Allocation Manager

We're Hiring: Allocation Manager

Location:
United Arab Emirates (Remote) Employment Type: Full-Time Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior Work Arrangement: Fully Remote

About Us
We are a globally focused organization committed to optimizing the allocation of products, inventory, resources, capacity, and commercial investments across markets and business channels. Our teams collaborate across Supply Chain, Procurement, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, Warehousing, Distribution, Product, and regional business units to ensure resources are positioned where they can generate the greatest operational and commercial value. The Role We are seeking an experienced Allocation Manager to lead allocation planning, resource distribution, inventory deployment, and allocation optimization across markets, channels, locations, products, or business units. The ideal candidate will combine strong analytical and planning capabilities with commercial judgment, ensuring the right products and resources are available in the right locations, quantities, and timeframes while balancing customer demand, inventory levels, operational capacity, and business priorities.

Key Responsibilities
- Develop and implement allocation strategies aligned with business, demand, inventory, and commercial objectives.
- Manage end-to-end allocation planning across products, markets, channels, locations, and business units.
- Analyze demand forecasts, inventory positions, sales trends, customer requirements, and supply availability.
- Determine optimal allocation quantities based on demand, inventory, capacity, priority, profitability, and service requirements.
- Develop allocation rules, policies, priorities, and decision frameworks.
- Coordinate with Demand Planning, Supply Chain, Procurement, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Warehousing, and Distribution teams.
- Monitor inventory availability and identify shortages, excess stock, imbalances, and allocation risks.
- Allocate constrained inventory across competing markets, customers, channels, or locations.
- Support new product launches, promotions, seasonal peaks, and major commercial initiatives through effective allocation planning.
- Develop allocation scenarios to evaluate different supply, demand, and commercial conditions.
- Rebalance inventory based on changing demand, sales performance, stock levels, and market priorities.
- Coordinate inventory transfers, replenishment requirements, redistribution, and recovery actions.
- Establish allocation parameters and maintain accurate planning master data.
- Review historical allocation performance to identify trends, inefficiencies, and improvement opportunities.
- Partner with Commercial and Sales teams to understand market priorities and customer commitments.
- Work with Finance to evaluate the financial impact of allocation decisions.
- Consider profitability, working capital, service levels, and cost-to-serve when making allocation recommendations.
- Monitor allocation execution and ensure planned quantities are delivered accurately and on schedule.
- Investigate allocation discrepancies and coordinate corrective actions.
- Develop allocation dashboards, reports, and management information.
- Establish clear allocation KPIs and performance-review routines.
- Use ERP, inventory-management, planning, warehouse, and business-intelligence systems to support allocation decisions.
- Improve allocation processes through automation, advanced analytics, forecasting, and optimization tools.
- Support network, warehouse, and distribution planning by providing accurate allocation requirements.
- Identify opportunities to improve inventory utilization and reduce excess or obsolete stock.
- Ensure allocation decisions support customer service and agreed service-level requirements.
- Manage allocation priorities during supply disruptions, shortages, demand spikes, and operational constraints.
- Develop contingency plans for critical products, markets, and supply scenarios.
- Conduct root-cause analysis on stockouts, over-allocation, under-allocation, and inventory imbalance.
- Maintain allocation records, decision logs, planning assumptions, and supporting documentation.
- Communicate allocation plans, changes, risks, and recommendations clearly to relevant stakeholders.
- Lead allocation reviews and provide recommendations to senior management.
- Establish governance to ensure allocation decisions are transparent, consistent, and commercially justified.
- Identify opportunities to improve inventory productivity, operational efficiency, and revenue performance.
- Support strategic initiatives involving market expansion, channel development, network changes, and business growth.
- Coach and develop allocation and planning team members where applicable. Key Performance Indicators
- Allocation accuracy.
- Allocation plan adherence.
- Product availability and service levels.
- Stockout rate.
- Excess and obsolete inventory.
- Inventory imbalance across markets and locations.
- Inventory turnover.
- Days of inventory on hand.
- Allocation response time.
- Replenishment accuracy.
- Inventory utilization.
- Order fulfillment performance.
- On-time and in-full delivery.
- Customer service performance.
- Forecast-to-allocation accuracy.
- Demand coverage.
- Allocation efficiency for constrained inventory.
- Inventory transfer efficiency.
- Working capital utilization.
- Revenue and margin supported by allocation decisions.
- Allocation-related waste and write-offs.
- New product launch readiness.
- Promotion and seasonal allocation performance.
- Emergency allocation frequency.
- Allocation system and master-data accuracy.
- Stakeholder satisfaction.
- Process automation and productivity improvement.
- Allocation cost efficiency.
- Risk identification and resolution.
- Continuous-improvement implementation. Ideal Candidate The successful candidate should have strong experience in allocation, inventory planning, supply chain planning, merchandise planning, demand planning, distribution planning, or commercial operations , preferably within retail, e-commerce, consumer goods, manufacturing, technology, construction, engineering, or other international business environments. The candidate should demonstrate:
- Strong understanding of allocation, inventory, supply, demand, and distribution processes.
- Excellent analytical and quantitative skills.
- Experience managing allocation decisions across multiple products, locations, markets, or channels.
- Strong understanding of inventory optimization and service-level management.
- Excellent forecasting, planning, prioritization, and problem-solving capabilities.
- Strong commercial awareness and understanding of profitability and working-capital considerations.
- Experience using ERP, inventory-management, planning, WMS, or business-intelligence systems.
- Advanced Excel and data-analysis capabilities.
- Ability to interpret large datasets and convert analysis into practical decisions.
- Strong stakeholder-management and cross-functional communication skills.
- Ability to manage competing priorities and make decisions under supply constraints.
- Strong attention to detail and data accuracy.
- Experience with allocation automation, optimization, or advanced analytics is highly desirable.
- Strong project-management and continuous-improvement capabilities.
- Excellent written and verbal English communication skills.
- Ability to work effectively with international and distributed teams.
- A proactive, commercially minded, and results-oriented approach.