Assistant Manager - Demand Planning

Mumbai

Shift Timing

1:30 PM to 10:30 PM

Role Reports to

Operational Demand & Forecasting Leader

Remote/Hybrid/in-Office

Hybrid

About General Mills

We make food the world loves: 100 brands. In 100 countries. Across six continents. With iconic brands like Cheerios, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Nature Valley, and Häagen-Dazs, we've been serving up food the world loves for 155 years (and counting). Each of our brands has a unique story to tell. How we make our food is as important as the food we make. Our values are baked into our legacy and continue to accelerate us into the future as an innovative force for good. General Mills was founded in 1866 when Cadwallader Washburn boldly bought the largest flour mill west of the Mississippi. That pioneering spirit lives on today through our leadership team who upholds a vision of relentless innovation while being a force for good. For more details check out http://www.generalmills.com General Mills India Center (GIC) is our global capability center in Mumbai that works as an extension of our global organization delivering business value, service excellence and growth, while standing for good for our planet and people. With our team of 1800+ professionals, we deliver superior value across the areas of Supply chain (SC) , Digital & Technology (D&T) Innovation, Technology & Quality (ITQ), Consumer and Market Intelligence (CMI), Sales Strategy & Intelligence (SSI) , Global Shared Services (GSS) , Finance Shared Services (FSS) and Human Resources Shared Services (HRSS).For more details check out https://www.generalmills.co.in We advocate for advancing equity and inclusion to create more equitable workplaces and a better tomorrow.

Job Overview

Function Overview

The GIC Supply Chain team manages end-to-end operations, encompassing planning, sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, and analytics. They strategically plan to meet market demands, optimize sourcing, ensure efficient production, and oversee the seamless movement of goods from production to delivery. The team employs advanced analytics throughout these processes, fostering adaptability and operational excellence. This collaborative approach ensures a well-coordinated supply chain that aligns with both organizational goals and dynamic market conditions. Link

Purpose of the role

The purpose of the job is to support Demand planning function by providing solutions and help implementing it to optimize/Standardize processes which will bring improvement to overall forecasting approach resulting in better accuracy. Explore and take up opportunities which supports the demand planning efforts by creating and executing industry leading and standard approaches. In this role, the candidate will lead a team of analysts supporting the NAR business, providing work direction, establishing daily priorities and monitoring progress toward team goals.

Key Accountabilities

Strategic responsibilities (30% of Time)

• Lead continuous improvements in Demand Management
• Own Annual goal setting process for the team in collaboration with Demand GPE
• Provide technical expertise to the team and coach the team in career planning & progression
• Collaborate with Demand Planning GPE to help identify opportunities where Demand Analyst inputs can add value in improving
• business results
• Run/execute operations within assigned budget and resources

Operational Responsibilities (30 % of Time)

• Track and improve forecast accuracy and FVA using KPIs across lags and hierarchies.
• Lead statistical forecasting scenario planning for demand reviews, including clear forecast explainability.
• Oversee monthly forecast cycles, guiding analysts on data preprocessing, model selection, and performance evaluation.
• Support volumetric forecasting by incorporating business drivers like pricing, distribution, trade, cannibalization, and
• macroeconomic factors.
• Drive forecast exception management, including root-cause analysis, validation, and reasonableness checks of outputs.
• Manage rare event identification and representation in models to improve future forecast accuracy.
• Lead collaboration with analysts and regional demand planners to incorporate tactical feedback into forecast cycles.
• Present forecast performance and insights to senior leadership through governance forums and BPM calls.
• Scale forecasting frameworks and models to new regions, including pilot execution and standardization of processes.
• Ensure strong stakeholder collaboration, SLA adherence, workload prioritization, and continuous process improvement with a zero-loss mindset.

People Responsibilities: - Lead, Plan, and Communicate (30% of Time)

• Build a lean, sustainable, and high-performing organization by driving strong business results, people development, and efficient processes.
• Lead talent management efforts including hiring, university engagement, retention, and workforce planning in partnership with HR.
• Develop and mentor team members through structured career planning, individual development plans, and targeted training initiatives.
• Oversee performance management, including appraisals, feedback, and day-to-day team administration.
• Champion organizational values and culture while ensuring alignment with talent and engagement goals.

Other Responsibilities (10% of Time)

• Be accountable for delivery of OGSM initiatives and metrics identified by the team.
• Work towards adoption of robust and best in class project management standards.
• Manage OGSM initiatives and deliverables.
• Technical & Personal development through attending trainings
• Champion Organization's values and culture.
• Process standardization and documentation.
• Working on Individual development plans.

In performing these accountabilities, the incumbent must develop and maintain an effective working relationship with Organizations employees at all levels across the company locations.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited university with 5+ years of experience in Supply Chain, demonstrating strong project, people leadership, and solutioning capabilities.
• Strong expertise in supply chain planning and forecasting, with hands-on experience in machine learning models, and tools like R, Python, SQL, Tableau, and platforms such as APO/OMP.
• Solid understanding of end-to-end supply chain processes, with the ability to develop innovative, data-driven solutions to complex business problems.
• Excellent analytical, communication, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate business needs into technical requirements and collaborate across teams.
• Agile learner with strong prioritization, multitasking, and leadership abilities, committed to integrity and developing people.

Leads Innovation

• Identify and recommend opportunities, solutions and need for change.
• Adapt quickly and respond effectively to change.
• Explore and share innovative best practices with others.

Deliver Results

• Assume personal initiative and accountability for results, performance, and behaviors.
• Be comfortable with ambiguity.
• Engage in cross functional collaboration to identify innovative solutions and optimization.

Connect the Best Together

• Negotiate solutions between stakeholders and effectively communicate with various levels and functions through-out the organization.
• Clearly articulate views in written and verbal discussions.

Integrity and Candor

• Engenders Trust at all levels and demonstrates unquestionable integrity.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree
• 6 -8+ years of related experience
• Preferred Major Area of Study: Supply Chain Management, Industrial Engineering, Operations, Computer Science, Software Engineering or relevant.
• Statistical analysis
• Professional Certifications: Agile Project Management / PMP / CSCP/CPIM/CSM / Six Sigma / Analytics