Sales & Operations Planning Manager

Job Summary

• To lead the integrated Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process across refining, petrochemical, logistics, commercial, and supply chain functions, ensuring alignment between demand, production, inventory, feedstock availability, storage capacity, and business objectives.
• The role is responsible for delivering an optimized and executable supply plan that maximizes profitability, customer service, asset utilization, and working capital performance.
• The Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) Manager ensures alignment between commercial strategies, refining capacities, and financial targets. They optimize crude procurement, production yields, and product distribution to maximize margins while preventing supply chain bottlenecks.

Key Roles & Responsibilities
Strategic Planning & Governance:

• Design and institutionalize the refinery-wide S&OP framework.
• Develop integrated planning policies, standards, and governance processes.
• Facilitate monthly executive S&OP meetings.
• Lead business planning cycles and decision-making forums.
• Ensure alignment of operational plans with corporate objectives.

Demand Planning:

• Consolidate demand forecasts from commercial and marketing teams.
• Validate demand assumptions using market intelligence and historical trends.
• Develop short-, medium-, and long-term demand plans.
• Monitor forecast accuracy and implement improvement initiatives.
• Conduct demand scenario analysis.

Supply Planning:

• Develop integrated supply plans considering:
  • Crude availability
  • Refinery capacity
  • Petrochemical production requirements
  • Storage limitations
  • Export commitments
  • Distribution constraints
• Balance supply capabilities against market demand.
• Recommend optimization opportunities to maximize profitability.

Production Planning:

• Translate demand forecasts into production requirements.
• Coordinate with refinery and petrochemical operations to develop feasible production schedules.
• Monitor plan adherence and production performance.
• Support turnaround and shutdown planning.

Inventory Optimization:

• Define inventory policies and target stock levels.
• Optimize crude, intermediate, catalyst, additive, and finished product inventories.
• Balance service levels against working capital objectives.
• Monitor slow-moving and obsolete inventory.

Scenario Planning & Risk Management:

• Conduct supply-demand scenario modelling.
• Evaluate impacts of:
  • Feedstock disruptions
  • Production outages
  • Market demand fluctuations
  • Logistics constraints
• Develop contingency and recovery plans.
• Maintain supply chain risk registers.

Stakeholder Management:

• Coordinate planning activities across multiple functions.
• Resolve supply-demand conflicts through structured decision-making.
• Provide planning insights to senior management.
• Support strategic business initiatives and expansion projects.

Performance Management:

• Monitor planning performance metrics.
• Lead root-cause analysis of planning deviations.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives.
• Benchmark planning performance against industry best practices

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Business Administration, Economics or related discipline;
• Master's degree (MBA / MSc Supply Chain) preferred.
• 10–15 years of supply chain, planning, logistics, or operations experience.
• Minimum 5 years in S&OP, Integrated Business Planning (IBP), or Supply Planning leadership.
• Professional certification: APICS CPIM and/or CSCP; CIPS, PMP, ISM
• Strong command of ERP systems (SAP MM/PP, Oracle SCM) and advanced planning tools (Kinaxis Rapid Response, Blue Yonder, o9 Solutions, or equivalent).
• Proven experience managing complex supply-demand balancing environments

Functional Competencies:
S&OP & Integrated Business Planning:

• Demand planning
• Supply planning
• Capacity planning
• Production planning
• Inventory planning
• Executive S&OP facilitation

Supply Chain Management:

• End-to-end supply chain optimization
• Working capital management
• Logistics planning
• Inventory management
• Network optimization

Refinery & Petrochemical Operations:

• Refinery process understanding
• Product yield optimization
• Feedstock planning
• Storage and terminal operations
• Product movement planning

Financial & Commercial Acumen:

• Margin optimization
• Business case development
• Budgeting and forecasting
• Cost analysis
• Profitability assessment

Risk Management:

• Scenario modelling
• Business continuity planning
• Supply chain risk assessment
• Contingency planning

Behavioural Competencies:
Leadership:

• Strategic thinking
• Decision-making under uncertainty
• Accountability
• Results orientation

Communication & Influence:

• Executive presentation skills
• Stakeholder engagement
• Negotiation and conflict resolution
• Cross-functional collaboration

Problem Solving:

• Analytical thinking
• Systems thinking
• Root-cause analysis
• Structured decision-making

Personal Effectiveness:

• Resilience
• Adaptability
• Attention to detail
• Continuous improvement mindset

Digital Competencies:
ERP & Planning Systems:

• SAP S/4HANA
• SAP IBP
• SAP APO
• Oracle SCM Cloud

Data Analytics & Reporting:

• Microsoft Power BI
• Tableau
• Advanced Microsoft Excel
• SQL fundamentals

Planning & Optimization Tools:

• Supply chain modelling tools
• Statistical forecasting tools
• Inventory optimization systems
• Scenario planning platforms

Digital Transformation:

• Process automation
• Data governance
• AI-enabled forecasting
• Predictive analytics

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:

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