Demand Planning Manager (FTC) in London

What we’re after:

• Demand Planning Manager 12 Month Secondment (or potentially Senior Demand Planner dependent on experience level and suitability of the candidate)

Reporting Line Manager: Supply Chain Director

Lily’s Headquarters: Goodge Street, Fitzrovia (with hybrid working between the office and working from home)

Your role at Lily’s Kitchen:

You will be part of the Supply Chain team and be responsible for the Demand Planning processes. You will play a key role between commercial and operations and work collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders to deliver accurate business forecasts and ensure strong availability of our products.

How will I make a difference?

• Be responsible for the end-to-end Demand Planning process for the business, ensuring robust, insight-driven forecasts that support commercial and operational decision-making.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Demand Planning team to enhance capability, process excellence, and forecasting accuracy. (Direct Report x1)
• Drive alignment between Sales, Marketing, NPD, Supply, and Finance in the monthly S&OP cycle as well as Innovation Gate Process.
• Ensure alignment between commercial aspirations with operational constraints, especially regarding the planning of new launches, key events and activities.
• Constructively challenge business assumptions, behaviours, and risks to deliver a balanced, consensus-driven forecast that supports growth and profitability.
• Oversee SKU and customer-level forecasting ensuring accuracy, minimising bias.
• Champion continuous improvement of the Demand Planning process, introducing automation, simplification, and standardisation where appropriate.
• Work closely with Supply Planning and Customer Supply to ensure strong availability, optimised inventory levels, and excellent service (OTIF).
• Support Commercial Finance as part of the business cash up process.
• Take into consideration our social and environmental goals within every aspect of the role.

How will I contribute?

• Demand planning experience, with a proven track record of leading or mentoring planning teams or owning a demand planning area within FMCG or a similar environment.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence, challenge constructively, and drive cross-functional alignment.
• Advanced analytical capability, with expert-level Excel skills (including Power Query, Power Pivot, and complex data modelling).
• Highly proficient in working with large datasets, extracting meaningful insights, and translating them into clear, concise recommendations.
• Strong commercial acumen, with a deep understanding of demand drivers, category dynamics, retailer behaviour, and promotional forecasting.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment and able to adapt quickly to the changing priorities of a growing business.
• Proven track record of delivering process improvements, systems enhancements, and forecasting methodology developments that drive measurable business value.
• Ability to simplify complexity, create clarity, and build scalable planning processes suitable for a high-growth business.
• A collaborative and proactive approach, with the confidence to challenge the status quo and drive continuous improvement.
• A real passion for pets.

Our Perks:

• Dogs at work; what better way to put a smile on your face!
• Flexible Working: flexitime, working from home, part-time working, flexible support, faith based public holidays.
• Pension plan that goes beyond, the option for salary exchange and an option of an ethical pension fund reflecting our team’s attitudes and needs. Plus, a life assurance scheme to look after those that depend on you.
• Private medical, private dental, employee assistance programme, mental first aiders and a cycle to work scheme (and an electric car salary sacrifice scheme).
• Volunteering allowance to give back to causes we are passionate about.

Lily’s Kitchen Story:

At Lily’s Kitchen we are pet food pioneers. We are changing the game with our mission to provide proper food for cats and dogs all over the world. Lily’s Kitchen was founded in London in 2009, by Henrietta Morrison who set out to feed her beloved dog, Lily, food she could trust. Lily’s Kitchen is now the No1 Brand in premium natural pet food, still focusing on the mission to inspire pet parents to feed their four-legged friends natural, proper food for pets.

Lily’s Kitchen was a founding member of the UK B Corp movement and the first pet food brand in the world to achieve B Corp status. Determined to use business as a force for good, Lily’s Kitchen has recently partnered with Dogs Trust to support dogs in need and are proud to lend a paw to charitable causes.

We sell our nutritious natural recipes for cats and dogs in over 1,000 stockists, like Waitrose, Tesco, Ocado, organic food shops, vets, independent pet shops and garden centres all over the UK. We also sell internationally and are now sold in more than 30 countries worldwide.

Our Vision: We’re all about warming hearts, feeding souls and enriching lives, for both our customers and employees.

Our Values: We recruit to our values at Lily’s Kitchen: Respectful. Dedicated. Audacious. Passionate. Responsible.

Our People: We seek out and develop talented people who love to succeed and make a positive difference in everything they do.