Director - Inventory Replenishment and Planning - Bengaluru

About Lowe’s

Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is a FORTUNE® 50 home improvement company serving approximately 17 million customer transactions a week in the U.S. The total fiscal year 2022 sales were over $97 billion; Approximately $92 billion of sales were generated in the U.S., where Lowe's operates over 1,700 home improvement stores and employs approximately 300,000 associates. Based in Mooresville, N.C., Lowe's supports the communities it serves through programs focused on creating safe, affordable housing and helping to develop the next generation of skilled trade experts.

For more information, visit Lowes.com.

About Lowe’s India

At Lowe's India, we are the enablers who help create an engaging customer experience for our $97 billion home improvement business at Lowe's. Our 4000+ associates work across technology, analytics, business operations, finance & accounting, product management, and shared services. We leverage new technologies and find innovative methods to ensure that Lowe's has a competitive edge in the market.

To know more about Lowe's India, visit Lowes.co.in

About the Team

Inventory Replenishment and Planning team at Lowe’s India is part of the Merchandising Business Group. This team focuses on key areas of Inventory Management such as Demand Planning, Inventory Replenishment and Inventory Analytics.

Job Summary:

This position is responsible for managing the Inventory Replenishment & Planning  team at Lowe’s India. In addition to establishing strategy and objectives aligned to the global team, this role is the primary interface between Inventory Replenishment &  Planning team at Lowe’s India and US. This role requires effective collaboration with various teams from Inventory Planning, Replenishment Planning, rest of Merchandising, Supply Chain, Store Operations, Finance etc. as well as external partners like Vendors.

The primary purpose of this role is to oversee all the activities related to maintaining an unconstrained short-term and long-term demand forecast, plan and track orders and perform in-stock troubleshooting to support replenishment of retail stores, eCommerce channel and distribution centers. This role is responsible for achieving desired forecast accuracy metrics and in-stock goals, supporting sales and profit goals while achieving inventory productivity. The role will ensure that the demand team is managing system forecast as well as forecast adjustments to account for market conditions, promotions, pricing, and other events that impact demand. On the replenishment side goal is to ensure orders placed accurately and tracked closely to support in-stocks. This leader will also lead the Inventory Analytics team that provide rapid insights for specific business needs to improve both inventory visibility and metric governance.

Roles & Responsibilities:

Core Responsibilities:

• Responsible for leading and developing a team that implement and maintain item/location level forecast accuracy and in-stocks for a group of product categories that support financial objectives ​
• Partners with leaders in US across Demand Planning and  Inventory Replenishment to determine priorities for the Lowe’s India team aligned to the organizational priorities.
• Serves as a thought leader on IRP foundation and transformation work
• Defines the roadmap for optimal team and process ownership between locations.
• Develops and implements demand planning and sales forecasting processes, data collection and reporting, tracking and reporting of KPI’s.
• Makes demand planning corrective actions and improvements using demand planning methodology and trend/variance root cause analysis.
• Drive inventory and replenishment strategies to support assigned categories including resets, promotions, events, seasonal /entry and exit, etc.​
• Lead replenishment team to ensure proper execution of inventory plans while ensuring desired in-stock levels are achieved.​
• Identify, frame, escalate and manage risks to Lowe’s vendor ecosystem
• Partners with Merchandising, Supply Chain planning and Replenishment to develop a best in class Vendor Performance Management Program inclusive of great partnerships, an interactive dashboard/portal, and achievement of key metrics.
• Drives Operational Excellence for deliverables from Lowe’s India.
• Collaborates with the Product, Technology and support teams to develop future functionality and to drive operational readiness for future functionality.
• Lead, mentor, and manage the team responsible for demand forecasting, inventory replenishment, and inventory control, ensuring their continued development and success.
• Develops a high performing team, Provides guidance and direction on daily tasks..
• Leads recruitment efforts including conducting interviews and making final hiring decisions. Provides necessary training and develops onboarding plans to support work plans, systems use and process improvements.

Years of Experience:

• 16+ years of experience
• 7+ years of experience in leading teams

Education Qualification & Certifications (optional)

Required Minimum Qualifications:

• B.com / BBM / MBA / Retail Operations Management

Skill Set Required

Primary Skills (must have)

• Prior experience in Retail
• Experience in Demand Planning, Supply Chain Management or Inventory Management
• Strong understanding of Inventory Planning, Forecasting processes and systems 
• Experience in Data mining and visualization tool such as PoweBI, SQL, MS Access and Excel
• Business acumen and strategic thinking skills
• Proven ability to analyze, evaluate and interpret complex data
• Excellent writing and communication skills, including the ability to develop analytical documents for presentation to management

Secondary Skills (desired)

• Experience with a demand planning system like Blue Yonder, RELEX, Kinaxis, Oracle, SAP etc.
• Experience with AI/ML use cases in Demand Planning

Lowe’s is an equal opportunity employer and administers all personnel practices without regard to race, color, religious creed, sex, gender, age, national origin, mental or physical disability or medical condition, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other category protected under state or local law. Lowe’s wishes to maintain appropriate standards and integrity in meeting the requirements of the Information Technology Act’s privacy provisions.

Lowe's is an equal opportunity employer and administers all personnel practices without regard to race, color, religious creed, sex, gender, age, ancestry, national origin, mental or physical disability or medical condition, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other category protected under federal, state, or local law.