وصف الوظيفة
Role Overview
Demand Planning Specialist at Destinus, an aerospace and defense company headquartered in Abu Dhabi. This position can initially be performed remotely from Dubai, with a preference for candidates based in or willing to relocate closer to Abu Dhabi as the role and operations in the region develop.
Company Overview
Destinus is revolutionizing the defense industry with cutting-edge Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The company partners with government agencies and defense organizations worldwide to provide advanced solutions for mission-critical operations, delivering unparalleled speed, precision, and cost effectiveness.
Role Purpose
You will sit at the center of how demand translates into real-world production, materials, capacity, and delivery across a fast-moving aerospace and defense environment. You will build and maintain an integrated demand plan that connects customer contracts, programs, production, sustainment, and lifecycle requirements, giving teams the visibility to anticipate constraints and act before problems emerge.
Key Responsibilities
Demand Forecasting & Planning
- Develop and maintain short, medium, and long-term demand forecasts across products, programs, systems, spare parts, and services.
- Consolidate demand inputs from customer contracts, purchase orders, program schedules, Sales, Business Development, Program Management, and maintenance activities into one reliable demand picture.
- Develop and maintain the Master Production Schedule and production plans, balancing demand with capacity, material availability, resources, and delivery commitments.
- Support inventory planning by balancing demand against stock levels, safety stocks, service requirements, component criticality, and customer readiness.
Sales & Operations Planning
- Play a key role in the monthly S&OP and IBP process, preparing forecasts, dashboards, management reports, scenarios, and insights that support better decision-making.
- Work closely with Program Management to translate program milestones, production schedules, deliveries, upgrades, maintenance, sustainment, and lifecycle requirements into the demand plan.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with Supply Planning, Procurement, Operations, and Engineering to identify long-lead materials, critical components, capacity constraints, and potential shortages before they impact execution.
Performance Monitoring & Improvement
- Track and improve Forecast Accuracy, Forecast Bias, Forecast Error, Demand Plan Stability, Service Level, and Inventory Performance.
- Investigate significant forecast variances, identify root causes, and turn findings into practical improvements to planning processes.
Systems & Reporting
- Maintain accurate planning data across ERP, MRP, and advanced planning systems and build clear analytical reports using Excel, Power BI, or equivalent tools.
Risk Management & Compliance
- Identify and escalate demand-related risks that could impact customer commitments, program milestones, operational readiness, or supply continuity.
- Ensure planning activities meet company policies, contractual commitments, quality requirements, and information-security standards.
Qualifications & Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, Operations, Economics, Statistics, or a related discipline.
- Around 3 to 7 years of experience in demand planning, supply planning, S&OP, IBP, materials planning, production planning, or program planning.
- Hands-on experience working with ERP, MRP, or advanced planning systems.
- Experience within aerospace, defense, aviation, complex manufacturing, or government contracting is a strong advantage.
- Experience managing long-lead-time, project-based, intermittent, or spare-parts demand is a plus.
Skills & Competencies
- Strong understanding of forecasting, inventory planning, MRP, procurement, master scheduling, and broader supply chain processes.
- Advanced Microsoft Excel skills and confidence working with large datasets and complex planning scenarios.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate data into clear operational actions.
- Experience with Power BI or equivalent reporting and visualization tools is highly valued.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work across Program Management, Business Development, Sales, Engineering, Operations, Procurement, Supply Planning, Logistics, Finance, Quality, and Sustainment.
- Analytical mindset that translates forecasts into better operational decisions.
- Ability to challenge assumptions and spot risks early.
- Comfort bringing structure to complex and constantly changing demand.
- Capacity to work across teams, take ownership of problems, and maintain focus when priorities shift rapidly.
- Orientation toward building better planning processes rather than simply maintaining existing ones.