Senior Demand Planner, Retail - North America

Senior Demand Planner, Retail - North America

About the Role

Salomon, a leader in mountain sports, is seeking a Senior Demand Planner to own the retail demand plan for North America. This pivotal role ensures forecasts align with store demand, inventory targets, and financial goals, acting as the crucial link between merchandising, retail operations, and global planning teams to achieve a unified demand view across all channels. Beyond planning, you will lead the allocation function, managing a team responsible for in-season inventory execution, directly contributing to in-stock performance, inventory optimization, and retail growth.

Key Responsibilities

Demand Planning & Forecast Ownership:

• Develop and maintain the end-to-end retail demand plan at model, color, size, and monthly levels across all stores.
• Create a consensus-based forecast aligned with store performance, inventory targets, and commercial plans.
• Translate forecasts into actionable inputs for open-to-buy and supply planning.
• Integrate store-level trends, regional performance, and product lifecycle into forecasting.
• Analyze and challenge assumptions to balance growth opportunities with inventory risk.

Retail & Inventory Performance:

• Drive retail performance by aligning forecast, inventory, and store demand.
• Monitor sell-through, inventory levels, and stock productivity across stores and channels.
• Collaborate with merchandising to influence assortment productivity and lifecycle decisions.
• Ensure alignment between the demand plan and in-season trading strategies.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Alignment:

• Lead demand alignment across merchandising, retail, finance, and supply chain teams.
• Serve as the primary liaison between retail teams and global planning functions.
• Influence decision-making to align demand, inventory, and financial outcomes.
• Foster clarity and accountability through a unified demand plan.

Allocation Leadership & Execution:

• Lead and develop a team of allocators responsible for store-level inventory execution.
• Oversee initial allocations, replenishment strategies, and in-season inventory balancing.
• Ensure consistent in-stock positioning while minimizing excess and fragmentation.
• Guide the team in reacting to business trends and optimizing product flow to stores.
• Set allocation priorities aligned with the demand plan and business objectives.

Process Improvement & Tools:

• Drive improvements in forecasting, allocation, and retail planning processes.
• Collaborate on the development of reporting, tools, and dashboards.
• Standardize ways of working across demand planning and allocation functions.

KPIs Owned – Demand Planning

• Forecast accuracy
• Inventory targets and turns
• Store in-stock rates and inventory productivity
• SKU productivity (80/15/5 framework)
• Revenue and sell-through performance
• Allocation effectiveness (stock balance, availability, and flow)

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 products from Salomon and sister brands (Arc’teryx, Armada, Atomic, Wilson)
• “Powder Bell” powder days throughout the winter season
• Healthy Lifestyle Benefit to support well-being and active lifestyle
• Opportunities to engage in the community and with industry partners

Qualifications

• 5–8+ years of experience in demand planning, merchandise planning, or retail planning.
• Proven experience linking demand planning with allocation and in-store execution.
• Prior experience managing or mentoring team members (direct or indirect).
• Strong understanding of retail KPIs (sell-through, weeks of supply, stock-to-sales).
• Advanced Excel skills; experience with planning/allocation systems is strongly preferred.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate insights into action.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills across cross-functional teams.
• Experience in apparel, footwear, outdoor, or retail-driven consumer goods is preferred.
• Experience operating in a global or matrixed environment is a plus.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-growing, evolving retail environment.
• 20% travel required.

Physical Demands & Working Environment

• Regularly required to travel, talk, and hear.
• Frequently required to sit, stand, and walk.
• Occasionally required to kneel, stoop, crouch, twist, and lift up to 30 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus.
• Work environment noise level is usually moderate, but can involve exposure to varying noise levels (moderate to loud) and flashes of light.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.