Demand Planner in Portland, Oregon at Smith Teamaker. LLC

If you drink tea, you know Smith produces incredible products. If you live in the Portland area you know Smith has an incredible brand and reputation.

Did you know we’re also growing?

Have you seen that we were recognized as a TopWorkplace by the Oregonian in 2025?

Were you aware that we have a central location right behind our Tea Room on SE Washington with easy access to parking, buses and amazing restaurants like Olympia Provisions, Wayfinder and Produce Row?

That’s a little bit about our company...let’s talk about the role!

The Role

The Demand Planner plays a key role in translating commercial plans into an accurate, actionable demand forecast that keeps Smith in stock, agile, and ready for growth. Reporting to the Director of Supply Chain and partnering closely with Sales, you'll lead the forecasting cadence across channels, align assumptions, and surface risks and opportunities early — without waiting to be asked. You'll connect the dots between history, promotions, new items, and market signals, then turn that insight into a clear plan the broader supply chain team can execute. You'll also bring a critical eye to what's not working and fix it.

Essential Responsibilities

· Develop and maintain a baseline statistical forecast, using it as a benchmark to challenge or validate qualitative inputs from Sales and Marketing.

· Own the rolling demand forecast across channels (DTC, retail, foodservice, international as applicable), using historical demand, shipment signals, and commercial inputs to build a clear, bias-aware forecast at the right level of detail (SKU/location/customer).

· Lead the monthly/weekly demand planning cadence: gather assumptions from Sales and Marketing (promotions, new items, distribution changes), document drivers, and align a single set of numbers.

· Partner with Sales to translate account plans into forecast updates, identify upside/downside risk, and recommend actions that protect service, margin, and working capital.

· Drive Demand Review as part of S&OP: present forecast changes, key variances, and scenarios; escalate constraints and decisions needed to keep the plan executable.

· Monitor forecast accuracy and bias (MAPE, WAPE, BIAS), build simple diagnostics, and continuously improve methods, master data, and assumptions to raise planning reliability.

· Collaborate with Supply Planning/Operations on upcoming constraints (capacity, materials, lead times) and proactively adjust demand plans or propose alternatives to minimize disruption.

· Maintain planning tools and data hygiene (ERP/planning system, item/customer attributes), ensuring inputs are accurate, auditable, and Smith-standard in their detail and craftsmanship.

· Other duties as assigned or identified

Key Competencies

· Self-directed and action-oriented; identifies what needs to be done and moves on it without requiring a prompt

· Strong analytical and logical thinker; comfortable with large data sets, forecast modeling, and building simple, repeatable diagnostics from scratch

· Proactively audits data, tools, and processes for gaps — then proposes and executes fixes rather than flagging and waiting

· Translates complex data into a clear story and a direct recommendation for cross-functional partners

· Strong Sales partnership skills; can influence without authority and navigate healthy tension

· High ownership and follow-through; doesn't let ambiguity become an excuse for inaction

· Intellectually curious and eager to grow; asks good questions and learns fast from misses

· Outstanding organizational skills and business acumen; understands how forecast decisions ripple into inventory, service, and cash

· Understands product complexity, including raw material seasonality and long lead time botanical and tea sourcing

· Passion for Smith Teamaker's culture — Head, Heart, and Hustle (we work hard, we care about each other, and we do things right

Required & Desired Experience

· 2-4 years of experience in demand planning, forecasting, or supply chain analytics in a CPG (or similarly fast-moving) environment

· Proven track record of improving 'Forecast Value Add' (FVA) – demonstrating how the planning process improves the final plan

· Hands-on experience partnering with Sales on account-level forecasting, promotions, and distribution changes

· Strong working knowledge of S&OP/IBP fundamentals, including demand review inputs/outputs and cross-functional decision making

· Advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, lookups, basic modeling); experience with ERP and planning tools (NetSuite/SAP/Oracle, Demand Planning platforms) a plus

· Comfortable working with large data sets and building simple, repeatable reporting (Power BI/Tableau experience a plus)

· Strong collaboration and presentation skills; able to communicate a forecast story that is clear, candid, and aligned to Smith standards

Physical, Driving & Travel Requirements

· This position is full time in the office at 110 SE Washington St with some flexibility around hours, catch-up days, etc.

· While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be regularly required to stand, sit, talk, hear, reach, stoop, kneel, and use hands and fingers to operate a computer, telephone, and keyboard.

· Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision requirements due to computer work.

· Light to moderate lifting may be required.

Benefits

· Competitive salary commensurate with experience and performance

· Fully paid medical, vision and dental insurance

· Paid holidays, PTO, flexible spending account, 401k, neighborhood parking permit

· Excellent tea selection and lots of high fives

Smith Teamaker provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.