United Kingdom · Operations · Director/VP (16-20 years)

Director of Supply Chain Planning

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, a real day, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

Experience bandDirector/VP (16-20 years)
Direct reports25-100+ reports
Reports toVP of Operations
UK framework levelUsually a director, accountable for a division and its numbers

Also advertised as Head of Operations Planning · VP of Supply Chain Strategy · Operations Planning Director · Senior Director, Production Planning

Built on an analysis of 43,079 real UK job descriptions · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Start with a free Future Fluency check, tuned to Director of Supply Chain Planning

Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this role rather than a generic one. About five minutes, and no card.

Start the check, free

1What this role really is

This isn't just a planning role; it's about shaping the entire operational strategy for our business unit. You'll be the architect of how we plan, produce, and deliver, ensuring our supply chain can actually meet our ambitious growth targets. It's a big job with real impact on our bottom line and customer satisfaction.

2What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

ERP System (e.g., SAP S/4HANA, Oracle NetSuite)Strategic

Leading module implementations or upgrades, defining system-wide planning parameters, ensuring seamless integration with other platforms (APS, MES). You're making purchasing decisions on new systems and driving their strategic use.

Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) Systems (e.g., Siemens Preactor, Blue Yonder)Expert/Architect

Leading the implementation and configuration of APS systems, developing complex scheduling rules and algorithms, and using the tool for long-range strategic planning and scenario modelling across the business unit.

BI & Analytics Platforms (e.g., Power BI, Tableau)Strategic

Managing the enterprise BI environment for operations, establishing data governance, and using advanced analytics to drive corporate strategy and present insights to the C-Suite and Board.

MES (Manufacturing Execution System) AnalyticsStrategic

Integrating MES data with ERP and BI for seamless data flow, using MES analytics to drive strategic capacity decisions, capital expenditure planning, and overall operational efficiency improvements.

Advanced Excel (Power Query, VBA, Solver)Architect

Designing complex, integrated Excel models for S&OP and financial analysis, primarily for prototyping or gap-filling where enterprise systems aren't yet fully deployed. Your focus is more on the tools that *replace* Excel for enterprise-wide solutions.

3What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choice	Coming in	Where you are now	The step above
Strategic Planning System Investment	No involvement, uses existing tools.	Provides input on user requirements and pain points.	Evaluates vendor solutions, makes recommendations to Director.
S&OP Process Design & Execution	Participates in data collection, runs reports.	Prepares data for specific product lines, flags discrepancies.	Leads supply review meetings for complex product groups, makes recommendations for MPS adjustments.
Organisational Design & Talent Management	No involvement.	Provides feedback on team processes.	Mentors junior colleagues, provides input on hiring for junior roles.

4How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, honestly: the hard targets, how often each one is actually looked at, and the quiet human signals that never make it onto a dashboard.

On-Time In-Full (OTIF) Delivery for Business Unit

This measures how often we deliver complete orders to customers by the promised date. It's the ultimate measure of our operational effectiveness.

Target · Achieve >98% OTIF consistently across the business unit.

If we ship 1,000 orders in a month, you're aiming for fewer than 20 that are either late or incomplete. This means coordinating everything from raw material availability to final delivery.

Total Inventory Value Reduction

Reducing the capital tied up in inventory without hurting service levels. This is a constant balancing act between Finance's desire for cash and Sales' need for product availability.

Target · Reduce total inventory value by 10% year-on-year while maintaining OTIF targets.

If our current inventory is £10M, you're looking to bring that down to £9M by the end of the year, identifying slow-moving stock and optimising safety stock levels.

Forecast Accuracy (MAPE)

Improving the accuracy of our demand forecasts. Better forecasts mean less waste, fewer stock-outs, and more efficient production.

Target · Improve Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) from 75% to 85% for key product families.

If we forecast 100 units of Product X and actually sell 90, that's a 10% error. You'll be driving initiatives to get that error rate consistently lower across the board.

Planning Cycle Time Reduction

Streamlining our planning processes to respond faster to market changes. This isn't just about speed; it's about agility.

Target · Reduce the end-to-end S&OP cycle time by 20% within 18 months.

If our current S&OP process takes 4 weeks from data collection to executive sign-off, you'll be looking to get that down to just over 3 weeks, identifying bottlenecks and automating steps.

Strategic Planning Maturity

Building a more mature and resilient planning function. This means moving from reactive firefighting to proactive, data-driven decision-making.

Regular positive feedback from C-Suite on planning insights and strategic recommendations
successful implementation of advanced planning systems
demonstrable reduction in 'fire drills' caused by planning gaps
a clear, documented 3-year planning roadmap.

Talent Development & Retention

Developing a high-performing planning team and retaining our best people. Your leadership will be key to building a strong talent pipeline.

