Director of Planning

Reports to: Chief Product Officer Location: Remote in U.S Nice to meet you! Pepper is an innovative, fast-growing DTC intimate apparel brand designed to celebrate small-chested women. Our iconic solution-driven undergarments, swimwear, and clothing are thoughtfully designed to make every outfitting moment a confident and authentic expression of your best self. Pepper has been obsessed with uncompromising fit for small chests since our 470% funded Kickstarter launch 2017, and has grown to a global community of millions of women united by a mission to inspire women to feel perfectly enough as they are. We’re reshaping the conversation around fit, style, and confidence for small-chested bodies everywhere. What we’re proud of: Remote-first, flexible, and human: We’re a fully remote-first team that values ownership, balance, and trust. Pepper is built for people who want to do their best work from wherever they thrive. Without sacrificing connection, collaboration, or career growth. Women-founded & Self-funded: As a women-owned company that never took traditional VC funding, we’ve scaled to eight-figure revenue through focus, profitability, and scrappiness. People come here to help rewrite what success looks like in DTC, and to build alongside a team that loves breaking the “rules” of how startups should grow. Mission-driven with real impact. Everything we do is rooted in empowering small-chested people to feel confident and celebrated. Our mission shapes our products, our culture, and our decisions, from inclusive design to responsible manufacturing and community giving. Joining Pepper means using your work to make the world a little more comfortable, confident, and kind. This is where you come in. We’re looking for a strategic, data-driven Director of Planning to own our end-to-end inventory planning strategy, purchasing, and sales planning. Reporting into the executive team, you will lead the company’s Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process, balancing demand forecasts, inventory investment, production capacity, and supply constraints to support profitable growth. This role will build bottom-up forecasts rooted in SKU and size-level insights and translate those into sales plans by channel, inventory buys, and operational strategies that enable us to capture demand, scale new categories, and efficiently replenish our core business. You’ll operate seamlessly between detail and strategy: diving into SKU and size-level performance, customer behavior, trend patterns, production lead times, and supply risks, while connecting those insights to broader business planning and growth objectives. As a key cross-functional leader, you’ll partner closely with Marketing, Design, Merchandising, Finance, Production, Sourcing, and Supply Chain to align commercial demand with operational execution and ensure the business is positioned to scale effectively. Key Responsibilities: Demand Planning & Forecasting Own the company inventory sales plan forecast across seasonal launches, replenishment businesses, and new category expansion Build and manage bottom-up forecasts at the SKU, color, and size level using historical performance, customer behavior, trend analysis, and business inputs Develop forecasting methodologies that account for lifecycle dynamics including launch ramps, replenishment curves, cannibalization, and demand decay Partner with Marketing and Merchandising to incorporate promotional activity, product launches, and customer acquisition trends into forecasts Lead forecast reviews and continuously improve forecast accuracy across channels and categories Supply Planning & Inventory Management Translate strategic sales forecasts into inventory buy plans and vendor production plans that optimize in-stock rates, inventory productivity, freight optimization, warehouse storage, and cash flow Own inventory targets including weeks of supply, safety stock, reorder points, and inventory health metrics Balance forecasted inventory needs by category against operational constraints including production capacity, lead times, MOQ requirements, vendor capabilities, and raw material availability Partner with sourcing and production teams to ensure timely replenishment and successful execution of product launches Manage inventory risk mitigation, scenario planning, and contingency planning to reduce stockouts and excess inventory S&OP & Cross-Functional Leadership Lead the company’s Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process, aligning inventory efficiency, product sales forecasting by style, and inventory health and turn Facilitate recurring cross-functional planning meetings and drive alignment on forecasts, risks, opportunities, and operational tradeoffs Serve as the central point of coordination between marketing, operational, and financial teams Own departmental planning objectives and communicate clear recommendations and perspectives during executive and cross-functional meetings Act as a strategic thought partner to executive leadership on inventory investment, capacity planning, growth opportunities, and operational risk DTC & Channel Optimization Own in-stock rates and size-level availability to ensure a strong customer experience across e-commerce and marketplace channels Optimize inventory allocation across DTC, marketplaces, Amazon, and wholesale partners based on demand signals and channel performance Partner with Merchandising to align inventory with product lifecycle strategies including launch, growth, replenishment, and markdown optimization Analytics, Systems & Process Improvement Track and report on key metrics including forecast accuracy, fill rate, inventory turns, stockouts, excess inventory, and service levels Build dashboards, reporting tools, and scalable planning processes that improve visibility and decision-making Identify operational risks and opportunities early and recommend data-driven actions Partner with leadership to implement and improve planning systems, forecasting tools, and operational workflows to increase efficiency and scalability