Strategic Planning Manager - FS 12

Place in the organization

Within Alliander, the SRM (Strategic Resource Management) unit is responsible for ensuring the availability of the personnel, materials, and services needed to carry out Liander’s work program. SRM is the heart of the operation, where strategy, planning, and execution converge. The department is transitioning from a support role to a steering role and is one of the driving forces behind the acceleration toward 2030.

The Strategic Planning Manager leads the Strategic Planning department and is a member of SRM’s management team. You report to the SRM Director. You manage 5 direct reports (team leaders with bachelor’s or master’s degrees) and approximately 50–60 FTEs indirectly (planners, consultants, and analysts), distributed across the Business Planning, S&OP, Standards & Product Management, and Planning Change teams. In addition, you will participate in various decision-making bodies such as the SRM Management Team, plan-vs.-actual meetings, and change portfolio meetings.

Strategic Planning Manager

As Strategic Planning Manager, you will lead strategic planning (3 months to 10 years ahead) across all value chains. Your goal is to achieve predictable, feasible, and efficient capacity planning for Personnel, Materials, and Services (PMS). The Planning Department facilitates decision-making at the Executive Committee level and oversees long-term capacity plans for Personnel, Materials, and Services, as well as the feasibility of the work package with an annual value of €1–1.5 billion.

The Planning Department supports decision-making at the Executive Committee level and oversees long-term capacity plans for PMD and the feasibility of the work package, which has an annual value of €1–1.5 billion. The Strategic Planning Manager is responsible for implementing and further developing Integrated Business Planning within SRM. You ensure alignment between supply and demand planning, bottleneck analyses, and scenarios, and professionalize the planning function in close collaboration with chain partners such as Asset and Product Management and SRM Tactical Planning.

Within the S&OP cycle, you ensure high-quality input and effective decision-making processes, and you manage the realistic allocation of internal and external assembly capacity. The Standards & Product Management (N&PB) and Planning Change Team (VT) support this by ensuring stability in operations and facilitating changes in processes, working methods, and technology. In this role, you will be a visible presence to the Executive Committee and will work closely with peers and supply chain partners to develop a future-proof planning domain, including through SAP IBP and technology-driven use cases.

There is a separate role for the tactical planning horizon (3 weeks to 2 years ahead): Tactical Planning Manager. Close collaboration between these two roles is essential for effectively linking strategy and execution.

Responsibilities for results:

• Responsible for delivering the Strategic Resource Plan: the long-term (10-year) capacity plan that ensures the flexibility of the supply chains by defining and evaluating resource targets for personnel, materials, and services, including bottleneck analyses and cost assessments.
• End-to-end responsibility for strategic planning. Developing a rolling plan that aligns supply and demand and ensures that planning decisions are made transparently to ensure reliable execution.
• Development, maintenance, and application of product standards for forecasting and pricing purposes.
• The Strategic Planning Manager is responsible for the further development, optimization, and digitization of the planning domain within SRM (the client is the IBP Business Owner).
• Ensuring a continuous feedback loop between strategic and tactical planning, aimed at optimizing the planning function and strengthening cohesion.
• Responsible for making and facilitating strategic decisions in the face of limited capacity, in close coordination with production chains, to optimize chain-wide and cross-functional production and manufacturability within the framework of the corporate strategy.
• Organizing and improving the department by establishing clear and well-defined processes and procedures within the team and in collaboration with other departments. This includes improving the management of the strategic resource plan and implementing digital solutions to enhance planning reliability (rollout of Fit4Future).
• Leading and developing employees and teams. Providing structure and direction to a management team that is still developing.
• Active contribution through MT membership to the long-term strategy of SRM and Alliander.
• Point of contact for one or more supply chains and involved in the development of supply chain plans.
• Budget responsibility: approximately 50–60 FTEs and approximately €6.5 million per year
• Direct impact on the budget, approx. 1–1.5 billion per year

Required knowledge and experience

• WO working and thinking level
• At least 10 years of experience in strategic/tactical leadership, preferably in complex technical or infrastructure environments
• Experience with S&OP/IBP processes, resource planning, and data-driven decision-making
• Experience with digital transformation (SAP IBP, MRP, AI) and innovation projects.
• Proven experience managing large, highly educated teams
• Experience with supply chain management, capacity planning, and complex supply chains is a plus.
• A people manager with an eye for the team. 

Required competencies

• Managing complexity: able to effectively handle situations involving multiple factors, interests, and uncertainties simultaneously. Maintains a broad perspective, identifies connections without losing sight of key details, and can act effectively in a constantly changing environment where there is often no single, clear-cut solution.
• Stakeholder management:can bring together different perspectives and interests and build support within a broad and complex group of senior stakeholders (executive management and board level).
• Organizational sensitivity:Recognizes and understands the formal and informal relationships, interests, and dynamics within the organization and can respond to them effectively. Aligns one’s own actions with the context so that goals can be achieved.
• People management:Able to effectively lead, develop, and motivate employees and teams. Creates an inspiring and safe work environment where individuals and teams can perform at their best and grow.
• Vision and expertise in planning: possesses a clear vision for the positioning and development of the planning function within an operational and technical environment (preferably with experience in supply chain management as well). Is able to translate this vision into the necessary capability development in terms of systems, processes, tools, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and the required staffing.
• Strong in strategy and conceptual thinking:able to unravel complex issues, distinguish between main and secondary concerns, and recognize patterns. Moves seamlessly between vision and execution.
• Decision-making/judgment under uncertainty:Supports decisions with facts and data, but can also make decisions based on incomplete or conflicting information when necessary, weighing risks and consequences to reach a conclusion.
• Dealing with change:responds flexibly to changing circumstances, interests, and priorities without losing sight of the bigger picture. Provides structure where necessary.