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About the Role

The Demand Planning function is responsible for ensuring optimal product availability while maintaining healthy inventory levels for a single premium beauty brand across multiple distribution channels in Japan. Operating within a well-established S&OP framework, the role requires close collaboration with cross-functional teams and alignment with global stakeholders to deliver a consensus-driven demand plan. This role is expected to understand market trends, improve forecast quality, negotiate with global stakeholders, and actively contribute to the S&OP cycle, while also supporting continuous improvement and better decision-making through data analysis.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain accurate demand forecasts at SKU and channel level by leveraging market trends, historical data, statistical models, and business insights.
Continuously monitor forecast performance (accuracy and bias) and identify drivers of variances.
Support the monthly S&OP cycle by providing data analysis and preparing relevant materials to ensure alignment of demand assumptions across Sales, Marketing, and Finance.
Prepare and analyze demand reviews materials by consolidating key insights, risks, and opportunities, and support decision-making.
Partner closely with Sales and Marketing teams to integrate commercial plans, product launches, and promotional activities into the demand plan.
Align with global supply chain team to ensure feasibility and optimize service levels and inventory.
Balance product availability and inventory coverage targets, minimizing both stock-outs and excess inventory.
Proactively identify supply risks and propose mitigation actions.
Track and report key KPIs including forecast accuracy, inventory coverage and air freight usage.
Drive initiatives to improve forecast quality, reduce volatility, and enhance planning processes.
Effectively communicate, report, and negotiate with local and global stakeholders, providing transparency on demand outlook and key assumptions.
Act as a trusted business partner within the organization.

Requirements

University degrees or higher education
Experience in beauty, fashion, or FMCG
3+ years of experience in demand and supply planning
Work with a long term perspective with growth mindset
Strong communication skills and ability to effectively drive cross-functional collaboration within the organization
Broad knowledge and understanding of the retail and distribution industry
Intermediate to advanced proficiency in Excel (Function/Formula and Pivot are minimum), hands-on experience with Power Pivot and SQL is a plus
Ability to create Power Point presentations from scratch
Strong logical thinking and advanced analytical skills with a high level of numerical aptitude
Highly curious with strong adaptability to innovation and change
Business-level English proficiency (TOEIC 800 or above preferred). Ability to collaborate globally and participate in meetings and presentations in English
Able to travel alone internationally (Possibility to take an annual business trip)

Skills

Demand Forecasting
Data Analysis
S&OP Process Support
Cross-functional Collaboration
Inventory Management
Performance Management
Stakeholder Communication
Excel (Function/Formula, Pivot, Power Pivot)
SQL
Power Point Presentations
Logical Thinking
Analytical Skills
Numerical Aptitude
Adaptability
English Proficiency

Location

Japan

Work Type

Full-time

Experience Level

3+ years of experience in demand and supply planning
Late 20’s to early 30’s

Education Level

University degrees or higher education

Salary/Compensations

JPY5M to 8M

About the Company

The Demand Planning function is responsible for ensuring optimal product availability while maintaining healthy inventory levels for a single premium beauty brand across multiple distribution channels in Japan market, including department stores, e-commerce, directly operated stores, and travel retail.
Operating within a well-established S&OP framework, the role requires close collaboration with cross-functional teams and alignment with global stakeholders to deliver a consensus-driven demand plan.
The business is characterized by: A single-brand portfolio with high SKU complexity across multiple categories, shades, and frequent new product launches, A multi-channel distribution model with distinct demand patterns, customer behaviors, and service level expectations, Strong demand volatility driven by market trend, campaigns, seasonality, and channel-specific events, A global supply network with long lead times and limited short-term flexibility.
Key performance indicators IKPI) for this role include forecast accuracy, forecast bias, inventory coverage, and air freight usage.
The Demand Planning function is expected to play an increasingly strategic role in supporting business growth and operational excellence.
Key transformation areas include: Enhancing forecast accuracy and reducing bias through improved use of data, analytics, and demand sensing, Actively support the enhancement of the S&OP process by providing data analysis and insights to enable faster and more agile decision-making across functions, Support better understanding of demand signals across channels through data analysis and visualization, contributing to improved demand visibility, Optimizing inventory management to balance service levels and working capital more effectively., Reducing reliance on air freight by improving planning discipline and anticipation of risks.