SAP Functional Lead - Inventory, Planning & Data

Salary: £60,000 - 100,000 per year

Requirements:

• Strong hands-on experience delivering forecasting, replenishment and inventory optimisation capabilities in SAP-centric planning landscapes, including SAP IBP, S/4HANA MRP or Predictive MRP.
• Experience integrating or extending standard SAP capability where needed.
• Strong command of SAP planning data structures and hierarchies, including product and location hierarchies, planning master data and how these drive forecasting accuracy, replenishment logic and inventory optimisation.
• Proven experience defining and governing planning KPIs and metrics within SAP-centric landscapes, such as forecast accuracy, bias, MAPE, plan adherence and inventory health.
• Practical understanding of supply chain planning and inventory operations, including S&OP cadence, replenishment policies, KPI interpretation and service-level versus cost trade-offs.
• Strong appreciation of how planning outputs support operational execution, financial forecasting, inventory valuation and working-capital decisions.
• Awareness of SAP-native AI capabilities, machine learning in demand forecasting, advanced analytics and the practical realities of adopting AI within an ERP-centred estate.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to influence Product, Operations, Finance, Data, Architecture and delivery teams and translate complex planning topics into business impact.

Responsibilities:

• Own and shape the functional design of inventory, forecasting and replenishment solutions across SAP planning systems, including IBP for Demand, IBP for Inventory, S/4HANA MRP and Predictive MRP, ensuring clean integration with downstream execution processes.
• Champion fit-to-standard planning and inventory design, prioritising SAP standard planning approaches, data structures and KPIs while challenging unnecessary bespoke logic.
• Partner with Master Data, Analytics and Finance teams to ensure planning solutions consume enterprise master-data services correctly and feed operational and financial reporting reliably.
• Work with Supply Chain Operations SMEs to enable data-driven forecasting, replenishment and inventory management, improving forecast accuracy, plan adherence and inventory efficiency.
• Establish reliable, observable planning processes, ensuring forecast outputs, inventory positions and KPIs are explainable, traceable and trusted.
• Define and track planning KPIs such as forecast accuracy, bias, MAPE, plan adherence, inventory health and data quality thresholds.
• Identify where AI/ML, advanced SAP-native planning capabilities and automation can improve forecast accuracy, inventory health, replenishment decisions and planner productivity.
• Provide functional leadership on planning standards and guardrails, working with Product, Architecture, Finance, Data, Operations and delivery squads to keep solutions consistent, reliable and aligned to business outcomes.

Technologies:

• AI
• ERP
• Support
• Machine Learning
• SAP
• Embedded

More:

We are Centrica, a family of brands and an energy company working together to power the planet differently. We are a team of 21,000 colleagues focused on creating a greener, fairer future and delivering positive change in our communities. This role is for our SAP Functional Tech Lead for Inventory, Planning & Data within our Supply Chain Platform, where you will help shape scalable SAP-centric planning and inventory capabilities. We offer a people-focused environment with flexible total rewards designed to support you and your family financially, physically and emotionally, and we value purpose, growth and sustainability.

last updated 30 week of 2026