Job Description
About The Team:
We’re looking for a Senior Demand Planning Analyst who is as comfortable writing SQL as they are explaining a forecast miss to a Procurement Director. This is a hybrid role: part data engineer, part forecaster, part cross-functional operator.
You’ll own the demand signal that drives every operational decision at HelloFresh, from how much food we buy to how many staff we schedule and how many trucks we book. Your forecasts directly determine food waste, labour costs, and customer experience for millions of meals across Europe.
Our Demand Planning team is transitioning from a legacy operating model to a unified, automated, data-driven global function. You will bridge that gap — building the next-generation forecasting capabilities while keeping daily supply chain execution accurate and agile.
What You’ll Do
Build & Automate Forecasting Systems
- Write and maintain SQL queries daily to extract, validate, and transform demand data across cloud data platforms (e.g., Databricks, BigQuery, Snowflake).
- Develop and refine forecasting models in Python, applying statistical and machine learning techniques — from simple trend and seasonality models through to more advanced approaches as the function matures.
- Design dashboards and automated reporting using visualisation tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI) that give stakeholders self-service access to demand insights.
- Work alongside forecast engineers to architect scalable pipelines, ensuring local market nuances are handled without breaking the unified codebase.
- Build “What-If” scenario simulations (e.g., “What if we run an aggressive promo in a key European market next week?”) to stress-test operational capacity and quantify supply chain risk.
Own the Demand Plan
- Generate and validate daily and weekly demand plans for European markets. You are the guardian of the Decision-Time forecast — the plan must be accurate at the exact moment Procurement and Production need to act.
- Monitor trends, seasonality, and promotional impacts. Proactively flag when the plan needs adjusting and communicate changes before they surprise the supply chain.
- Implement data validation and QA checks to ensure forecast reliability, with alerting for anomalies.
Drive Cross-Functional Alignment (S&OP)
- Drive cross-functional alignment and play a key role in the weekly S&OP planning cycle with Market Leadership, Logistics, Production, and Procurement — ensuring the forecast is shaped by stakeholder inputs and shifting the conversation from error reporting to risk management and strategic alignment.
- Partner with Marketing to ensure growth campaigns and promotions are reflected in the demand view before they hit the supply chain.
- When deviations occur, go beyond surface metrics: diagnose root causes, quantify impact, and deliver actionable insights that prevent recurrence.
What We Need
Required Technical Skills
- SQL: Fluent. You write complex queries daily — joins, window functions, CTEs — and are comfortable working in cloud data platforms (e.g., Databricks, BigQuery, Snowflake).
- Python: Good working knowledge. You can write and maintain scripts for data manipulation, forecasting, and analysis. You don’t need to be a software engineer, but you’re confident using Python to solve analytical problems.
- Visualisation: Experience building dashboards in tools such as Tableau or Power BI to make data accessible to non-technical stakeholders.
- Excel/Google Sheets: Advanced. Still essential for ad-hoc analysis and stakeholder communication, but not your primary tool.
Required Domain Experience
- 4+ years in Demand Planning, Supply Planning, or Supply Chain Analytics. E-commerce, food retail, or FMCG experience is strongly preferred — perishable/short shelf-life experience is a significant plus.
- Strong grasp of forecasting techniques: you understand bias, accuracy metrics (MAPE, WMAPE), trend decomposition, and how to evaluate model performance holistically.
- Experience forecasting in environments with limited historical data (newer markets, product launches) using proxy data and trend smoothing.
- Proven ability to manage demand and supply risks: proposing mitigations (buffers, caps, swaps) and communicating complex trade-offs to senior stakeholders.
- Comfortable with project tools like JIRA/Confluence for managing backlogs and improvement roadmaps.
- Strong communication skills: you can present forecast insights, explain variance drivers, and articulate trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences, ensuring alignment across functions.
What you will get in return:
● 70% off HelloFresh or Green Chef boxes
● Company pension scheme
● Gym membership
● Bupa private medical insurance (including dental & family cover options)
● Electric vehicle scheme
● Mental health first aiders and an employee assistance programme
● Dog friendly office! (London site only)
● Nursery support scheme
● Cycle to work scheme
● Group Life Assurance
Location: The HelloFresh Farm, 60 Worship Street, EC2A 2EZ, London or any other international HelloFresh market
To be considered for this role, you’ll need to have the independent right to work in the UK, as we’re unfortunately unable to provide sponsorship at this time.
Hybrid Working Policy
We offer a hybrid working policy for eligible roles, allowing flexibility to work from home and in the office. For more details on eligibility and how this applies to the role you’re applying for, please consult with our recruiter.
Next steps:Your application will be reviewed and if successful, a member of the Talent Acquisition Team will be in touch within 2 weeks.