High engagement scores within your team
clear succession plans for key roles
internal promotions from your team
positive feedback from your direct reports regarding mentorship and career growth opportunities
successful recruitment of top-tier planning talent.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Influence

Effectively influencing other departments (Sales, Marketing, Finance, Production) to align on planning objectives and execute against the agreed plan. This is about getting everyone on the same page.

Consensus-driven S&OP meetings with clear actions and accountability
proactive engagement from other departments seeking your team's input on strategic initiatives
demonstrable improvements in inter-departmental handoffs
positive feedback from peer directors on your team's collaborative behaviour.

Risk Management & Resilience

Proactively identifying and mitigating risks within the supply chain planning process. This means building in buffers and contingency plans.

Development and regular review of supply chain risk registers
successful navigation of major disruptions with minimal impact on customers
implementation of scenario planning capabilities
demonstrable reduction in the financial impact of unforeseen events.

5Would you like it

The honest version. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy

Driving Business Transformation

You'll spend your days identifying strategic opportunities to improve our supply chain, designing new planning models, and leading large-scale projects to implement those changes. This isn't about tweaking; it's about fundamentally rethinking how we operate.

Leading the implementation of a new APS system across the entire business unit, fundamentally changing how we schedule production and manage inventory.

Building High-Performing Teams & Capabilities

A significant part of your role involves recruiting, mentoring, and developing your planning managers and their teams. You'll establish clear career paths, provide coaching, and foster a culture of excellence and continuous learning.

Developing a leadership development programme for your planning managers, resulting in two internal promotions to senior roles within 18 months.

Solving Complex, Enterprise-Level Problems

You'll be tackling the most challenging planning issues facing the business—think global supply chain disruptions, major product launches, or M&A integrations. These problems are ambiguous, high-stakes, and require strategic, multi-faceted solutions.

Developing a resilient supply chain strategy to mitigate the impact of geopolitical instability on key raw material sourcing, presenting the plan to the Board.

What frustrates people

Resistance to change from established departments or long-serving employees, even when the change is clearly beneficial.
Lack of consistent data quality across legacy systems, making strategic analysis more challenging than it should be.
The need to constantly 'sell' your strategic vision to different stakeholder groups, even after initial agreement.
Dealing with the fallout from external events (e.g., natural disasters, geopolitical shifts) that completely upend well-laid plans.
The pressure to deliver aggressive cost savings and inventory reductions while simultaneously ensuring perfect service levels.

What this role does not give you

A quiet, predictable 9-to-5 job – expect urgent, high-stakes issues to land on your desk.
The luxury of focusing solely on technical planning; this role is about people, strategy, and influence.
A clear, linear path where every decision is straightforward and every project goes exactly to plan.
The ability to avoid difficult conversations or make unpopular decisions; you're the one who often has to deliver the tough news.

6Who you work with

This role directly impacts our P&L, customer satisfaction, and market position. You're responsible for ensuring we have the right products, in the right place, at the right time, at the right cost. Your decisions shape our ability to scale, innovate, and respond to market changes. Honestly, it's central to our competitive advantage.

Inside the business

C-Suite (CEO, CFO, CCO)
Board of Directors (for strategic updates)
Sales Leadership
Finance Leadership
Product Development & Engineering
Manufacturing & Logistics Directors

Outside the business

Key Strategic Suppliers
Major Customers (for joint planning initiatives)
Industry Bodies and Regulators
Consulting Partners

7What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

A minimum of 16 years of progressive experience in supply chain planning and operations, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership role (e.g., Head of Planning, Senior Manager).
Demonstrable experience leading and managing large teams (25+ people, including managers) in a complex manufacturing or supply chain environment.
Proven track record of successfully implementing major planning system transformations (e.g., ERP, APS) or significant process improvement programmes.
Expert-level understanding and practical application of S&OP principles at an enterprise level, including facilitating executive-level meetings and driving cross-functional consensus.
Strong financial acumen, including experience managing significant operational budgets (P&L responsibility) and building compelling business cases for investment.
A postgraduate degree (Master's or MBA) in Supply Chain Management, Operations Research, Business Administration, or a related field, or equivalent extensive practical experience.

8What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Blockchain for Supply Chain Transparency & Traceability

Blockchain offers immutable records for tracking products and materials across the supply chain, enhancing transparency, reducing fraud, and improving compliance. As a Director, you'll need to understand its strategic implications for our planning and risk management.

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) · Smart Contracts · Tokenisation of Assets · Consortium Blockchains

This quarter: Read introductory materials on blockchain for supply chain and its potential use cases.
Next 6 months: Engage with vendors or consultants offering blockchain solutions for supply chain traceability.
Next 12 months: Lead a feasibility study for implementing blockchain in a specific high-value or high-risk product category.
Ongoing: Monitor industry developments and pilot projects for real-world applications of blockchain in operations.

