (BHN), we’re shaping the future of branded payments - powering reward, incentive, and loyalty solutions across 28 countries and 400,000+ consumer touchpoints. From digital gift cards and eGifts to global employee rewards and customer acquisition tools, our platforms deliver meaningful value to clients and their customers alike.

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The Supply Chain department is responsible for fulfilment activities, planning and operational implementation of new products across EMEA. The department manages activity for both Retail and Incentive channels across physical and eGift products.

This UK-based role will focus on demand and inventory planning for the UK and Ireland, working closely with commercial, operational and wider EMEA Supply Chain colleagues.

The Demand Planner will use data analysis, advanced Excel skills and commercial insight to develop and maintain accurate demand forecasts and inventory plans for the UK and Ireland.

This is a hands-on, analytical role. The successful candidate will be confident working with large datasets, building and maintaining spreadsheet-based planning models, identifying trends and turning complex information into clear recommendations. They will help ensure the right stock is available at the right time, balancing product availability with the risks of excess and obsolete inventory.

The role will work closely with Card Partner, Distribution Partner, Sales and Product Implementation teams to incorporate business intelligence, promotional activity and partner requirements into planning decisions.

• Prepare, maintain and challenge demand forecasts and inventory plans for the UK and Ireland across relevant Retail and Incentive channels, covering physical and eGift products.
• Analyse historical sales, stock levels, sales rates, seasonality, promotional activity and market or partner changes to identify demand patterns and future stock requirements.
• Build, maintain and improve Excel-based forecasting models, planning matrices and reporting tools, ensuring calculations are accurate, assumptions are clear and outputs are reliable.
• Extract, combine, clean and reconcile data from multiple sources, investigating discrepancies and protecting the integrity of planning data.
• Translate analysis into clear stock recommendations, taking account of supplier lead times, existing inventory, outstanding orders, planned launches and changes in demand.
• Review actual performance against forecasts, investigate significant variances and use findings to improve forecast accuracy and future planning assumptions.
• Identify and communicate potential out-of-stock, excess-stock and obsolescence risks early, recommending practical actions to reduce their impact.
• Work with Card Partner, Distribution Partner and Sales teams to validate forecasts and incorporate promotional plans, seasonal peaks, new business and other commercial intelligence.
• Work with Product Implementation teams to confirm in-warehouse dates, monitor inbound stock and highlight delivery risks that could affect availability.
• Produce clear, timely reports and analysis on demand, inventory coverage, forecast accuracy and exceptions, explaining the findings and recommended actions to stakeholders.
• Support supply planning across B2B and B2C fulfilment and logistics providers, addressing demand-related issues promptly and effectively.
• Improve planning processes through standardisation, effective spreadsheet controls and automation where appropriate, reducing manual effort and the risk of error.
• Collaborate with Supply Chain colleagues across EMEA to share good practice, maintain consistent processes and provide appropriate team cover.

• Strong data analytics skills, with the ability to interrogate large datasets, identify trends and anomalies, investigate root causes and turn findings into practical business recommendations.
• Advanced, demonstrable Excel skills. Confident use of Pivot Tables, lookup functions such as XLOOKUP or INDEX/MATCH, SUMIFS/COUNTIFS, logical formulas and data validation is essential.
• Experience building, maintaining or improving spreadsheet-based analysis, reporting or planning models, with strong attention to formula accuracy, reconciliation and data quality.
• Ability to bring together information from different sources and explain what the data means, rather than simply produce reports.
• Strong numerical reasoning and…