Sales Planner

KOSTAL Group is a globally active, family-owned German company renowned for delivering innovative, market-leading solutions in the solar and automotive industries. Founded in 1912, the company has grown into a worldwide organization with around 20,000 employees across 47 locations in 22 countries.

As part of its continued expansion, KOSTAL established KOSTAL Business Services (KBS) in 2022, marking the launch of its first Business Service Centre in Hungary. This hub provides high-level support across key functions including IT, finance, procurement, master data, sales, and human resources.

Designed as a global centre of excellence, KBS focuses on delivering complex, high value-added services that strengthen and support KOSTAL’s international operations.

Overall Purpose of the Role

The Sales Planner is responsible for ensuring reliable, transparent, and cross-functionally aligned sales planning. The role involves preparing, maintaining, and analyzing forecasts, planning figures, pricing assumptions, and management reports to support effective decision-making. Working closely with the Head of Sales Planning, the Sales Planner contributes to the company’s continued global growth and strategic development.

Main Tasks and Responsibilities

• Prepare, consolidate, present, and analyze short- and long-term sales forecasts in close coordination with the Head of Sales Planning.
• Collect, validate, and follow up on project and pipeline information from internal and external sources.
• Conduct variance analyses, comparing customer demand with vehicle production volumes, market data, and internal planning assumptions.
• Organize, prepare, and support management meetings and account reviews by providing clear planning and performance insights.
• Coordinate and consolidate planning activities across international sites and with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Develop and apply a basic technical understanding of connectors, harnesses, component design, and the competitive landscape. Use technical drawings and databases to research relevant details and assess the feasibility of planning inputs.
• Develop sound sales planning assumptions when information is incomplete, ambiguous, or conflicting, and clearly justify them through data-driven reasoning and discussions with stakeholders.

Additional Responsibilities

• Maintain ERP planning data, ensuring quality, consistency, and full change traceability.
• Share planning updates and deviations with Finance, Production, and Logistics to flag capacity constraints early.
• Develop and enhance weekly and monthly reports, delivering ad hoc analyses for management.
• Consolidate price, volume, and revenue data to enable informed decisions and performance tracking.
• Track business development, nominations, and future opportunities, keeping teams aligned through transparent reporting.
• Calculate and maintain planning prices with Sales and internal teams.
• Assess pricing risks and customer incentives, integrating commercial risks into planning assumptions.
• Keep ERP price-risk tracking and accrual management accurate and up to date.
• Monitor global automotive markets and volume trends, drawing insights from customers, Field Sales, media, and market research.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Economics, a technical field, or a comparable discipline; alternatively, completed commercial vocational training (e.g., Industrial Clerk) combined with relevant professional experience.
• Completed three-year commercial vocational training (e.g., Industrial Clerk), ideally supplemented by approximately one year of additional training or experience in sales planning.
• Sound understanding of business processes; experience in the automotive industry, particularly in Logistics or Controlling, is highly desirable.
• Good understanding of sales processes and customer behavior.
• Ideally, familiarity with the specific requirements, as well as technical and commercial trends, of the automotive industry.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Word.
• Good working knowledge of SAP systems, preferably SD, APO, and BW.
• Business-fluent English, both written and spoken, is essential.
• German language skills are an advantage.

Skills and Competencies

• Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in international and cross-functional teams.
• Excellent time-management and self-organization skills.
• Knowledge of internal structures and processes within the automotive industry, particularly in Logistics and Controlling, is highly advantageous.
• A systematic, precise, and detail-oriented working approach, combined with a strong service- and solution-oriented mindset.
• A structured, proactive, and results-oriented working style.
• Strong analytical, creative, and problem-solving skills.
• High integrity and a strong commitment to internal controls and data privacy.
• Ability to identify optimization opportunities and proactively drive improvement initiatives.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to prioritize effectively.

Preferred Qualifications / Advantages

• Assertiveness and a clear focus on timely, effective implementation.
• A self-starter mindset, with the ability to work independently and apply sound business judgment.
• A process-driven approach combined with a high degree of flexibility and resilience.

What do we offer :

• Flexible working conditions with remote work possibility (in-person presence is required from time to time), you can have a real work-life balance
• Modern, newly renovated, sustainable office with parking space and bicycle storage area in the heart of Budapest
• Supportive, diverse and highly skilled community
• Ability to really make a difference and build new processes from scratch, you can participate in the formation and shape of the BSC processes
• KOSTAL is a dynamically developing company, an independent, family-run business which provides much flexibility
• You can enjoy our value-oriented work culture: we are down-to-earth, appreciative, inspiring and innovative