Demand Manager

Job Description

Demand Manager (Operations)

📣 About the Role

As Demand Manager, you will take responsibility for Butternut’s demand forecasting, planning and systematic compliance processes, being the link between the commercial teams and the operational teams, ensuring that our supply chain is equipped to meet customer expectations while enabling business growth.

You are joining Butternut Box at an exciting time, as we nocapacity and our Polish site going live in January. Alongside this we have 5 fulfilment centres, servicing 7 different markets around Europe, and will be continuing to expand this footprint over the coming years. It will be your role to ensure demand & supply is well balanced at Butternut in both the short and long term, and that our systematic processes are adhered to.

We’d love to tell you what a typical day looks like, but at Butternut, no two days are the same! You’ll spend time refining demand forecasts, working with teams across sales, marketing, operations and supply chain to ensure alignment. You’ll lead the weekly S&OP cycle, tackle risks and opportunities with senior stakeholders, and keep stock levels on track and systematic compliance.

Alongside mentoring a talented team, you’ll also dive into advanced planning tools to uncover insights and make smarter decisions. Whether collaborating across departments or solving challenges, you’ll play a key role in keeping things running smoothly.

If this sounds exciting, we would pawsitively love to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities

Demand Planning

• Oversee the creation and refinement of demand forecasts, incorporating inputs from sales, marketing, and historical trends, ensuring alignment across commercial, production, supply chain and operations teams.

• Manage the weekly S&OP cycle, facilitating alignment and ensuring a consistent "one-number" forecast for all planning horizons.

• Partner with senior stakeholders to identify and address risks and opportunities, ensuring optimal stock levels and supply chain efficiency across the group.

• Own the weekly & fortnightly production plan via your team, to ensure the right product is made, in the right location and at the right time. Work closely with Production to optimise for productive hours, and throughput.

• Support the quarterly & yearly raw material contracting process between Supply Chain & Procurement, providing accurate data & analysis for the team.

• Manage a long term time horizon view of supply & demand, working closely with Operations Leadership to understand and recommend when additional capacity is required.

Team leadership and optimisation

• Lead and mentor the Demand Planning team of 2 heads based across the UK and Poland, building a collaborative and high-performing culture.

• Foster a culture of continuous improvement in the tools we use, the processes we operate and the systems we work with, whilst monitoring the compliance to SOP of these.

• Lead the adoption of advanced planning tools, maximising the functionality of platforms including our MRP and BI tools to deliver actionable insights.

• Represent the function in cross-departmental projects and decision-making forums.

• Build strong relationships with external stakeholders, ensuring alignment and proactive resolution of potential supply chain disruptions.

What You’ll Bring

• Proven experience in senior demand planning or supply chain management within FMCG or food production, with expertise in S&OP processes, forecasting, production planning and inventory management.

• Advanced proficiency in forecasting tools and Excel/Google Sheets; familiarity with BI platforms like PowerBI or Looker is a plus.

• Strong analytical skills to synthesize data into actionable recommendations and a proactive mindset for continuous improvement and process optimization.

• Demonstrated leadership in managing teams, driving change, and influencing senior stakeholders in cross-functional environments.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills to foster relationships and encourage teamwork.

• Highly organised, results-driven, and adaptable, with a passion for Butternut’s mission to deliver health and happiness to dogs and their humans.

🐶 About Butternut
At Butternut, we believe in delivering health and happiness to dogs and their humans. We’re growing fast, and we need innovative thinkers to join us on this exciting journey. We have 2 kitchens to provide dogs all across Europe with FRESH food, 1 Located in Doncaster, and the other due to open in late 2025 in Zabzre, Poland, this role will require you to be on site weekly in Doncaster, and occasional travel to Poland, our commercial office in London or to our other locations around Europe.

Ready to lead the pack? Apply now and help shape the future of Butternut!

🙌 A bit about what we offer

• Enjoy 257.5 hours of holiday per year, plus an extra 8 hours for each year of service (up to 5 days)

• 39 hours of pre-booked paws days to support good wellbeing and self care

• Unlock a £500 annual budget for personal learning and development

• Get discounted Private Medical Insurance with Vitality Healthcare and dental care with Bupa

• Funded Sabbatical policy after 5 years of service

• Enhanced primary caregiver policy

• Treat your furry friend with an employee discount on Butternut Box.

• Say goodbye to parking woes with free parking and electric car charging

• Prepare for adorable office dog overload—meet Cleo, Otto, Cali, Ronnie, Harvey, Ralph, and many more!

‼️ A few things to note

• There is no closing date for this role. However, we normally experience a high volume of applications so if you are interested we suggest applying as soon as possible.

• We aim to respond to all applicants personally. Our recruitment team is small so do bear with us.

• Butternut Box is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity and inclusion. We welcome people of different nationalities, backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives.

• We're not afraid of putting extra weight on candidates from underrepresented groups. We want strong, diverse teams built from different backgrounds, experiences, and identities. We're ready for the ongoing work that goes into building an inclusive, supportive place for you to do the best work of your career.

• We are not looking for external agency support with this role.