Sr. Specialist Demand Planning - MENA

Since launching in Kuwait in 2004, talabat, the leading on-demand food and Q-commerce app for everyday deliveries, has been offering convenience and reliability to its customers. talabat’s local roots run deep, offering a real understanding of the needs of the communities we serve in eight countries across the region. We harness innovative technology and knowledge to simplify everyday life for our customers, optimize operations for our restaurants and local shops, and provide our riders with reliable earning opportunities daily.

At talabat, we foster an innovative environment where our talabaty employees can strive to create a positive impact across the region through the use of our platform. Here at talabat, we're all about keeping it real and making a difference. Our 6,000+ strong talabaty are on an awesome mission to spread positive vibes. We genuinely love giving back and that's why we've teamed up with 35+ charities & NGOs in the region to make it happen.

Role Summary
We’re looking for a Sr Specialist Demand Planning to join the team and focus on growing our own Grocery Store “tMart”, which is the region’s first cloud store concept offering 30-minute delivery groceries at hypermarket prices. The service has expanded rapidly across Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Oman and Iraq

What’s On Your Plate?

• Demand Forecasting and Planning : Ability to use past sales data, market trends, promotions and category insights to develop a highly accurate forecast for the Import Shipments portfolio
• Imports Shipments Planning: Ability to plan forecasts/stocks/inbound containers for a 3/6 month forward pipeline to maintain constant availability with adequate Stock Cover, utilizing all available data sources and alignment processes with cross functional teams.
• Import Shipment Clearance Process: Act as subject matter expert and drive process governance and adherence for imports shipment clearing process with external/internal stakeholders.
• Work closely with Finance/Commercial/Operations teams to ensure zero demurrages, minimized claims and expedited/time bound clearing process is in place.
• Ability to monitor and drive continuous process improvement to reduce costs. Ensure new product sourcing follows internal guidelines/lead times and are planned accordingly.
• Work with respective Country Supply chain teams on projects and initiatives to drive process improvements.
• Work closely with commercial/operations teams on key projects and initiatives.
• Reporting and Communication: Prepare and present demand planning reports and dashboards. Use BI analytics to automate reporting processes.
• Implement standardized supply chain metrics and processes for all MENA countries.
• Inventory Management: Ability to plan and drive DOH policy for all MENA countries with end to end mapping of supply chain processes.
• Work with respective country team to improve Forecasting accuracy and availability of SKUs in store
• Monitoring inventory processes to ensure Shrinkage is minimized while optimizing on DOH.
• Promotions Planning: Work closely with the commercial team to define metrics a processes for promotions planning in the supply chain.
• DC Management: Monitor daily and weekly DC KPIs and share with Local country head and drive the improvement in operations. Establish and ensure compliance about processes and Operations in Warehouse
• Supplier Management: Able to hold discussions with external stakeholders on availability and fill rate and drive improvement
• Project Management: Ability to work on various projects with a wide variety of stakeholders, managing project timelines and team expectations effectively.
• S&OP: Ability to facilitate and drive cross functional teams, identify gaps to forecast and business plans, identify key blockers and be able to resolve with country teams.

What Did We Order?

• You have at least 5+ years hands-on experience in Supply Chain Planning, Forecasting, Import Shipments, DC Planning, Inventory Management & System implementations.
• You come with an experience in retail groceries, ideally with focus on Ultra Fresh
• Analytical skills, big data manipulation + advanced ease with excel
• You have experience in forecasting models and suppliers scheduling
• You have experience in Imports Shipments, Incoterms.
• You are very detail-oriented, structured and know how to prioritize -- you consider yourself as someone who delivers solutions and not bottlenecks to be solved.
• You have good stakeholder management skills and are a self starter with an entrepreneurial mindset.
• You are someone energized by the unknown and look forward to learning each day on the job
• You have excellent analytical and communication skills, and always like to be hands-on with several tool