Demand Planning Officer

How to Apply: Interested and qualified candidates should visit the M-KOPA Solar careers page on jobs.ashbyhq.com to submit their application.

Prove You Can Turn Sales Data Into Stock Decisions

Demand planning roles at M-KOPA sit at the intersection of data, suppliers, and field operations. Hiring managers will screen for evidence that you have actually managed purchase orders, chased suppliers, and used Excel to spot demand patterns — not just studied them in theory.

1. Lead with your forecasting wins: On your CV, replace generic duties with numbers. For example, state how your replenishment actions reduced stockouts or excess inventory in a previous role. Hiring managers want to see the before-and-after impact of your planning decisions, not just that you were responsible for inventory.

2. Show Excel beyond VLOOKUP: Demand planning at this level leans heavily on pivot tables, conditional formatting, and trend charts. Prepare to describe a specific spreadsheet you built to track stock levels or supplier delivery timelines. If you have used Power Query or basic macros, mention it — it signals you can handle larger datasets as the business scales.

3. Map your purchase order experience: The role explicitly covers creating, managing, and tracking POs. Walk through your exact process: how you raised orders, what system you used, and how you resolved discrepancies like quantity variances or delayed deliveries. Be ready to explain a time you caught an incorrect item before it reached production.

4. Know your inventory metrics: Expect questions on safety stock, reorder points, and stockout rates. Brush up on how you calculate these and be ready to give a real example where your analysis changed a replenishment decision. If you have worked with integrated supply chain systems like SAP or Oracle, name them clearly.

5. Prepare a supplier follow-up story: Liaising with suppliers is a core duty. Think of a time you had to chase a late delivery or resolve a quality concern. Describe how you communicated, what you escalated, and how you kept the relationship intact. They want to see you can be firm without burning bridges.

6. Demonstrate cross-functional communication: You will work with procurement, production, and possibly field teams. Prepare an example of how you aligned different stakeholders on a stock priority or delivery schedule. Mention any experience presenting demand insights to non-technical colleagues.

7. Show you understand M-KOPA's context: M-KOPA operates in solar energy and consumer electronics, where component availability directly affects sales. Read up on their pay-as-you-go model and think about how demand planning supports their supply chain. Referencing their business model in your answers shows genuine interest.

8. Close with your follow-through: The job description stresses following up actions to closure. In your interview, give an example of a time you tracked a discrepancy until it was fully resolved. Explain how you documented the outcome and what you learned to prevent it from recurring.