Market Collaboration Planner

Position: Market Collaboration Planner

Location: Toronto -Corp Headquarters

No relocation

Background and Purpose As part of the Supply Chain team, the Market Collaboration Planner, develops, maintains, and aligns the volume and value forecast across the Business Unit. The role converts customer activity, market insight, promotional plans, portfolio changes, historical trends, and supply chain realities into an actionable demand signal.

This is a highly cross-functional role that partners with Customer Development, Marketing, Finance, Customer Service, and broader Supply Chain to improve FA/FB, align operational and financial forecasts, and support key business outcomes.

The successful candidate will be an analytical, collaborative, and digitally curious planner who can connect data, systems, stakeholder input, and business context into clear recommendations within a fast-moving S&OP environment.

What You’ll Do

Own and improve the customer and category demand forecast

• Lead the creation, maintenance, and alignment of an unbiased rolling forecast across volume and value, integrating forward-looking assumptions, historical trends, price changes, customer activity, competitive activity, product discontinuations, innovations, and portfolio transitions.
• Maintain an 18-month rolling forecast and support the monthly forecast cycle, ensuring the demand signal is aligned across operational and financial horizons.
• Own forecast quality end-to-end, with accountability for Forecast Accuracy, Forecast Bias, Forecast Value Add, and alignment of the volume forecast with financial planning.
• Support forecast performance delivery against annual targets, MRF expectations, S&OP requirements, and Business Unit priorities.

Turn customer, market, and business insight into clear recommendations

• Partner with Key Account Managers, Customer Development, Customer Strategy and Planning, Marketing, Finance, and Customer Service, to gather customer, market, promotional, inventory, supply, and business insights that may impact the forecast.
• Analyze historical sales trends, POS data, shipment trends, category movement, customer inventory changes, competitive activity, promotional plans, media and advertising activity, and service-level impacts to support forecast assumptions.
• Provide clear analysis and recommendations on forecast changes versus prior year, target, SOP, and rolling forecast submissions.
• Share external insights related to promotional activity, customer cannibalization, inventory changes at customer DCs, supply constraints, category trends, competitive activity, POS and shipment triangulation, macro trends, one-offs, stop-ships, and service impacts.

Lead S&OP rhythm, Demand Review, and forecast alignment

• Support the weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual S&OP rhythm, such as, Activity Review, Demand Review, DSR, Country/Region SOP.
• Prepare and lead Demand Review meetings, follow-ups, Anaplan updates, cash-up activities, and Business Unit / Supply Chain recap communications.
• Support Business Unit discussions with a strong understanding of market dynamics, forecast composition, risks, opportunities, and forecast building blocks.
• Gain alignment across stakeholders on key assumptions, forecast changes, risks, and actions through structured reviews, recurring S&OP touchpoints, and exception-based planning.

Use digital tools and data to improve planning decisions

• Use Anaplan, Rapid Response / Kinaxis, Power BI, SAP, FEU, POS systems, and forecasting dashboards to analyze performance, identify exceptions, and drive better forecast recommendations.
• Champion future-fit planning by using data, digital tools, automation, and simplified ways of working to improve forecast quality and team effectiveness.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• Post-secondary degree required, preferably in Supply Chain, Business Administration, Analytics, or a related discipline.
• Minimum 3 years of relevant experience in Supply Chain, Demand Planning, CPFR, Customer Demand Planning, S&OP, Sales Operations, Business Analytics, Category Management, or Trade.
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to work with multiple data sources, challenge data accuracy, identify trends, understand forecast drivers, and translate analysis into business recommendations.
• Strong communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to simplify complex issues, frame decision options, and influence stakeholders across levels and functions.
• Collaboration-first mindset with the ability to build trust across Customer Development, Marketing, Finance, Customer Service, Response Planning, and Supply Chain.
• Comfort influencing without direct authority and using data, relationships, and business context to drive alignment.
• Strong attention to detail, ownership mindset, adaptability, and ability to operate within recurring planning rhythms and tight S&OP timelines.
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills, especially Excel and PowerPoint, with experience using Power BI and planning systems such as Anaplan, Rapid Response / Kinaxis, SAP, FEU, and POS data sources preferred.

What Makes This Role Important

This role sits at the center of the Foods Canada Retail planning process. The Market Collaboration Planner helps ensure the business has a clear, aligned, and actionable view of demand across customers, categories, financial plans, and operational systems. The work directly supports better service, stronger business planning, optimized inventory, reduced waste, and improved decision-making across the Business Unit.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The successful candidate will enjoy connecting the dots across data, systems, stakeholders, and business context. They will be comfortable leading recurring planning processes, working through ambiguity, challenging assumptions, and turning complex information into clear recommendations.

They should bring a strong balance of analytical discipline, collaboration, ownership, and curiosity, while learning the Foods portfolio, planning systems, and end-to-end Supply Chain process quickly.

Pay: The pay range for this position is $95,000-$110,000. Unilever takes into consideration a wide range of factors that are utilized in making compensation decisions including, but not limited to, skill sets, experience and training, licensure and certifications, qualifications and education, and other business and organizational needs.

Bonus

This position is bonus eligible.

Long-Term Incentive (LTI)

This position is LTI eligible.

Benefits

• Unilever employees are eligible to participate in our benefits plan.
• Should the employee choose to participate, they can choose from a range of benefits to include, but is not limited to, health insurance (including prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage), retirement savings benefits, life insurance and disability benefits, parental leave, sick leave, paid vacation and holidays, as well as access to numerous voluntary benefits.
• Any coverage for health insurance and retirement benefits will be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans and associated governing plan documents.
• Unilever uses artificial intelligence tools in the hiring process to screen or assess applicants.
• However, hiring decisions will be made by the line manager and in accordance with applicable employment standards and human rights laws.
• All information collected, used or disclosed during the application and interview process will be subject to Unilever’s Privacy Policy ------------------------------------------------------------ Unilever Canada is an organization committed to diversity and inclusion to drive our business results and create a better future every day for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities.
• We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business.
• All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without reg