Director, Global Supply Planning — Vans & Altra

 

About Global Supply Planning Function:

Global Supply Planning plays a critical role in connecting brand strategy, regional commercial demand and supply execution into one integrated plan. The function ensures that demand signals are translated into clear supply requirements, capacity is secured across vendors and countries of origin, and supply risks are proactively managed to protect service, cost and business priorities. As part of the Planning transformation journey, this role will lead the team toward the Global Supply Planning North Star — becoming the global orchestrator that turns demand into executable supply decisions through data, collaboration and AI-enabled planning.

 

Job Overview:

As the Director, Global Supply Planning, you will be the single point of accountability for end-to-end global supply planning and fulfilment for the assigned brand group across plan, confirm and deliver. You will translate commercial intent into a clear supply position, secure the capacity required to enable the plan, and own the supply narrative back to Global Brand Planning and Regional Planning.

 

Key Responsibilities:

• Own the Integrated Brand Supply Plan: Lead the global supply plan across LRP, pre-season, in-season and S&OP as one connected cycle aligned to GTM milestones.
• Translate Commercial Intent into Supply Requirements: Consolidate and challenge regional planning inputs with evidence, establish assumptions, and define the supply position required to support brand growth.
• Surface Supply-Demand Risks and Trade-offs: Identify gaps across categories, regions, vendors and seasons, and frame options with clear business consequences.
• Secure Capacity and Lead Buy Execution: Translate the supply plan into capacity requirements by product, vendor and country of origin, and lead buy guidance, global buy review, PO creation, confirmation and acceptance reporting.
• Partner with Sourcing and Operations: Secure capacity commitments with supply partners, build flexibility into the network, and maintain visibility into production and delivery performance across all countries of origin.
• Own the Brand Supply Narrative: Act as the single window to Regional Planning and Global Brand Planning, providing an integrated view of supply performance, risks, mitigation plans and decision needs.
• Lead Service Protection and Escalation Management: Prioritize mitigation based on brand, franchise and consumer impact, and escalate only issues requiring cross-functional decisions.
• Lead Capability and Change: Coach and develop pillar leaders and their teams, drive the transition to a brand-based operating model, and champion new ways of working, capacity visibility and performance accountability.

 

Key Competencies:

1. Strategic Thinking and Brand Supply Planning Expertise

• Ability to connect brand commercial strategy, LRP, merchandising direction and demand drivers into an executable global supply plan.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end planning across upstream, pre-season, in-season and S&OP cycles.
• Ability to define trade-offs and scenario options across categories, regions, countries of origin and seasons.

 

2. Capacity, Buy Execution and Network Management

• Deep knowledge of vendor capability, country of origin footprint, lead times, capacity constraints and flexibility levers.
• Experience leading buy execution, buy confirmation, PO creation, acceptance tracking and supply commitment processes.
• Ability to partner with Sourcing and Operations to secure capacity and drive supply partner accountability.

 

3. Supply Risk Management and Decision Framing

• Ability to surface supply-demand gaps early and frame mitigation options with clear service, cost and commercial implications.
• Strong judgment under escalation, with the ability to remain composed and drive alignment toward decision and action.
• Ability to consolidate complex regional inputs into an executive-ready recommendation and decision request.

 

4. Stakeholder Management and Influence

• Skilled in influencing Global Brand Planning, Regional Planning, Sourcing, Materials and cross-functional partners in a matrixed environment.
• Ability to challenge assumptions constructively while maintaining stakeholder trust and alignment.
• Strong communication skills to provide one clear supply narrative across regions, brands and leadership forums.

 

5. Leadership, Transformation and Change Management

• Ability to lead, coach and develop pillar leaders and teams across multiple countries and cultures.
• Experience driving operating model change and building adoption of new ways of working.
• Commitment to building planning capability, accountability and inclusive collaboration across the global team.

6. Systems, Analytics and Transformation Mindset

• Comfortable working with planning systems, dashboards and data tools to improve capacity visibility, performance measurement and decision-making.
• Ability to champion ways of working and build trust in shared planning data and performance visibility.
• Bias for action and continuous improvement, with focus on measurable impact to service, reliability and planning effectiveness.

 

Required Qualifications:

• Proven senior-level experience in global supply planning, brand planning, supply chain planning, sourcing operations or related fields.
• Strong understanding of global supply planning processes across LRP, pre-season, in-season execution and S&OP.
• Experience managing complex supply-demand trade-offs across multiple regions, vendors, categories and countries of origin.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional stakeholders and influence decisions in a matrixed global organization.
• Strong leadership capability, with experience developing leaders and managing teams across geographies.
• Strong analytical, communication and executive synthesis skills, with the ability to translate complexity into clear recommendations.
• Comfortable working with planning systems, data tools and transformation initiatives such as Enterprise Planning Transformation project.
• Global scope with cross-time-zone collaboration; travel to vendor and regional locations as required.

 

R-20261014-0048