Partner, Demand Planning - Initial Provisioning

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This role is accountable for establishing, owning, and governing defend the airline’s initial provisioning strategy for fleet transactions, major aircraft and modification programs. The role provides strategic oversight and governance to ensure that spare parts investment decisions supporting Entry Into Service (EIS), fleet growth, and major modification programs are well founded, financially sound, and operationally feasible.

The role owns the end to end spare parts provisioning narrative for major programs and serves as the single provisioning authority interfacing with Engineering, Finance, Strategic Purchasing, and Supply Chain. The mandate is to replace ad hoc, reactive provisioning with a repeatable, defensible methodology that protects EIS while minimizing capital exposure.

This position is designed for professionals who are accountable for building sustainable organizational capability, exercising judgment under ambiguity, and shaping decisions at the intersection of Engineering, Finance, and Operations, with outcomes that extend beyond individual programs.

Responsibilities:

• Own and continuously evolve the initial provisioning methodology for: New fleet introductions (e.g., B787 10, A321XLR), Fleet growth and uplift programs, Major cabin programs and system upgrades (BFE), SB / AD driven changes with material inventory impact
• Define capital investment logic across varying levels of technical maturity and data uncertainty
• Establish clear rules for OEM Recommended Spare Part List (RSPL) challenge and validation, Risk based provisioning where data is immature, Phased provisioning versus over investment at EIS
• Critically assess OEM, MRO, and supplier provisioning assumptions
• Identify any risks and develop proper mitigation actions related to any findings during the material readiness implementation plan
• Lead fact‑based discussions with OEMs, Engineering, and program stakeholders to challenge RSPL documents and internal recommendations and support final spare parts decisions. Own the long-range provisioning capital view for all active major programs
• Translate technical uncertainty into clear financial risk scenarios and decision options
• Partner with Finance to develop clear, defensible capital funding envelopes
• Ensure capital plans are robust to avoid repeated funding and approval cycles
• Provide timely financial insights to support early and informed executive decision‑making
• Act as the single provisioning authority for major programs
• Serve as the lead provisioning interface to: Engineering (aircraft, cabin, SB / AD owners), Finance (capital planning, long range forecasting), Maintenance Planning and Technical Operations execution, Replenishment execution and repair cycle management
• Ensure provisioning considerations are embedded early in program governance, not discovered late
• Design and own the handoff from project provisioning to steady state inventory management
• Ensure clean master data and demand stream setup,
• Removal of project driven demand distortion,
• Clear transfer of accountability to execution teams.
• Lead structured postmortems following EIS and major program milestones to Capture and institutionalize lessons learned
• Continuously strengthen and standardize the provisioning playbook

Qualifications

• Degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Operations Research, Economics, or equivalent
• Strong analytical foundation (statistics, forecasting, risk modeling)
• Advanced Excel and ERP / MRP literacy; ability to work conceptually beyond tools
• 10+ years in airline, MRO, or OEM environments with direct exposure to: Aircraft or fleet EIS Initial provisioning or large-scale spares investment decisions
• Demonstrated experience challenging OEM provisioning assumptions
• Proven ability to translate technical uncertainty into financial risk narratives
• Ability to engage credibly at the senior level with Finance, Engineering, and Operations.
• Strong Strategic thinking under uncertainty
• Comfort making and defending recommendations with incomplete data
• Willingness to proactively raise risks early and drive the appropriate discussions
• Ability to build authority through logic, credibility, and judgment rather than hierarchy
• Must have experience with integrated supply chain and logistic concepts
• Must be able to communicate supply chain objectives clearly and convey the benefits to the organization
• Reports to Director, Inventory Strategy and Systems (Technical Operations)
• Acts with delegated enterprise authority for spare parts provisioning on major programs
• Success is measured by quality of decisions and outcomes, not volume of activity
• Demonstrate punctuality and dependability to support overall team success in a fast-paced environment.

Conditions of Employment:

Candidates must be eligible to work in the country of interest at the time any offer of employment is made and are responsible for obtaining any required work permits, visas, or other authorizations necessary for employment. Prior to their start date, candidates will also need to provide proof of their eligibility to work in the country of interest.

Linguistic Requirements

Based on equal qualifications, preference will be given to bilingual candidates.

Diversity and Inclusion

Air Canada is strongly committed to Diversity and Inclusion and aims to create a healthy, accessible and rewarding work environment which highlights employees’ unique contributions to our company’s success.

As an equal opportunity employer, we welcome applications from all to help us build a diverse workforce which reflects the diversity of our customers, and communities, in which we live and serve.

Air Canada thanks all candidates for their interest; however only those selected to continue in the process will be contacted.