HEAD OF PLANNING SKILLS, EXPERIENCES, AND JOB REQUIREMENTS

Published: Apr 25, 2025 - The Head of Planning brings extensive international corporate experience with proven expertise in assortment planning, forecasting, and allocation across retail, wholesale, and FMCG sectors. This role requires deep knowledge of SAP, Anaplan, IFRS standards, and strong analytical and communication skills to drive strategic initiatives and data-driven decision-making. The head combines strategic consulting experience with multilingual proficiency and cross-functional leadership in dynamic and agile business environments.

Essential Hard and Soft Skills for a Head of Planning Resume
  • Inventory Management
  • Forecast Planning
  • Process Improvement
  • Capacity Planning
  • Sales Forecasting
  • System Implementation
  • Data Analysis
  • Risk Management
  • Production Planning
  • Strategic Insight
  • Team Leadership
  • Cross Collaboration
  • Stakeholder Communication
  • Problem Solving
  • Vendor Management
  • Customer Collaboration
  • Strategic Leadership
  • Team Development
  • Performance Evaluation
  • Cross-Functional Leadership

Summary of Head of Planning Knowledge and Qualifications on Resume

1. BA in Strategic Management with 8 years of Experience

  • Experience in retail allocation and planning, experience in home and/or specialty or luxury
  • Independent problem solver, comfortable with the hypothesis-driven approach in a data-constrained environment
  • Passion for delivering superior customer experience and results
  • Demonstrated results on self-initiated vision/strategy, from opportunity identification to stakeholder alignment to delivered impact
  • Ability to inspire an internal team through challenges and uncertainty and instill confidence with external partners
  • Experience communicating, collaborating and delivering business results with senior leaders across a wide variety of disciplines
  • Entrepreneurial-minded leader who has been successful operating in a dynamic, fast-paced, and ambiguous environment
  • Experience in Supply Chain, Procurement, Product Supply, Postgraduate courses or Master of Business Administration
  • Proven leadership experience, including the ability to attract and develop talent and build teams
  • Excellent understanding of Supply Chain Management, End to End, and the interrelation with Manufacturing, Quality, Engineering, Finance and other functional areas
  • Be proficient with SAP, analytics, and a digitalization mindset
  • Excellent organizational, interpersonal, management, communication, and decision-making skills
  • Customer focus, including demonstrated continuous improvement projects
  • Proven organizational, analytical and problem-solving skills to appropriately balance short-term business demands

2. BA in Statistics with 4 years of Experience

  • Working experience in an agency
  • Able to move in and interact with a diverse range of internal and external constituencies
  • Entrepreneurial and comfortable working within an unstructured, evolving environment
  • Experience in Merchandising planning or FP&A
  • Prior experience with data analytics software and tools (i.e., Tableau / Metabase) 
  • Proficient in analytical review, sensitive to numbers, extensive work experience in retail companies
  • Experience in managing stakeholders and ability to cultivate sustainable relationships with internal and external stakeholders e.g., government authorities, and implementing partners
  • Research experience with collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data using a variety of tools and approaches
  • Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and interpersonal skills
  • Flexibility to adapt individual contributions to accommodate changes in direction from colleagues and internal/external changes
  • Experience managing teams with outstanding leadership and coaching skills
  • Experience working with teams that build tech products

3. BA in Business Administration with 3 years of Experience

  • Experience of the Rail Industry Long-Term Planning Process
  • Experience with the Network Rail project development and delivery process
  • Strong commercial and financial awareness, including socio-economic appraisal techniques
  • Strong results orientation focused on organising and bringing people and resources together to achieve objectives
  • Comfortable dealing with ambiguity, remaining focused on the key business deliverables
  • Wide experience of strategic/business planning in an environment with several challenging stakeholders whose support is often critical to success
  • Able to demonstrate significant experience within management roles in an industrial/commercial environment
  • Good understanding of the context of central, regional and local rail planning
  • Must be fluent in English and have additional language skills 
  • Self-starter, critical judgment as well as a structured, analytical and methodical working style
  • Very good command of German and English

