Supply Chain & Operations Consulting Manager (Planning – Aerospace & Defence)

Job Role: Strategy & Consulting – Supply Chain & Operations Manager (Planning – Aerospace & Defence)

Location: London

Career Level: Manager (CL7)

N.B. Due to the nature of client work you will be undertaking, you will need to be willing to go through a Security Clearance process as part of this role. This requires at least 5 years residency in the UK and not having left the country for more than 30 days consecutively .

As a team:

Supply Chain and Operations is a major functionally-oriented consulting practice: we help our clients to identify and quantify the transformational opportunities available in today’s dynamic business environment.

Our work spans a range of value-focused operations assignments from redefining an operating model, reconfiguring national, regional or global supply chain footprint and capabilities through to global sourcing of core categories and creation of supply chain risk frameworks to ensure that potential risks are transparent and the extended supply chain is resilient.

We support major Aerospace & Defence organisations globally in addressing complex operational, supply chain and planning challenges. Our work spans major platform programmes, MRO/Sustainment, engineering led supply chains, and mission critical operations across the Defence Enterprise, both public (eg. MODs) and private sector (eg. OEMs, Defence Primes and suppliers).

You'll learn, grow and advance in an innovative culture that thrives on shared success, diverse ways of thinking and enables boundaryless opportunities that can drive your career in new and exciting ways. If you’re looking for a challenging career working in a vibrant environment with access to training and a global network of experts, this could be the role for you!

In our team you will:

• Learn at the forefront of the Aerospace & Defence sector, provide actionable insights to the world's top organisations, helping them address priority issues with strategies and improvements they can execute with speed and at scale.
• Work in a central Planning role with some of the best global companies in the world, responsible for leading workstream delivery to address some of the critical business issues faced today, including:
• Integrated Business Planning (IBP)—Help clients drive alignment across their sales, operations, and finance teams by deploying IBP solutions that improve collaboration, forecasting accuracy, and agility.
• Supply chain strategy & segmentation (operating model, process design, etc.)
• Strategic cost reduction (zero-based supply chain)
• Inventory optimisation—Help clients refine inventory management by balancing service levels, lead times, and inventory costs using advanced planning tools and methodologies like IBP and MRP.
• Control towers—Implementation and optimisation of digital control towers to provide end-to-end supply chain visibility, enhancing responsiveness and decision-making through real-time data.
• Platform-driven transformation (technology strategy, systems implementation, etc.)—Enable organizations to implement advanced planning platforms (e.g., SAP IBP, Oracle Cloud SCM, Kinaxis, BlueYonder) to automate and optimise planning processes.
• Sustainable and resilient supply chain (risk, performance, innovation, diversity, sustainability)—Assist in embedding sustainability and risk management into planning processes, balancing resilience with cost and efficiency.
• Advanced analytics & AI—Utilise advanced analytics and AI-driven forecasting techniques to support predictive demand planning and scenario analysis, ensuring flexibility in rapidly changing market conditions.
• Capacity planning & production scheduling—Work with clients to optimise production scheduling and capacity planning, reducing bottlenecks and improving throughput in line with demand fluctuations.

In this role you will:

• Work with colleagues to concisely and convincingly conveying the central business importance of effective planning to client stakeholders.
• Contribute to designing and supporting the strategic value case for Supply Chain & Operations planning transformation programmes. Ensure transformation workstreams deliver their full strategic value. This will include, but not be limited to, the selection (based on a strategic assessment of business needs) and implementation of solutions such as SAP, Oracle, Blue Yonder, Kinaxis, o9 Solutions.
• Lead workstreams within projects and delivery teams in our Supply Chain Planning group to formulate and execute innovative planning-centric strategies.
• Support the development and optimisation of planning frameworks and drive the integration of advanced planning solutions, such as IBP (Integrated Business Planning) and AI powered forecasting, to enhance responsiveness and flexibility. These frameworks will cover the full end to end value chain of the business.
• Drive supply chain transformations in line with client’s business challenges:
• Deliver capabilities (process/tools/people) in line with the future operating model
• Analyse and model financial data to support large scale cost reduction programmes, utilising functional and cost category benchmarks, process definitions and enterprise value targeting tools
• Help clients improve their ability to drive business outcomes through digital planning, reporting, and analytics
• Bring best practice approaches to planning from Accenture and the wider communities
• Build day to day client relationships as part of a wider team including Operations and Supply Chain Executives/Directors.
• Target and articulate value for clients and support RFP responses to bring the best of Accenture SC&O to our clients.
• Lead smaller business development opportunities and support larger pursuits, preparing sales proposals.
• Build and lead highly effective teams of Consultants and Analysts to help shape and execute client engagements, with a strong capability to develop the skills and capabilities of junior colleagues.
• Contribute to global thought leadership and leverage the skills of others throughout the practice to enable cohesive delivery of strategic and transformative solutions.
• Build and establish relationships with key third parties (e.g. technology providers, NGOs, governmental bodies) that help to complement and expand Accenture’s capabilities and PoV.

We are looking for experience in the following skills:

• Functional experience should include some of the following within the Aerospace and Defence industry: demand planning, supply planning, operations planning, supply chain planning (S&OP, IBP), distributed order management, inventory management, distribution and logistics networks, supply chain management, process optimisation, operating model design.
• Related skill and experience could include exposure to the end-to-end manufacturing or support services (spares & repairs) value chain within the Aerospace & Defence (private and public) sector. Experience in similar industries will be considered, but an interest in and commitment to supporting the Aerospace & Defence sector is a requirement.
• 5+ years consulting and/or project delivery experience with exposure to Aerospace & Defence sector organisations.
• Ability to analyse complex client problems, understand financial performance links between operations, supply chain and corporate results and think strategically to create benefit/business cases.
• Leadership: the ability to establish trust based relationships at mid-senior level and gain valuable insights through collaboration and communication.
• Strong strategic thinking and team building with a proven track record in driving business outcomes for large clients.
• Proven Line Management experience with successful outcomes.
• Ability to develop new concepts, break‑through thinking, structure ideas and solutions.
• Excellent written, oral and presentation communication skills.

Set yourself apart:

• Experience in Aerospace and Defence sector , with delivery experience in industrial supply chains, including an understanding of how the end-to-end “Defence Enterprise” supply chain operates.
• Supply chain technology and digital disruptor awareness, including but not limited to SAP (S4/IBP), Kinaxis, BlueYonder, o9 Solutions, intelligent automation, Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain and analytics; other specific systems / applications relevant from previous experience.

What’s in it for you

At Accenture in addition to a competitive basic salary and car allowance, you will also have an extensive benefits package which includes up to 30 days’ vacation per year, private medical insurance and 3 extra days leave per year for charitable work of your choice! For senior roles additional bonus and equity awards are available.

Flexibility and mobility are required to deliver this role as there will be requirements to spend time onsite with our clients and partners to enable delivery of the first-class services we are known for.