Job Description:
Are you a sharp, analytical planner who thrives on turning complex data into clear, actionable forecasts?
We are seeking a Demand Planner to join our Royal Canin ANZ team. This is a pivotal role where you will be the driving force behind our forecasting accuracy, ensuring that our beloved nutritional products are available for pets and their owners across Australia and New Zealand.
As a central figure in our Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP+) cycle, you will work hand-in-hand with Sales, Category, Marketing, Finance and Supply Chain leaders. Your insights will balance supply and demand, optimise our inventory, and directly contribute to our ambitious growth and unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction.
What will be your key responsibilities?
You will be the architect of our demand forecast, ensuring its accuracy and integrity through five key pillars:
- S&OP+ Leadership & Collaboration: Facilitate the Demand Management Review (DMR) process, run forecast feeder consensus meetings with Sales, Category and Marketing to align on a single, unbiased forecast that reflects baselines, promotional activities, market trends, and new product launches and integrates strategic objectives.
- Data-Driven Forecasting & Analysis: Leverage market intelligence and customer insights to develop and maintain a precise 18-month rolling forecast, continuously analyzing root causes to improve forecast accuracy and eliminate bias.
- Cross-Functional Partnership: Act as the central communication hub between Sales, Marketing, and Supply, ensuring that all business objectives, supply capabilities, and product lifecycle changes are seamlessly integrated into the demand plan.
- Systems & Data Integrity: Take full ownership of the demand planning system (e.g. FuturMaster, OMP), ensuring all data—from new SKUs to seasonality parameters—is meticulously maintained to drive a reliable and automated forecast.
- Continuous Improvement & Project Delivery: Proactively identify opportunities to enhance demand planning processes and tools, leading and supporting strategic supply chain projects that boost efficiency and drive best-in-class performance.
What are we looking for?
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Statistics, or a related field.
- Experience: A minimum of 3 years in demand planning, forecasting, or a similar supply chain role, preferably within the FMCG or consumer goods industry.
- Technical Skills: Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel is essential. Experience with forecasting tools (like FuturMaster, OMP, or Blueshift) and data visualization platforms (Power BI, Tableau) is highly advantageous.
- Analytical Acumen: Strong quantitative and problem-solving skills, with a proven ability to translate complex data sets into meaningful business insights.
- Collaborative Spirit: Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to influence and align with stakeholders across different functions in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.
What You’ll Gain:
- Purpose: A segment truly passionate about the health of pets, people and the planet with opportunities to support our community partners, including the RSPCA and Seeing Eye Dogs Australia and Blind & Low Vision Guide Dogs in New Zealand.
- People: A culture that values your contributions, fosters leadership, and recognises the impact you make. Your work truly matters here.
- Development: Shape your career with personalised development and real opportunities to grow from day one.
- Enjoy a team and business environment that is invested in helping you manage and grow your energy for work and life.
- Complimentary Royal Canin pet food for your cat or dog. Dogs are also welcome in our offices.
At Royal Canin, we believe that pets make our world better, and we’re committed to making a better world for pets. When you join us, you’re not just taking a job—you’re joining a mission.
About Royal Canin & Mars
At Royal Canin, we are obsessed with creating a better world for pets. For over 50 years, we have been a global leader in pet health nutrition, putting science and precise formulation at the heart of everything we do. As part of the Mars family, we are guided by our purpose: the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today.
As a Mars Associate, you are more than just an employee. You are a trusted partner, empowered with the freedom and responsibility to make a tangible impact. Here, collaboration is key, and our principle of Mutuality ensures that shared benefits create shared success—for our business, our partners, and our Associates.
What we stand for:
Mars is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you need assistance or an accommodation during the application process because of a disability, it is available upon request. The company is pleased to provide such assistance, and no applicant will be penalized as a result of such a request.
Applications will only be accepted from candidates who have the appropriate approval to work in Australia and/or New Zealand.
Skills Required
- Experience as a demand planner
- Strong knowledge and understanding of S&OP or IBP processes
- Experience leading demand reviews
- Experience with risk and opportunity management
- Strong analytical skills
- Attention to detail
- Ability to communicate insights effectively to stakeholders
Mars Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Mars and has not been reviewed or approved by Mars.
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Healthcare Strength — The benefits package is positioned as comprehensive, with broad medical coverage and additional protections like life insurance and short- and long-term disability. Mental health support is emphasized, including free mental health services and wellbeing programming under initiatives such as Mars Be Well.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is highlighted as market-leading in the U.S., with an example of 18 weeks fully paid for both parents. Additional family-related leave types such as sick time for caregiving and bereavement leave are also described as part of the overall package.
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Retirement Support — Retirement offerings are described as strong, including 401(k) matching (with a 6% match cited) and pension plans in some cases. The broader package also references retirement savings options and contributions aligned to local market practice, supporting long-term financial security.
Mars Insights
What We Do
For more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us. Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services, we employ 133,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including DOVE®, EXTRA®, M&M’s®, MILKY WAY®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, ORBIT®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, SKITTLES®, WHISKAS®, COCOAVIA®, and 5™; and take care of half of the world’s pets through our pet health services AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl®, Linnaeus, Pet Partners™, and VCA™. We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive.
