Inventory Analyst, Canada

• Analyze inventory levels, turns, aging, and demand patterns across products, locations, and suppliers.

• Identify surplus, low-velocity, and at-risk inventory and quantify financial impact to working capital and margin.

• Develop and maintain inventory KPIs and dashboards (e.g., turns, days of supply, fill rate, aging, forecast accuracy).

• Perform root-cause analysis on inventory imbalances, including forecast error, lead time assumptions, MOQ constraints, and demand variability.

• Review inventory levels and replenishment signals using cloud-based planning tools, translating insights into data-driven recommendations that inform purchasing decisions.

• Partner with Product Management, Sales, Demand Planning, and Purchasing to improve demand forecasts and replenishment strategies.

• Monitor forecast accuracy and bias; recommend improvements to planning assumptions and parameters.

• Coordinate returns with suppliers for slow moving SKUs to reduce excess inventory levels and improve turns.

• Support new product introductions and product lifecycle planning to minimize inventory risk.

• Translate inventory performance into clear financial outcomes (cash usage, carrying cost, write-down risk)

• Support Finance with inventory valuation analysis, reserves, and period-end reporting.

• Build scenarios and business cases to support inventory reduction and service-level improvement initiatives.

• Track and report progress against inventory, service, and working capital targets.

• Act as a data-driven partner to Product Management, Sales, Operations, Purchasing, and Finance.

• Challenge demand and stocking assumptions using facts and analysis.

• Support S&OP / IBP processes with inventory insights and recommendations.

• Influence decision-making without direct authority.

• Work with warehouse operations teams to root cause inventory discrepancies across the distribution network.

• Coordinate promotional initiatives with Marketing to expedite the depletion of discontinued and slow-moving SKUs.

• Works cross functionally with Product Managers and Vendor Compliance to strategize and resolve supplier issues relating to on-time shipping, responsiveness, and quality.

• Identify gaps and inefficiencies in inventory planning processes, data quality, and execution.

• Support ERP, planning tool, or BI enhancements related to inventory management

• Document best practices and standard operating procedures.

• Develop process improvement plans across the operations teams to enhance the inventory management, planning tools, and reporting capabilities.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Supply Chain, Business, Finance, Economics, Engineering, or Analytics.

• 3–6+ years of experience in inventory analysis, demand planning, supply chain analytics, or operations finance.

• Experience in distribution, manufacturing, or industrial environments with large SKU counts and demand variability.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate data into action

• Excellent verbal and written communications skills are also required

• Advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, lookups, scenario modeling; VBA a plus).

• Experience with ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Dynamics, Infor).

• Strong reporting and visualization skills (Power BI, Tableau, or similar preferred).

• Solid understanding of inventory planning concepts (service levels, safety stock, EOQ, lead times, forecast accuracy).

• Business mindset: understands inventory as cash, not just stock

• Intellectual curiosity and strong root-cause thinking

• Ability to influence without authority

• Bias for action—moves from insight to recommendation

• Strong attention to detail

Global Industrial