Product Planning Manager

About the role

The Senior Product Planning Manager will lead product planning across a diverse automotive portfolio, managing relationships with over 25 suppliers and ensuring availability of thousands of SKUs. This role drives strategic sourcing, optimizes product flows and directly impacts the P&L.

Key responsibilities

• Build multi‑year product planning strategy aligned to revenue, margin and policy parameters.
• Lead the cross‑functional Sales & Operations Planning cycle, integrating demand, supply, commercial and finance inputs.
• Establish product lifecycle governance for 20+ product lines and channels.
• Deliver statistically grounded forecasts and translate demand into supply plans using SAP.
• Own category strategies for tyres, lubricants, batteries, parts, accessories and workshop equipment.
• Negotiate with suppliers, track cost‑to‑serve, and drive material cost reductions.
• Set channel‑specific stock availability SLAs and manage fill‑rate/OTIF targets.
• Oversee order placement, import/export and customs clearance calendars.
• Build a planning analytics suite in Power BI and drive process digitalisation.
• Lead and coach a planning team of four direct reports.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, procurement, business, engineering or related field; Master’s preferred.
• 10+ years progressive planning/supply‑chain experience in automotive distribution or FMCG.
• Deep mastery of end‑to‑end planning, demand forecasting and inventory optimisation.
• Knowledge of automotive categories and GCC import/export processes is a plus.
• Strong negotiation, risk management and HSSE exposure.

Required skills

• SAP ERP proficiency
• Power BI analytics
• Lean and Six Sigma methodologies
• PMP or similar project‑management certification