Sales & Operations Planning Director

Global Supply Chain Function

The mission of the Global Supply Chain function is to deliver competitive advantage through excellent customer experience while leveraging scale and cost efficiency. This mission is to be realised through five pillars of expertise:

• Warehousing & Distribution
• Sales & Operations Planning
• Direct Procurement (Manufacturing and Production)
• Performance and Innovation
• Global Supply Chain Processes & Design

Position Description

Reporting into the SVP Supply Chain, the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) Director is a senior leadership role responsible for strategic decision making to establish and sustain effective demand and supply planning for Pearson globally to improve profitability and customer satisfaction. Reporting to the SVP Supply Chain and leading a team of S&OP Governance, Inventory and Supply Planning, Forecasting Analysts to drive continuous improvement in service, cost and quality.

Key Deliverables

• Build, motivate and retain a team of experts to deliver our global S&OP strategy. Ensure all team members fully understand how to operationalise our strategy and can provide our internal clients with all the tools / expertise required to drive S&OP targets and goals
• Develop accurate demand input and facilitate efficient centre-led production and inventory planning to meet demand through key markets and a Forecast & Planning Analytics Centre
• Lead development of demand plans based on consolidated forecasting data, influencing the annual Operating and Strategic planning process for the global supply chain
• Accountable for ongoing identification and remediation of constraints relating to product demand and supply
• Provide direction to S&OP/Forecast & Planning managers
• Ensure effective inventory management to reduce supply chain costs year on year as agreed in the strategic and operational planning process
• Define overall strategy for inventory planning (working with Global/Operations/Finance/Supply Chain Leadership)
• Drive improvements in inventory positions without impact to customer service, as evidenced through KPIs e.g. DIFOT
• Drive adherence to local and regional inventory plans
• Develop and maintain key performance metrics and targets for the Planning and S&OP centre

Qualifications

Essential Skills/Experience

• Demonstrable experience in leading globally dispersed teams
• Demonstrable experience of S&OP planning within a publishing, e-commerce or retail environment
• Experience in managing inventory spend in excess of GBP100M
• Demonstrable project management and continuous improvement experience e.g. Six Sigma
• Experience working with demand planning platforms e.g. logility and their interfaces to ERP's for example Oracle eBusiness
• Experience of operationalising strategy within an organisation undergoing significant transformation
• Ability to define and implement planning processes including experience leading an Integrated Business Planning process (i.e. S&OP) at the functional and executive level
• Fluent English

Desirable Skills/Experience

• Familiarity with value drivers and customer requirements within a print/publishing environment
• Experience in supply chain process improvements including forecasting accuracy, service level and inventory optimization
• Experience of end to end supply chain interactions and interdependencies including management of 3rd party vendors and suppliers
• Relevant postgraduate qualification and CI certification (e.g. MBA, Masters in Operations/Supply Chain, Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma etc.)
• Experience of deploying and running an S&OP process within a multi ERP environment
• Fluent in one or more languages other than English

Personal Style and Behaviour

• Respect for Our values: Brave, Imaginative, Decent and Accountable
• Ability to navigate and build relationships in a matrix organisation