Job Description

FLEXIBLE ROLE: The person and skillset requirements for this particular role are more fluid than most, regarding contracted hours (full or part time), working hours  and location.  It is possible to consider job-share and/or splitting the role.

About Scythia

Scythia is a next-generation consumer products platform built by acquiring private-label e-commerce brands who are mainly selling stable, non-seasonal products.
The objective of the business is to acquire businesses/ products which sell on the Amazon marketplace and other e-commerce platforms and aggregate these businesses into a consumer products platform.

Our focus is on businesses with stable, non-seasonal revenues, without fad-like demand drivers. Our acceleration programmes can unlock growth through a combination of product management, performance marketing or supply chain expertise and other business functions.

Scythia supports the acquired businesses’ further evolution by hiring best-in-class talent to focus on areas where the founders were unable to, frequently due to constraints in working capital, time, knowledge or process development.
Our goal is to create a virtuous cycle of scale, enabling greater central marketing and brand management expertise, which drives organic growth of acquired product ranges, which in turn enables Scythia to build an ever-stronger brand and marketing management engine at the core. Through all of this, we will focus relentlessly on professional execution, from sourcing and managing supply chains, to customer after-care, and everything else in between.

When it comes to people, of course we expect a lot. We will always aim to be as flexible as possible and understand that life happens to all of us. Hand-in-hand with this is an understanding that we are fast-growing and must be sufficiently agile to deliver what is required even when this means that priorities may change at short notice and at times “all hands are required on deck”. We will actively work with you to help identify individual potential and to enable you to achieve it.  

The founders of Scythia believe that truly great teams evolve from a culture of ownership, respect, trust and challenge; we look forward to welcoming you on our journey!

Purpose of Role

Fulfilling customer demand for products is fundamentally reliant upon product availability; this becomes vital as we accelerate each acquisition with bespoke Value Creation programmes. Protecting profitability from margin leakage is equally reliant upon inventory health.

The Demand Planning function is responsible for all product forecasting and must be in lock-step with the Demand Creation activities driven by the Account Management team.

The Supply Chain function is responsible for ordering products and ensuring timely receipt at optimal net-cost, taking account of working capital, transport methods and intermediate costs such as 3PL staging.

This role requires a flexible superstar, who is as keen and able to roll up her/his sleeves in building forecasts and analysing demand data, as shopping, driving and building a future-proof and scalable Supply Chain programme.

Main Responsibilities

• Lead the Scythia Supply Chain and Demand Planning functions, growing with the function as we continue to acquire and scale new businesses.
• Create & implement suitable S&OP systems
• Ideally, utilise demand planning tools, such as probabilistic/ stochastic forecasting to identify ranges of outcomes as inputs into Inventory Planning.
• Develop sensitivity profiles which incorporate price, seasonality, promotional activities etc.
• Determine, in collaboration with other relevant functions the balance between utilising existing external tools and creating unique internal solutions.
• Designing, implementing and continually improving sourcing strategy, delivering value for money and innovation in accordance with the business plans.
• Work with Account Managers to verify supply sources, plan and execute optimal supply programmes to ensure timely and efficient inbound logistics across all operating locales.
• Determine, measure and own KPIs, which will at least include financial and other performance targets such as service, quality, supply chain improvements and risk management.
• Engage with Technology to develop self-learning evaluation systems to continually increase forecasting accuracy and inventory optimisation.
• Work with Finance to continually refine the fully-loaded cost model to evaluate landed cost per unit. Work with Finance to understand and incorporate working capital costs.
• Work with Account Management to identify and evaluate vendor sources from a supply perspective.

Requirements

The successful candidate will be:

• A problem-solver with a strong work ethic, motivated by creating new solutions and a desire to constantly enhance systems and processes.
  Analytically superb.
• Have intricate knowledge of S&OP and Demand Planning processes.
• Driven by the need to continually improve processes and outputs. Proficient in statistics, forecasting and forecast methodologies with an understanding of the associated operational and financial impacts.
• Self-aware, able to identify personal and skills growth opportunities, yet able to leverage known strengths to deliver rapid results.

To succeed, it is likely that you will have:

• At least five years’ experience in international Supply Chain,
• Experience in creating, leading or developing a Supply Chain function,
• Evidence of process focus and continually challenging yourself, what you and others have created to drive for endless improvement.

Compensation and Benefits

Here at Scythia, we believe that it is critical to success for all Scythia employees to also be owners of our company and to act in the company’s long-term best interests. To make this happen, we offer ownership of Scythia as a key component of compensation. This Equity element is extremely important, though it is a component of total compensation; we also offer:

• Salary commensurate with seniority level and role scope
• 25 days holiday (plus statutory Bank and Public Holidays)
• Enhanced Statutory Sick Pay
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Tech Scheme (discounts on tech products for personal use)

How to Apply

If it sounds like you are a good fit for this role, please feel free to send us your details using the form below and we’ll get back in touch. No agencies, candidates only please!