4. BA in Supply Chain Management with 6 years of Experience

  • Experience in Supply Chain-related roles such as Production Planning, Inventory Deployment and Demand Planning
  • Must have Lean/Six Sigma qualification (Six Sigma Green Belt or higher)
  • Experience leading teams of various levels of experience
  • Experience managing and delivering exceptional results on projects with complex interdependencies under changing environments and tight timelines
  • High interpersonal awareness with a passion to take actions that improve team cohesion and effectiveness
  • Proven ability to operate and execute with minimal oversight
  • Strong verbal and written communication skills
  • Strong analytical and critical thinking skills
  • Background in diagnostic devices, consumer health, and/or biology
  • Ability to lead projects or teams to improve planning processes
  • Demonstrated analytical, conceptual, and communication skills (both oral and written)
  • Strong Project Management skills and the ability to manage numerous projects at once, in a fast-paced environment
  • Self-motivated team member who can drive resolution to issues with strong problem-solving skills

5. BA in Economics with 5 years of Experience

  • Functional experience within an international corporation
  • Working experience in team leadership
  • Sound knowledge of SAP R/3, SAL SEM and BI as well as MS Office applications
  • Proven expertise and knowledge of IFRS accounting standards
  • Strong communication skills, team orientation, a high degree of flexibility as well as a professional and convincing attitude
  • Assortment planning experience in Fashion, FMCG and/or working in Retail, Licensees, Distributors or Franchises
  • Experience with retail/wholesale planning, forecasting and allocation
  • Strong analytical skills with attention to detail
  • Agile and flexible, the ability in problems and build solutions in a systematic approach
  • Must be a fluent English speaker
  • Strong knowledge in French and/or Asian languages 
  • Extensive knowledge of Anaplan
  • Experience working in a startup or early-stage tech company
  • Experience working in a strategy, corporate development or similar role in a corporate/company 
  • Working experience in top-tier strategy consulting 

6. BA in Business Intelligence with 3 years of Experience

  • Experience of exceptional performance media planning, grounded in the use of technology and data
  • Thorough knowledge of all performance marketing channels
  • High-quality senior client management skills
  • Experience in being an effective changemaker, driving business-critical initiatives, and inspiring teams to be better
  • Must be an excellent leader - motivational and visionary
  • Ability to work as a team player as well as work on their initiative
  • Ability to adapt the method and approach depending on the message and the audience
  • Solutions-focused, self-motivated, good under pressure, and able to deal with unforeseen challenges
  • Work closely with all levels of people in the organization
  • Multi-tasking and able to work under pressure and constantly changing environment
  • Effective written and spoken communication skills
  • Fluency in spoken and written Bahasa Indonesia or another South East Asian language 

7. BA in Quantitative Methods with 7 years of Experience

  • Experience of working in a complex, high-value, capital programme environment, providing and driving strategic improvement plans and consistency of approach in planning and scheduling
  • Significant experience with scheduling tools and systems including Primavera P6, Deltek Acumen Suite of Tools and specifically experience in setting up and managing a P6 Enterprise Environment
  • Experienced in driving change programmes specific to embedding Integrated Planning and Schedule management processes, tools, systems and people capability
  • Experience of capturing and analysing schedule data both at a project, programme and portfolio level to allow integrated project controls reporting
  • Demonstrable experience of leading and managing teams at a senior level in a project and programme environment and influencing supply chain project controls teams
  • Degree qualification or equivalent experience, with professional accreditations in Planning and Scheduling, Project and Programme Management
  • Extensive operational knowledge and understanding of Project and Programme Management methodologies, tools and techniques (Oracle Primavera P6, MSP, Deltek Acumen Suite of Tools)
  • Extensive operational knowledge and understanding of various forms of contract, specifically NEC and the various treatments of Programme time impact, risk and change as a consequence of Change Events (Compensation Events)
  • Proven track record of progressing applications through the planning process across the South West
  • In-depth understanding of adopted and emerging local and national planning policy and guidance as well as legal frameworks associated with planning management and development procurement
  • Comprehensive technical and legal knowledge and broad Financial / Commercial awareness that impacts land acquisition and planning matters
Relevant Information
Planning Director Skills, Experience, and Job Requirements