Senior Demand Planner, Performance - North America

Senior Demand Planner, Performance - North America

Amer Sports is a global sporting goods company with renowned brands including Salomon, Arc'teryx, Peak Performance, Atomic, and Wilson. Salomon, born in the French Alps, is dedicated to innovative design and passion for mountain sports, delivering performance-driven products that push the limits of possibility.

Overview

This role owns the development and delivery of a strong, market-driven demand plan for the North American business. The Senior Demand Planner, Performance is responsible for creating a clear, accurate forecast that aligns commercial goals with inventory investment and financial targets. Sitting within the merchandising & planning function, this role connects sales, merchandising, and global planning teams to drive a single, aligned view of demand. You will use data, market insight, and category knowledge to guide buying decisions, improve forecast accuracy, and support overall business performance. This is a strategic, high-impact role that requires challenging assumptions, influencing stakeholders, and ensuring the business is aligned to the right demand plan to drive growth while managing risk.

What Makes This a Great Place to Work & Play:

• Hybrid work schedule
• Generous PTO policy, plus 15 paid annual holidays and 3 floating holidays
• Half-day Fridays for 5 months of the year
• Exceptional employee discount on all our products and sister brands
• “Powder Bell” powder days throughout the winter season
• Healthy Lifestyle Benefit
• Opportunities to engage in the community and with industry partners

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Demand Planning & Forecast Ownership

• Own the end-to-end demand plan at model, color, size, and monthly levels.
• Develop and maintain a consensus-based forecast aligned to service level targets, inventory goals, and commercial plans.
• Translate forecast into actionable inputs for open-to-buy and supply planning.
• Analyze, challenge, and refine market forecasts to balance growth ambition with inventory risk.
• Manage complex categories, including new product launches and variable demand patterns.

Category & Inventory Management

• Drive category-level performance against inventory, productivity, and service KPIs.
• Monitor inventory health, turns, and sell-through, identifying risks and opportunities.
• Apply SKU productivity frameworks (e.g., 80/15/5) to inform demand and buy recommendations.
• Partner with merchandising to support assortment productivity and lifecycle decisions.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Consensus

• Lead or play a key role in demand consensus forums, providing data-driven recommendations.
• Align stakeholders across sales, merchandising, marketing, finance, and supply chain to a single demand plan.
• Act as the key point of contact between market and global planning teams.
• Influence decision-making to ensure alignment between demand, supply, and financial goals.

Sales Order & Buy Management

• Participate in sales order deadline booking processes and key planning checkpoints.
• Lead market conversations with global demand and supply planning to ensure timely buys and provide market input on blind buys.
• Collaborate on capacity constraints and available mitigation actions.
• Represent buy cadence within the market and organize teams to make timely, informed buy decisions.

Team Leadership & Development

• Mentor junior and newly onboarded team members, building foundational demand planning capabilities.
• Support onboarding through coaching on tools, processes, and best practices.

Process Improvement & Tools

• Identify and lead process improvements to enhance forecast accuracy and planning efficiency.
• Support development of tools, reporting, and frameworks to scale demand planning capabilities.
• Drive adoption of standardized planning processes across teams.

KPIs Owned – Demand Planning

• Inventory targets and turns by category
• SKU productivity (80/15/5 framework)
• Shipment and revenue forecast accuracy
• Buy plan adherence and inventory risk management

Physical Demands & Working Environment

• Regular travel required.
• Ability to sit, stand, and walk frequently.
• Occasionally kneel, stoop, crouch, twist and lift up to 30 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus.
• Work environment is usually moderate noise, potentially ranging from moderate to loud.

Qualifications

• 5–8+ years of experience in demand planning, merchandise planning, or supply chain planning.
• Prior experience in the lifestyle, outdoor, or athletic industry with a focus on soft goods preferred; previous merchandising experience is advantageous.
• Strong analytical capabilities with the ability to translate data into strategic and tactical actions.
• Advanced Excel skills; experience with planning systems strongly preferred.
• Experience in apparel, footwear, outdoor, or consumer goods industries preferred.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders.
• Experience working in global or matrixed organizations is a plus.
• 20% travel.