Senior Director Customer Planning

Location: Hershey, PA

*This role can be based in East/Central US with travel to Hershey, PA twice per month.

The Senior Director, Customer Planning leads the strategy, execution, and continuous improvement of end-to-end customer and channel planning processes. This leader is accountable for translating commercial strategy into integrated, executable plans that align volume, trade investment, customer priorities, and financial outcomes. The role serves as a critical enterprise connector across Sales, Finance, Supply Chain, and other cross-functional partners, driving planning discipline, decision transparency, and executional alignment across the business. In addition to delivering strong business results, this role builds organizational capability, strengthens planning governance, and advances best-in-class planning practices.

Accountabilities:

• Lead Planning Strategy & Execution
  
  
  
  • Lead the development and execution of annual, quarterly, and in-year customer and channel plans that translate commercial strategy into actionable priorities
  • Ensure plans are integrated across demand, supply, trade investment, and financial objectives to support profitable growth
  
  
  
  
• Drive Planning Excellence & Transparency
  
  
  
  • Establish end-to-end visibility to customer volume, promotional plans, trade investment, and performance through planning systems and routines
  • Define and sustain planning standards, KPIs, governance forums, and decision rights that improve transparency, accountability, and execution discipline
  
  
  
  
• Optimize Trade & Financial Performance
  
  
  
  • Shape customer and commercial plans to optimize trade investment, revenue growth, and profitability
  • Monitor performance versus plan, identify risks and opportunities, and drive timely actions to improve financial and customer outcomes
  
  
  
  
• Generate Data-Driven Insights
  
  
  
  • Apply strong analytical, financial, and scenario-planning capabilities to evaluate alternatives and inform decision-making
  • Convert forecast, performance, and customer data into actionable insights that strengthen planning quality and business outcomes
  
  
  
  
• Enable Cross-Functional Alignment
  
  
  
  • Lead cross-functional alignment across customer teams, commercial leadership, Finance, Supply Chain, and other enterprise partners to ensure plans are executable and aligned to business priorities
  • Facilitate effective decision-making and issue resolution across stakeholders, balancing customer opportunities with enterprise constraints and objectives
  
  
  
  
• Drive Continuous Improvement
  
  
  
  • Lead continuous improvement of planning processes, tools, and routines to improve forecast quality, agility, and decision effectiveness
  • Build organizational capability through coaching, talent development, and adoption of planning best practices
  
  
  
  
• Lead Team & Capability Development
  
  
  
  • Develop and lead a high-performing planning organization, including coaching, talent development, succession planning, and capability building
  • Create a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement across the planning team
  
  
  
  

Key Success Factors

• Strong strategic and analytical thinking, with ability to connect decisions to P&L outcomes
• Strong commercial acumen, with the ability to translate customer strategies into profitable, executable plans
• Proven ability to lead enterprise planning processes and influence cross-functional stakeholders
• Exceptional leadership and influence skills, with the ability to align senior stakeholders across competing priorities
• Expertise in balancing customer needs with enterprise financial and operational priorities
• Ability to drive alignment, governance, and execution discipline across complex organizations
• Ability to lead through ambiguity, complexity, and organizational change
• Track record of building high-performing teams and scalable planning capabilities

Qualifications:

Education: Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree preferred

Experience:

• 12+ years of experience in customer planning, sales planning, commercial planning, revenue management, supply chain planning, or related fields
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional planning processes in a complex consumer packaged goods or similarly matrixed environment
• Proven success influencing senior stakeholders and driving business performance through planning, analytics, and decision support
• Experience leading teams and/or building organizational capability preferred

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The Hershey Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The policy of The Hershey Company is to extend opportunities to qualified applicants and employees on an equal basis regardless of an individual's race, color, gender, age, national origin, religion, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other categories protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.

The Hershey Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer - Minority/Female/Disabled/Protected Veterans.

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