Inventory Planning Assistant / Specialist

We're Hiring: Inventory Planning Assistant / Specialist
Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior
Work Arrangement: Fully Remote
About Us
We are a globally focused organization committed to improving inventory availability, working-capital efficiency, supply continuity, and operational performance across diverse markets.
Our teams collaborate across Inventory Planning, Demand Planning, Procurement, Supply Chain, Warehousing, Logistics, Sales, Operations, Finance, and suppliers to maintain the right inventory at the right locations and at the right time.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Inventory Planning Assistant / Specialist to support inventory planning, replenishment, stock optimization, supply coordination, and inventory-performance management.
The ideal candidate will monitor inventory levels, analyze demand and supply information, maintain replenishment parameters, identify stock risks, coordinate purchase and transfer requirements, and support the organization in balancing product availability with inventory investment.
Key Responsibilities
Support the development and execution of inventory planning and replenishment processes.
Monitor inventory levels across warehouses, locations, markets, products, and channels.
Maintain appropriate inventory targets based on demand, lead times, service requirements, and supply constraints.
Review stock levels against minimum, maximum, safety-stock, reorder-point, and target-inventory parameters.
Identify stockout, low-stock, excess-stock, and slow-moving inventory risks.
Prepare regular inventory reports, dashboards, and exception lists.
Analyze inventory trends, movements, consumption, sales, orders, and supply availability.
Review historical demand and consumption patterns to support inventory decisions.
Coordinate with Demand Planning teams on forecasts, demand changes, seasonality, promotions, and new products.
Translate demand requirements into inventory and replenishment requirements.
Monitor supplier lead times, inbound commitments, and expected delivery dates.
Coordinate with Procurement teams to ensure purchase orders support inventory requirements.
Monitor purchase orders and follow up on delayed, incomplete, or at-risk supplies.
Identify supply gaps that may result in stockouts or service-level risks.
Recommend replenishment quantities based on approved planning parameters and business requirements.
Support the calculation and review of safety stock and reorder points.
Monitor inventory coverage, days of supply, stock turns, and inventory health.
Review inventory exceptions and coordinate corrective actions with relevant stakeholders.
Support inventory allocation across warehouses, stores, markets, or customer requirements where applicable.
Coordinate stock transfers between locations to improve availability and reduce excess inventory.
Support inventory balancing across multiple locations and distribution points.
Monitor new-product launches and ensure initial inventory requirements are appropriately planned.
Support phase-in and phase-out planning for new, replacement, and discontinued products.
Identify obsolete, dormant, slow-moving, and excess inventory and support appropriate action plans.
Coordinate with Sales and Commercial teams regarding significant demand changes and customer requirements.
Monitor promotions, campaigns, seasonal events, and other activities that may affect inventory requirements.
Support inventory planning for peak periods, holidays, seasonal demand, and major business events.
Analyze supplier minimum order quantities, order multiples, case packs, and other supply constraints.
Consider lead times, order cycles, shipment frequency, capacity, and supplier constraints when developing replenishment recommendations.
Coordinate with Logistics and Warehousing teams to monitor inbound inventory and receiving capacity.
Monitor inbound shipment status and identify potential inventory availability issues.
Investigate inventory discrepancies between planning systems, ERP, WMS, physical stock, and supplier information.
Support reconciliation of inventory records and investigate unusual inventory movements.
Maintain accurate inventory planning parameters, product master data, supplier information, and planning records.
Review item attributes, lead times, minimum order quantities, order multiples, safety stock, and replenishment settings.
Support periodic reviews of inventory planning parameters based on actual demand and supply performance.
Analyze supplier performance and its impact on inventory availability and working capital.
Escalate recurring supplier delays, shortages, quality issues, and supply risks.
Support contingency planning for supply disruptions, demand surges, logistics constraints, and other inventory risks.
Prepare inventory scenarios to support changes in demand, supply, lead times, or business priorities.
Assist with inventory budgeting, working-capital analysis, and stock investment planning.
Monitor inventory value and identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary inventory investment.
Coordinate with Finance on inventory valuation, provisions, write-offs, and working-capital information where applicable.
Support inventory counts, cycle counts, reconciliation activities, and inventory audits.
Ensure inventory planning activities comply with company policies, procedures, and control requirements.
Maintain accurate documentation of planning decisions, assumptions, exceptions, and corrective actions.
Use ERP, inventory planning, WMS, demand-planning, and business-intelligence systems to support planning activities.
Develop and improve inventory dashboards, automated reports, exception alerts, and planning tools.
Identify opportunities to automate repetitive inventory-planning activities.
Support continuous-improvement initiatives focused on inventory availability, service levels, working capital, and planning accuracy.
Provide management with regular updates on inventory risks, opportunities, performance, and recommended actions.
Key Performance Indicators
Inventory availability
Stockout rate
Service level
Fill rate
Inventory accuracy
Inventory turnover
Days of inventory on hand
Days of supply
Safety-stock accuracy
Reorder-point effectiveness
Excess inventory value
Slow-moving inventory value
Obsolete inventory value
Inventory write-off value
Working-capital efficiency
Inventory carrying cost
Inventory investment
Forecast-to-inventory alignment
Replenishment accuracy
Replenishment cycle time
Purchase-order fulfillment
Supplier on-time delivery
Supplier lead-time accuracy
Inbound supply reliability
Inventory transfer effectiveness
Stock balancing effectiveness
New-product inventory readiness
Phase-out inventory performance
Promotion inventory readiness
Peak-period inventory availability
Inventory planning parameter accuracy
Planning exception resolution time
Inventory discrepancy resolution time
Inventory audit accuracy
Planning system data accuracy
Inventory reporting accuracy
Inventory planning cycle time
Inventory planning process compliance
Working-capital improvement
Inventory reduction savings
Continuous-improvement implementation
Ideal Candidate
The successful candidate should have strong experience in inventory planning, supply chain planning, replenishment, stock control, demand planning, procurement planning, or supply chain operations, preferably within retail, distribution, manufacturing, e-commerce, logistics, or other inventory-intensive environments.
The candidate should demonstrate:
Strong understanding of inventory planning and replenishment principles.
Experience monitoring inventory across multiple products, locations, or channels.
Knowledge of safety stock, reorder points, minimum and maximum inventory levels, and inventory coverage.
Experience analyzing demand, consumption, sales, inventory movements, and supply information.
Strong understanding of inventory availability, working capital, and stock optimization.
Experience coordinating with Procurement, Demand Planning, Warehousing, Logistics, Sales, and suppliers.
Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
Ability to identify inventory risks and develop practical corrective actions.
Experience monitoring purchase orders, supplier lead times, inbound shipments, and supply commitments.
Understanding of inventory segmentation, ABC analysis, safety stock, and replenishment methodologies.
Experience with new-product launches, product phase-outs, promotions, and seasonal inventory planning.
Strong attention to detail and commitment to data accuracy.
Experience using ERP, WMS, inventory-planning, demand-planning, or supply-chain systems.
Strong Excel skills and familiarity with reporting, dashboards, and business-intelligence tools.
Ability to analyze large datasets and identify trends, exceptions, and improvement opportunities.
Strong communication and stakeholder

Work arrangement
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