• Designing and owning the Group Demand Planning process, from historical data cleansing and statistical forecasting to commercial enrichment, consensus, and sign-off.
• Establishing a unified Demand Planning standard across markets and business units, including segmentation, planning hierarchy, and a rolling 12-18 month horizon.
• Defining the planning approach for tenders, contracts, new product introductions, end-of-life products, and our own-brand portfolio.
• Challenging forecast quality across all markets and escalating significant unresolved issues.
• Defining and improving the Group S&OP cadence from Demand Review and Supply Review through Pre-S&OP to Executive S&OP.
• Facilitating Group-level reviews to achieve clear decisions, ownership, and follow-through, rather than merely reviewing reports.
• Assessing S&OP maturity across markets and driving a roadmap to enhance maturity over time.
• Owning Group definitions and reporting for forecast accuracy, bias, and forecast value add.
• Performing root-cause analysis on material forecast deviations and translating findings into process improvements.
• Establishing a robust onboarding process for new planners, along with training requirements for existing planners.
• Supporting the onboarding of new forecasting tools and processes.

A good forecast is not an end in itself; it must lead to improved business decisions. You will translate the demand plan into its impact on inventory, customer service, working capital, and P&L. You will facilitate trade-offs between service, inventory, and cost at the S&OP forum, providing clear recommendations.

You will develop and support the process that provides volume input for financial forecasting and integrated business planning, ensuring that demand-related root causes are leveraged to mitigate future risks and excess stock.

A significant aspect of your role will be to build Demand Planning capabilities across Mediq. While Demand Planners will remain part of their local organizations, you will provide functional leadership: setting process and quality standards, challenging forecasts, and helping planners develop their expertise. You will create training, playbooks, onboarding, and foster a strong community of practice. Additionally, you will oversee the Demand Planning requirements and functional rollout of our planning tools, including Slim4 and our integrated business planning environment. Where measurable value is evident, you will introduce statistical and AI-supported forecasting.

You are an experienced Demand Planning and S&OP professional who combines deep forecasting expertise with strong business acumen. You understand the numbers, but you also recognize that successful S&OP relies on influencing people. You can challenge a Demand Planner on forecast bias and, in the next meeting, articulate the impact of that forecast to a commercial or senior business leader in terms of service, inventory, and financial implications.

• A Bachelor's or Master's degree in Supply Chain, Statistics, Econometrics, Engineering, Business, or a related discipline.
• Significant experience in Demand Planning and S&OP, typically around 8 years or more, although depth of experience is more important than the exact number of years.
• Demonstrable experience in designing, resetting, or owning an S&OP or IBP process across multiple markets or business units.
• Deep knowledge of statistical forecasting, forecast enrichment, forecast value add, accuracy, and bias management.
• Experience with tender-driven demand, new product introductions, and end-of-life planning.
• Strong understanding of the impact of Demand Planning on inventory, working capital, service, and P&L.
• Experience with advanced planning systems such as Slim4, SAP IBP, o9, Kinaxis, or comparable solutions.
• Advanced Excel skills and experience with Power BI and data modeling.
• Hands-on exposure to machine-learning or AI-supported forecasting and demand sensing is an advantage.
• Experience within medtech, pharma, FMCG, or another high-SKU distribution environment is a plus.
• APICS CPIM/CSCP, IBF CPF, or a comparable certification is preferred.
• English at C1 professional level; Dutch or German is helpful but not required.
• Willingness to travel regularly across our European markets.

You combine technical Demand Planning expertise with the authority to influence an international organization without formal line management. You can personally challenge a statistical forecast, but you also know how to engage commercial leaders in taking ownership of their input. You simplify complexity and explain forecast uncertainty and business trade-offs in a manner that senior stakeholders can grasp.

You drive meetings toward decisions rather than reports, investigate the root causes of forecast misses, and build processes that function independently of any one individual. Ultimately, your impact is reflected in improved forecast accuracy, reduced bias, enhanced customer service, and healthier inventory levels.

This is a significant Group Supply Chain role with the opportunity to help build and professionalize S&OP across our European organization.

• A gross monthly salary between €7,000 and €8,500 based on a full-time position, depending on your knowledge and experience.
• An on-target annual bonus of 10%.
• A gross mobility budget of €500 per month.
• Ownership of the Group Demand Planning process across multiple European markets.
• A central role in the further development of Mediq's end-to-end S&OP capability.
• Functional leadership of Demand Planning professionals across our markets.
• Significant exposure to senior stakeholders across Operations, Sales, Category Management, Finance, Sourcing, and IT.
• The opportunity to further develop our use of advanced planning, data, and AI-supported forecasting.
• A role with direct impact on customer service, inventory, working capital, and financial performance.
• An international environment with strong opportunities for professional development.

Mediq is a leading European healthcare company. We support healthcare professionals and patients with medical devices, healthcare solutions, and services, working daily to make healthcare more accessible and affordable. Reliable planning is crucial to this mission. We need the right products available at the right time while managing inventory and costs responsibly. As the Group S&OP Demand CoE Lead, you will help create the planning capability that enables us to achieve this.

Would you like to shape Demand Planning and S&OP across Mediq's European organization and turn better forecasts into better business decisions? We would be happy to hear from you. Apply via the application button. For more information about the position or recruitment process, please contact Recruitment at recruitment@mediq.com.