Sales Planning Manager

We are seeking a Sales Planning Manager to serve as a key partner to the Sales organization and C-suite leadership within a global consumer brand.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and manage the 12–18 month rolling sales forecast for the wholesale business.

• Collect, analyze, and challenge forecast inputs from Sales leaders and account teams.

• Partner directly with Sales leadership to understand business trends, risks, opportunities, and forecast assumptions.

• Lead recurring forecast and business review meetings, including preparing presentations and communicating performance against expectations.

• Hold Sales leaders accountable to forecast commitments and business targets.

• Develop and manage annual wholesale budgets incorporating customers, margins, returns, discounts, and other commercial assumptions.

• Partner with Inventory and Demand Planning teams to ensure sales forecasts align with inventory requirements and business needs.

• Analyze wholesale trends, customer performance, sell-in, sell-through, order books, margins, returns, and discounts.

• Support retail reporting and aggregate retail selling data across key accounts.

• Explain the "why " behind the numbers, identifying the business drivers impacting performance.

• Build and maintain reporting and forecasting tools, primarily using advanced Excel while leveraging Power BI and other analytics platforms.

• Identify opportunities to improve planning processes, reporting, and data accuracy.

• Respond effectively to ad hoc business requests and analysis.

• Serve as a trusted business partner and subject matter expert for the wholesale organization.

• Eventually manage and develop a direct report supporting the planning function.

Required Qualifications

• 5 years of experience in Sales Planning, Demand Planning, Inventory Planning, Business Planning, or a related function.

• Strong experience with sales forecasting, ideally owning a 12–18 month rolling forecast.

• Experience working directly with Sales leadership and account teams.

• Strong inventory and demand planning knowledge.

• Experience within retail, wholesale, footwear, apparel, or consumer goods.

• Understanding of sell-in, sell-through, margins, returns, discounts, and order books.

• Advanced Excel skills.

• Strong Power BI / data analytics experience.

• Experience working with merchandising and/or demand planning teams.

• Strong communication and presentation skills.

• Comfortable challenging assumptions and holding senior Sales stakeholders accountable.

• Ability to interpret complex data and communicate clear business recommendations.

• Strong relationship-building skills with the ability to work cross-functionally.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background with a major footwear, apparel, sporting goods, or consumer brand.

• Experience supporting major wholesale/retail accounts such as Nordstrom, Dillard's, Amazon, or similar retailers.

• Experience running forecast, demand consensus, or business review meetings.

• Experience with retail reporting and sell-through analytics.

• Footwear industry experience is strongly preferred; soft goods/apparel or related consumer products experience will also be considered.

• Experience working in environments where data and reporting processes are evolving.