Demand Planner, ESA

What you will be expected to do:

• Liaise with stakeholders to develop and maintain short, medium, and long-term demand forecasts for ESA markets.
• Review historical sales trends, seasonality, market intelligence, promotions, and customer insights to improve forecast accuracy.
• Facilitate monthly demand review meetings with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Monitor forecast performance and continuously improve forecasting accuracy.
• Manage demand planning inputs for new product launches, discontinuations, and promotional activities.

• Contribute to the regional SIOP process by providing accurate demand projections with a target of 85%+ forecast accuracy.
• Work closely with global supply planning and procurement teams to align supply availability with market demand, targeting zero stock-outs across all markets.
• Identify demand gaps, supply risks, and inventory exposure and recommend mitigation actions.

• Review sales performance, inventory trends, and demand patterns across ESA markets.
• Track key demand planning KPIs including, but not limited to, forecast accuracy, service levels, inventory turns, quantity value of working capital optimization, and loss of revenue from low inventory levels.
• Provide recommendations on trade-offs to optimize working capital requirements for the business.
• Provide supply chain health check reporting to management to inform changes in ordering frequency, safety stock definitions, and working capital requirements.

• Work closely with Sales, Marketing, Commercial Finance, and Country Sales and Operations Managers to align commercial plans with demand forecasts.
• Work with local procurement teams, coordinate on lead times, and communicate business needs in advance to avoid supply chain bottlenecks.
• Maintain accurate demand planning data in ERP and forecasting systems.
• Communicate demand risks, assumptions, and forecast changes effectively to stakeholders.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives in forecasting tools, planning processes, and reporting capabilities.
• Contribute to automation and digital transformation initiatives within supply chain planning.

You might be a strong candidate if you have:

• A Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Logistics, Business Administration, Statistics, Economics, or a related field.
• A minimum of 5+ years of continuous experience in regional demand planning, supply chain planning, forecasting, or commercial planning.
• Experience managing multiple markets within Africa, preferably ESA.
• Strong quantitative and numerical skills with advanced Excel capability.
• Experience using ERP and planning systems such as SAP, IBP, Oracle, or similar tools.
• Experience in FMCG, consumer goods, renewable energy, retail, manufacturing, or distribution industry experience preferred.
• Knowledge of regional trade dynamics and supply chain considerations within Africa.
• Ability to travel within ESA markets as required.
• Strong quantitative evaluation and problem-solving skills.
• Commercial and business acumen.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• The ability to work effectively across diverse cultures.
• High attention to detail and accuracy.
• The ability to work in a fast-paced matrix environment.

What Sun King offers:

• Professional growth in a dynamic, rapidly expanding, high-social-impact industry
• An open-minded, collaborative culture made up of enthusiastic colleagues who are driven by the challenge of innovation towards profound impact on people and the planet.
• A truly multicultural experience: you will have the chance to work with and learn from people from different geographies, nationalities, and backgrounds.
• Structured, tailored learning and development programs that help you become a better leader, manager, and professional through the Sun Center for Leadership.

About
Sun King is the world’s leading off-grid solar energy company, combining cutting-edge product design, fintech, and field operations to deliver energy access for the 1.8 billion people who live without an affordable and reliable electric-grid connection.Sun King has built a new kind of energy utility: distributed, green, customer-centric, and affordable. We bring clean, reliable, decentralized energy directly into people’s lives — from solar kits that provide first-time energy access to multi-kilowatt systems that serve both off-grid users and grid-connected customers powering larger homes, schools, hospitals, farms, offices, and light manufacturing.Already, 25 million homes and businesses rely on Sun King for electricity supply and the appliances and services it enables: lighting, televisions, fans, refrigeration, and smartphones. Sun King combines energy generation, energy-efficient appliances, installation, and financing into one seamless offering. Think of it as a distributed utility, designed for wherever energy is needed and designed to scale with its users as incomes and energy needs grow.Sun King makes solar products affordable to low-income households and businesses via ‘pay-as-you-go’ (PAYG) purchase financing. Sun King installs solar after customers pay a small deposit. Customers then make small, manageable payments of as little as US $0.14 a day via mobile money or cash.Instead of paying for expensive, polluting, and health-damaging kerosene for lighting or diesel for power, customers unlock savings through accessing solar power and after one to two years of payments, customers own their solar equipment outright.Sun King collects payments digitally through mobile money systems and its 35,000 field agents — over 1 million payments each day. To date, Sun King has extended more than $1.4 billion in PAYG loans to customers.Sun King began by powering homes and businesses with solar systems delivered through PAYG financing. Now, we’re using the same model to make smartphones and clean cooking equipment affordable: helping households connect to the digital economy and transition from wood-based fuels to modern, sustainable alternatives.Sun King employs 3,500 full-time staff in 14 countries, with specialties spanning product design, data science, logistics, customer service, sales, software, operations, and more — all with a passion to serve off-grid families. Sun King is committed to gender diversity in the workplace. Women represent 42% of Sun King’s workforce.