S&OP Manager

About Us

Davis-Standard stands as a premier entity in the innovation, development, and distribution of extrusion and converting technologies. Our extensive systems cover over fourteen product lines tailored to support manufacturing applications across diverse sectors, including automotive, construction, consumer goods, healthcare, and packaging. We operate manufacturing and technical facilities across multiple countries.

 Job Purpose

The S&OP / IBP Director is accountable for designing, implementing, and leading a disciplined Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process, evolving toward Integrated Business Planning (IBP), to align demand, supply, and financial objectives. This role serves as the enterprise integrator across Commercial, Operations, Supply Chain, Program Management, and Finance to ensure a single set of aligned plans, clear trade-off decisions, and execution accountability.

Reporting to the Vice President of Operations, the role owns the end-to-end S&OP operating model (governance, cadence, decision rights, metrics, and escalation), delivers the consolidated Operations Plan and Master Schedule inputs required to meet the Sales order book, and ensures plans are financially validated (revenue, margin, cost, and working capital). The position requires strong analytical capability, executive influence, and the ability to build a scalable, repeatable planning capability in a complex manufacturing environment.

 Key Responsibilities

1) S&OP / IBP Operating Model Ownership and Governance

• Design, implement, and continuously mature the S&OP operating model, including governance, roles and responsibilities, meeting cadence, decision rights, and escalation paths.
• Own the end-to-end monthly S&OP cycle and ensure disciplined execution of all steps: Demand Review, Supply Review, Pre-S&OP, and Executive S&OP.
• Establish and maintain a “one-number plan” philosophy across functions to drive alignment, transparency, and accountability.
• Ensure Executive S&OP meetings result in documented decisions, aligned priorities, and accountable actions with owners and due dates.
• Maintain an S&OP policy framework (forecasting standards, backlog/order book rules, capacity allocation principles, inventory targets, and service commitments).

 2) Demand Planning and Commercial Alignment

• Lead the demand planning process in collaboration with Commercial leadership, including assumptions, demand drivers, and demand shaping actions.
• Improve forecast quality by establishing forecasting standards, governance, and root-cause analysis of forecast error.
• Implement a consistent demand planning approach across product lines to improve planning relevance and accuracy.
• Provide early warning of demand risks/opportunities and recommend actions to mitigate volatility or capture upside.

 3) Supply Planning, Capacity, and Master Scheduling Integration

• Lead supply planning to deliver an executable plan aligned to capacity, material availability, supplier constraints, inventory targets, and service requirements.
• Own capacity planning process, translate constraints into decisions and mitigation plans.
• Align S&OP outputs with master scheduling inputs and procurement planning; ensure feasible promise dates and realistic lead times.
• Facilitate cross-functional balancing decisions across backlog priorities, capacity allocation, outsourcing, inventory positioning, and customer commitments.
• Build and maintain a rolling constraints and mitigation plan (bottlenecks, long-lead components, supplier capacity, and internal throughput limits).

 4) Financial Integration and Risk Management

• Partner with Finance to translate forecast plans into financial outcomes (revenue, margin, cost, cash, and working capital).
• Reconcile S&OP plans with the financial forecast (budget, latest estimate/outlook) and ensure gaps are clearly identified with actions and owners.
• Lead scenario planning and sensitivity analysis (upside/downside demand, mix changes, inflation/supplier cost changes, capacity constraints, expedite strategies) and quantify financial impacts.
• Partner with Finance to maintain and communicate a rolling financial risk and opportunity view tied to the operational plan, including forecast volatility, backlog risk, supply disruption exposure, and inventory obsolescence risk.

 5) Inventory and Working Capital Optimization

• Define and govern inventory targets aligned to service and lead time strategy.
• Identify and drive actions to reduce excess and obsolete inventory, improve turns, and optimize working capital without compromising customer commitments.
• Collaborate with Supply Chain and Operations to align safety stocks, lead time assumptions, and replenishment strategies to actual performance and risk.

 6) Performance Management, Continuous Improvement, and Accountability

• Establish and govern S&OP KPIs and performance routines, including forecast accuracy/bias, plan adherence, schedule attainment, service level/OTD, inventory turns, backlog health, and capacity utilization.
• Drive root-cause analysis and corrective actions for material variances between plan and actuals.
• Define continuous improvement initiatives to mature process capability, reduce planning cycle time, and increase decision quality.
• Promote operational excellence practices by connecting S&OP outcomes to execution management (production performance, supplier performance, and constraint management).

 7) Data, Systems, and Analytics Enablement

• Own data integrity requirements for S&OP and ensure master data governance supports accurate planning.
• Develop and improve planning analytics, dashboards, and executive reporting to support rapid, fact-based trade-off decisions.
• Lead or support ERP/MRP and planning system improvements (Epicor experience a plus), including requirements definition, testing, training, and adoption.
• Ensure planning assumptions (lead times, yields, routings, capacity models, supplier parameters) are documented, maintained, and continuously improved.

 Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Operations, Business, Engineering, Finance, or related field required; Master’s degree preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in manufacturing operations planning, demand planning, supply planning, production planning, or supply chain management, including leadership of cross-functional processes.
• Demonstrated experience implementing or transforming an S&OP and/or IBP process; experience building a process from the ground up strongly preferred.
• Strong analytical acumen with ability to translate operational decisions into P&L and working capital impacts; experience partnering directly with Finance.
• Experience with ERP/MRP and planning tools; Epicor experience preferred.
• Advanced analytical capability with large datasets; strong Excel skills required; familiarity with BI/reporting tools (e.g., Power BI/Tableau) preferred.
• Experience in complex manufacturing environments (engineered-to-order, configure-to-order, or project/program-based environments) strongly preferred.

Key Skills and Competencies

• Executive-ready communication: ability to synthesize complexity into clear options, recommendations, and decisions.
• Strong facilitation skills and the ability to drive disciplined cross-functional routines.
• Structured problem-solving, scenario modeling, and risk-based decision support.
• High ownership, bias for action, and ability to create accountability across functions.
• Process design and change management capability; ability to build standards, governance, and adoption.
• Continuous improvement mindset (Lean / CI tools) and ability to link planning improvements to measurable performance outcomes.