Manager, Forecasting, Food & Grocery Merchandising

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are looking for a Forecasting Manager, you will lead the team responsible for shaping and delivering our end-to-end demand forecasting strategy across all Category Proposition Groups (CPGs). You’ll ensure the right balance is struck between product availability, stockholding, and wastage - supporting our commercial priorities while protecting operational efficiency.

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• Salary  - £65,000 - £105,200

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• Contract type  - This position is a Permanent contract.

• Working pattern/flexible working - The Partnership has adopted a hybrid working approach, meaning you'll be able to work a mixture between the office and home based upon your personal needs whilst balancing the needs of the business. The team aim for around 2 days a week in the office to connect and on a more ad-hoc basis to attend key meetings

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• Location - This role is based at our Bracknell Head Office. 

Key responsibilities

This role requires strong leadership, a solid grasp of retail forecasting, and a deep understanding of how customer behaviour, the trade plan, and wider business strategies impact demand. Your team’s work will influence everything from replenishment to online performance, and will support the smooth running of our wider supply chain.

You’ll lead continuous improvement of our forecasting capability - through coaching, process leadership, and optimising our use of Blue Yonder’s LDE platform and its integration with JDA. You’ll work in close collaboration with Planning Managers, Merchandising leadership, Commercial Leadership, Trade Planning and technical experts to ensure forecast outputs are aligned, accurate, and add value across the Partnership.

Essential skills/experience you’ll need

• Proven experience leading high-performing teams in forecasting, analytics, or supply chain planning

• Strong understanding of retail demand forecasting, stock management, and replenishment dynamics

• Demonstrable success balancing availability, waste, and stockholding KPIs across large, complex product ranges

• Experience using advanced forecasting platforms - ideally Blue Yonder LDE and/or JDA

• Skilled at interpreting complex datasets to drive commercial decisions

• Confident stakeholder management, with experience influencing across functions and senior levels

• Strong leadership capability with a coaching approach, focused on capability building and talent development

• Experience managing workload and priorities across multiple business units or trading categories

Desirable skills/experience you may have

• Experience building or interpreting dashboards and forecast performance metrics in Tableau or similar BI tools

• Familiarity with S&OP (Sales & Operations Planning) processes and their application in retail forecasting

• Exposure to ecommerce and multi-channel demand forecasting

• Experience contributing to system change or transformation projects

• Hands-on experience with SQL for data analysis and diagnostics

• Understanding of data governance principles and best practice in process design​

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To learn more about this role, please copy and paste this link into a new browser window: https://embed.wirewax.com/8114190

Closing Date:

April 27, 2025

Pay:

£65,000.00 - £105,200.00 Annual

Contract Type:

Permanent

Hours of Work:

35

Job Level:

Partnership Level 5

Where You'll Be Working:

Bracknell Campus, Doncastle Road, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 8YA

ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.  

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.   

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect. 

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective. 

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.  

Important points to note:  

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.

We also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants.  

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview. 

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