Description
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Job Title: Material Planning Lead
Location: London or Amsterdam
6 Month Fixed Term Contract
Closing Date: 17 April 2026
About us
With over 200 brands sold in nearly 180 countries, we’re the world’s leading premium drinks company. Bring your passion and use your curiosity as you explore, collaborate, and innovate to build brands consumers love. Together with passionate people from all over the world, you’ll test new ideas, learn and grow, and unlock a brighter, more exciting future.
Join us to create a career worth celebrating.
About the Function
Our Supply Chain and Manufacturing team are problem-solvers, sourcing, producing, and delivering our much-loved brands to delight customers around the globe. Over half of Diageo’s 30,000+ people work in Supply Chain and Manufacturing. It’s an intricate and sophisticated operation that’s the product of logistical, manufacturing, and technical collaborations.
Our teams in 100 sites in over 30 countries cover production facilities, supplier relationships, customer collaborations and third-party agreements. We’re committed to realising our ‘Society 2030: Spirit of Progress’ goals, to protect the environment and support our farmers and suppliers. Whatever your skills and experience, we’ll help you to thrive in our inclusive culture.
About the team
Diageo's performance ambition is to become the most trusted and respected CPG; our “must dos” set out where we aim to win in order to achieve this aspiration. Within Supply Chain this translates into goals that aim to deliver world class performance at best cost, drive value through exceptional service and enable new growth opportunities.
To enable this, an above-the-market Centre of Excellence has been established to perform key functional areas within PLAN, spanning over all Diageo’s markets in Africa, using a central pool of expertise that ensures standard and effective practices across countries.
About the role
You'll lead inventory supply planning across a portfolio of material categories supporting production and operations across Africa.
This role is critical in ensuring the right materials are available at the right time to meet customer and consumer demand, while balancing service, cost, inventory efficiency, and supplier capability. You’ll lead a team of planners and work across a complex regional network of suppliers, production sites, and stakeholders to deliver strong supply performance.
The role covers a broad range of material categories including glass, malt, flavours, spirits, enzymes, cans, labels, grains, and closures, sourced from both major strategic suppliers and a wide network of local partners. You’ll also play a key role in supporting business change, innovation, and renovation projects across the region.
This is a highly collaborative leadership role, partnering with teams across supply chain, demand planning, procurement, brand, innovation, and operations, as well as suppliers and market leadership teams.
What you’ll do
1. Lead and develop a team of 4 Materials Planners, setting clear priorities and building a high-performing, engaged team
2. Manage material inventory across your categories to support production and customer service across Africa, balancing service, cost, and working capital
3. Translate production plans into effective material supply plans, ensuring appropriate safety stock and inventory levels are maintained
4. Monitor demand signals and respond proactively to changes across the planning horizon
5. Partner closely with suppliers to align on short- and long-term capacity plans and ensure continuity of supply
6. Collaborate with supply planning, demand planning, and market teams to deliver requirements and manage risks
7. Identify and resolve supply challenges, including negotiating changes to supplier plans where needed
8. Support the S&OP process by providing visibility of material supply risks and opportunities
9. Partner with innovation and brand teams to enable new product launches and business change activity
10. Contribute to inventory optimisation, including obsolescence and provision management
11. Build strong supplier relationships, monitor performance, and support continuous improvement initiatives
12. Use data and insights to improve supplier performance, eliminate repeat issues, and inform planning decisions
13. Drive standardisation, automation, and continuous improvement across planning processes
14. Ensure planning systems and master data (e.g. BOMs, lead times, batch sizes) are accurate and aligned with global standards
15. Partner with data and process teams to strengthen planning effectiveness and ways of working
What you'll bring
16. Proven experience in materials planning, supply planning, or inventory management, ideally within FMCG or a manufacturing environment
17. Strong leadership capability, with experience managing and developing high-performing teams
18. Solid understanding of MRP/MPS/DRP methodologies and end-to-end supply chain processes (including planning, inventory, logistics, and customer service)
19. Experience working with ERP and supply chain planning systems (e.g. SAP, APO or similar), including master data and replenishment planning
20. Background in distribution, warehousing, or production scheduling environments
21. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with high attention to detail and the ability to turn data into actionable insights
22. Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to engage stakeholders across functions and markets
23. Collaborative mindset, with experience working cross-functionally across supply chain, procurement, and operations
24. Customer-focused approach, with the ability to balance service, cost, and efficiency
25. Experience in CPG materials planning or procurement, particularly across packaging or raw material categories
26. Exposure to cross-functional roles (e.g. procurement, packaging, or manufacturing)
27. Experience with advanced planning tools (e.g. SAP APO)
28. Degree (or equivalent experience) in Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, or related field
29. Professional certification such as APICS CPIM or CSCP
Working with us
Flexibility is key to our success. Talk to us about what flexibility means to you so that you’re supported to manage your wellbeing and balance your priorities from day one.
Our purpose is to celebrate life, every day, everywhere. And creating an inclusive culture, where everyone feels valued and that they can belong, is a crucial part of this.
We embrace diversity in the broadest possible sense. This means that you’ll be welcomed and celebrated for who you are just by being you. You’ll be part of and help build and champion an inclusive culture that celebrates people of different gender, ethnicity, ability, age, sexual orientation, social class, educational backgrounds, experiences, and more.
Our ambition is to create the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world. Join us and help transform our business as we take our brands to the next level and build new ones as part of shaping the next generation of celebrations for consumers around the world.
Feel inspired? Then this may be the opportunity for you.
If you require a reasonable adjustment, please ensure that you capture this information when you submit your application.
Worker Type :
Fixed Term Contract (Fixed Term)
Primary Location:
1HQ
Additional Locations :
Amsterdam
Job Posting Start Date :
2026-04-03