Inventory Planner - IIT/NIT/BITS

About the job:

Inventory Planner Supply Chain | Bengaluru | Full-time | 5 - 7 years

Job Description:

Supply Chain & Operations | Reports to Sr GM-Procurement

About the role:

HomeLane makes interiors easy: a dream home, finished exactly as designed and delivered on time. Behind that promise sits a supply chain that has to put the right SKU in the right place at the right time, every time. This role owns that. We are looking for an analytically sharp Inventory Planner who can forecast demand, plan stock across our network, and keep availability high while capital stays lean. You will be the single point of accountability for three outcomes that usually pull against each other: zero stock-outs, lower working capital, and minimal inventory write-off. Getting all three at once is the job.

What you'll own:

- Forecasting and demand planning. Build and run the demand forecast across SKUs and locations. Translate sales, design pipeline, and seasonality into a plan the network can execute against.

- SKU placement and network flow. Decide what stocks where, and how much. Position inventory across warehouses and cities so lead time to the customer stays short without over-stocking any node.

- Zero stockouts. Own service levels on critical and fast-moving SKUs. Set safety-stock and reorder logic that protects availability at the lowest sensible cost.

- Working capital. Drive down inventory holding and days-of-inventory without hurting availability. Treat cash tied up in stock as a number you are answerable for.

- Write-off and ageing. Minimise obsolescence, ageing, and dead stock. Build the early-warning views that flag slow movers before they become write-offs.

- Vendor terms. Negotiate lead time and MOQ with vendors to reduce HomeLane's exposure. Shorter, more reliable lead times and right-sized minimums are a core lever of this role.

- Instrumentation. Define the metrics, dashboards, and cadence that make inventory health visible to the business, and act on what they show.

What we're looking for:

- 5 - 7 years in inventory, demand, or supply planning, with proven ownership of availability at scale. Experience leading planning in e-commerce or quick-commerce, where you drove stockouts to near zero, is exactly what we are after.

- An engineering degree, ideally from a tier-1 institute (IIT, NIT, BITS, or equivalent). A postgraduate qualification in supply chain, operations, or analytics is a plus.

- Strong analytical and quantitative skills: comfortable with demand modelling, safety-stock and reorder logic, DOI and ageing analysis, and turning messy data into a clear plan.

- A track record of balancing service level against working capital, not optimising one at the expense of the other.

- Hands-on vendor negotiation experience, specifically on lead time and MOQ, and a feel for how those terms flow through to inventory risk.

- Fluency with spreadsheets and planning tools; hands-on experience with an ERP or planning system (SAP, Oracle, Kinaxis, or similar) plus SQL or Power BI is a strong plus. A supply-chain certification (APICS / CPIM / CSCP) is welcome.

- Clear, direct communication and the ability to work across procurement, operations, and the design pipeline.