Inventory Planner

KittySpout is looking for an Inventory Planner with hands-on experience managing inventory and demand forecasting at a US or North American DTC brand to join our team!

This role reports directly to our Head of Ops, who built and runs the entire operational infrastructure behind a $22M+ DTC brand. Your primary focus is inventory planning and demand forecasting — owning the numbers that determine what we order, when we order it, and how much we hold across Shopify, Amazon, and Chewy. You’ll build and maintain our forecasting models, manage reorder points and PO timing, run sell-through analysis, and make sure we never stock out during a scale period or sit on excess inventory that eats margin.

Beyond inventory, you’ll be hands-on across the broader operations — supporting supply chain coordination, 3PL management, and cross-team workflows as the business scales from $22M to $45–50M. The inventory planning piece is the core of this role. The broader ops exposure is how you grow into a bigger seat over time.

Who We Are

KittySpout is a premium DTC brand selling stainless steel cat water fountains, filters, and accessories. We sell across Shopify, Amazon, and Chewy, and we’re one of the fastest-growing brands in the pet space — $22M+ in revenue and targeting $45–50M in 2026. We recently launched DoggySpout, expanding into an entirely new vertical and customer base. We’re lean, we move fast, and every person on this team has a massive impact on the business.

Culture Fit

Culture-fit is our #1 factor when hiring.

We are a fast-moving, data-driven team with no corporate politics. Everyone is hands-on, and if something needs doing, you do it — regardless of whether it’s “in your job description.” We value speed, ownership, and people who overdeliver without being asked. This is not a 9–5 corporate role. If you need rigid processes and someone telling you what to do every day, this is not the right fit.

What you get: you’ll work closely with the founder, play a big role in the growth of the brand, and have real ownership and visibility into how the business runs. We hire people we trust and get out of their way. If you’re the kind of person who thrives with freedom, accountability, and the ability to make a real impact — you’ll love it here.

Our core values: Work Smart. Overdeliver. Speed is King. Better Every Day.

Key Objectives

• Own demand forecasting and inventory planning end-to-end. Build and maintain SKU-level demand forecasts across all channels (Shopify, Amazon, Chewy), incorporating ad spend fluctuations, subscription retention curves, seasonality, and new product launches.
• Manage reorder points, safety stock levels, and PO timing across the entire product catalog. You’ll work with manufacturer lead times (30–60+ days), coordinate with 3PLs on inbound shipments, and ensure we never stock out on a hero SKU during a scale period or tie up capital in slow-moving inventory.
• Run weekly sell-through analysis and inventory health reporting. Flag SKU-level anomalies — faster-than-expected depletion, slow movers, channel imbalances, subscription vs. one-time purchase mix shifts — before they become problems.
• Use AI as a force multiplier across all planning work.
• Support broader supply chain coordination as the secondary layer of this role. PO tracking, 3PL invoice reconciliation, manufacturer follow-ups, and inbound logistics coordination.
• Surface insights proactively. Every week we expect you to bring 1–2 things we didn’t ask you to look at — margin leaks, inventory imbalances across channels, supplier pricing shifts, reorder cadence optimizations. The analysis is cheap with AI; your job is knowing what’s worth analyzing.
• Improve the planning infrastructure as you run it. Every process you touch should be better documented, more efficient, and more AI-leveraged when you hand it back. We’re scaling from $22M to $45M+ and the inventory planning systems have to scale with us.

Requirements

• Fully remote position (must be available for overlap with US Eastern timezone core hours).
• Fluent in English (written and verbal) — you’ll be communicating across every function daily.
• 2–5 years of inventory planning, demand planning, or supply chain planning experience at a product-based DTC or e-commerce brand selling in the US/North American market.
• Direct experience building demand forecasts, managing reorder points, and working with manufacturer lead times.
• Hands-on experience with Shopify (required) and familiarity with Amazon Seller Central and/or Chewy Marketplace is a strong plus.
• Strong Excel/Google Sheets skills — you’ll be building and maintaining inventory models, forecast templates, and sell-through dashboards. Bonus if you can drive AI tools on top of them.
• High AI fluency is required, not optional. You should already be using Claude, ChatGPT, or similar tools daily to accelerate your work — analyzing data, building forecasts, automating reports.
• Experience with 3PL coordination and inbound logistics is highly valued.
• Extremely organized and proactive — you flag inventory risks before they escalate and you don’t wait to be told what to look at next.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, lean environment where processes are still being built. You need to thrive in ambiguity, not freeze.
• Aligned with our values: work smart, overdeliver, speed is king, better every day. We don’t track hours — we track output.

Accountabilities

What success looks like in this role:

• Zero stockouts on hero SKUs during scale periods. If a top-selling product runs out because the forecast missed or a reorder was late, that’s a direct miss. With real ownership comes real accountability for the outcome.
• Forecast accuracy within 10–15% variance at the SKU level by month 6. Early months will have wider variance as you learn the business — by month 6, your forecasts should require minimal adjustment from the Head of Ops.
• Inventory health dashboard delivered weekly. Covers: days of supply by SKU, channel-level stock positions, inbound PO status, and flagged risks. No one should have to ask you for this — it arrives on schedule.
• 2–3 quantified inventory or supply chain improvements shipped per month. Examples: identified a reorder cadence change that freed up $X in working capital, caught a 3PL billing error, flagged an SKU trending toward overstock 6 weeks early. You find these, ship them, and report the impact.
• Demand planning handoff complete by month 6. Measured by: forecasts you propose require no material changes from the Head of Ops 80%+ of the time.
• Operational issues in your domain triaged and resolved (or escalated with a recommendation, not just a question) within the same business day.
• Monthly inventory and planning review delivered to leadership by the 5th of each month. Format: what happened, what’s at risk, what you recommend, what you need from us.

How Our Hiring Works

We move fast and respect your time. Our process has three stages: (1) Soft Interview — a conversational call to understand your background and see if there’s mutual fit. (2) Technical Interview + Test Project — a deeper dive into your planning experience plus a short practical exercise so we can see how you think and forecast. (3) Culture Fit Interview — a final conversation with the founder to make sure this is the right team for you and you’re the right person for us.

Timeline from first interview to offer is typically 8–10 business days. KPIs and performance targets will be defined together before your start date so expectations are crystal clear from day one.

Compensation

$50,000 – $65,000 USD per year

Based on experience and expertise. Performance bonus structure in future, we invest in the people who earn it.