Quick win: Identify one critical raw material where improved traceability would offer significant business value and begin researching potential blockchain solutions.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) & Hyperautomation Strategy

RPA and hyperautomation can eliminate vast amounts of manual, repetitive work in planning, freeing up your team to focus on higher-value, strategic tasks. You'll need to lead the strategy for identifying and implementing these automation opportunities.

RPA Bots · Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) · Process Mining · Automation Centre of Excellence (CoE)

This quarter: Identify 2-3 highly repetitive, manual tasks within your planning function that are prime candidates for RPA.
Next 6 months: Work with IT to implement a pilot RPA project for one of these tasks, measuring the time savings and ROI.
Next 12 months: Develop a broader hyperautomation strategy for the operations planning function, identifying a pipeline of automation opportunities.
Ongoing: Stay informed about new RPA tools and capabilities, and how they can be applied to strategic planning challenges.

Quick win: Use AI tools in our Hub to automate the generation of routine status reports or data consolidation tasks for your team, demonstrating immediate value.

9Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up

Regularly attend executive-level industry conferences and forums on supply chain strategy, digital transformation, and S&OP best practices.
Participate in leadership development programmes focused on executive presence, strategic influence, and change management.
Engage in peer networking groups with other Directors/VPs of Supply Chain to share insights and best practices.
Consider undertaking an executive education programme at a top business school focused on global operations or strategic leadership.

10How the AI economy is changing work like this

Before we ask anything of you, here's what we can already say about AI and work of this kind:

The new skill this role is being asked for: AI-Driven Strategic Decision Making

AI and advanced analytics are moving beyond tactical optimisation to inform high-level strategic choices. Directors who can effectively use AI to model complex scenarios, predict market shifts, and identify optimal long-term strategies will have a significant competitive advantage.

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

AI-Driven Strategic Decision Making

AI and advanced analytics are moving beyond tactical optimisation to inform high-level strategic choices. Directors who can effectively use AI to model complex scenarios, predict market shifts, and identify optimal long-term strategies will have a significant competitive advantage.

Prescriptive Analytics
Digital Twin of the Supply Chain
Explainable AI (XAI)
Ethical AI in Operations

Circular Economy & Sustainable Supply Chain Leadership

Customers, investors, and regulators are increasingly demanding sustainable business practices. As a Director, you'll need to integrate circular economy principles (e.g., reuse, repair, recycling) into our core planning strategies, moving beyond just 'greenwashing' to genuine, impactful change.

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) for Sustainability
Reverse Logistics Optimisation
Carbon Footprint Measurement & Reduction
Ethical Sourcing & Transparency

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

S&OP Leadership & Integration
Global Supply Chain Strategy & Optimisation
Advanced Inventory Management & Working Capital Optimisation
Capacity Planning & Capital Expenditure Justification
Demand Forecasting & Analytics Leadership

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

1
Production Planning Manager / Senior Manager
Typically 3-5 years in a senior management role before stepping up to Director.
Skills to master
- Mastering team leadership, departmental P&L management, driving significant process improvements, and successfully leading complex S&OP cycles for a specific product line or facility.
You're ready to move on when
- Consistent achievement of departmental planning metrics (e.g., inventory, OTIF).
- Proven ability to mentor and develop managers and individual contributors.
- Successful leadership of at least one major planning system upgrade or implementation.
- Demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional peers and present effectively to senior leadership.
2
Director of Logistics / Manufacturing Operations
Roughly 2-4 years in a peer Director role, often moving across operations functions.
Skills to master
- Deepening understanding of end-to-end operational processes beyond planning, including logistics, warehousing, or direct manufacturing, and demonstrating leadership across these diverse functions.
You're ready to move on when
- Successful management of a large operational budget and team in a different functional area.
- Proven ability to integrate planning decisions with execution realities on the shop floor or in the warehouse.
- Strong track record of driving efficiency and cost savings in operational execution.
- Ability to collaborate effectively with planning teams to achieve overall supply chain objectives.
3
Management Consultant (Supply Chain Specialisation)
Often 5-10 years in consulting, with a focus on supply chain strategy and transformation.
Skills to master
- Developing broad industry exposure, expertise in strategic problem-solving frameworks, client management, and leading large-scale transformation projects across various companies.
You're ready to move on when
- Successful delivery of multiple high-impact supply chain transformation projects for diverse clients.
- Strong ability to diagnose complex organisational problems and design strategic solutions.
- Excellent executive communication and presentation skills, honed through client interactions.
- Demonstrated ability to build and lead high-performing project teams.

11Where this role leads

The long view:This role is a significant step towards shaping the future of operations, not just for our company, but potentially across the industry. We're looking for a leader who is ready to take on immense challenges and drive truly transformative change.

Pay & demand

Pay and demand for this role will appear here, each figure traced to a named authoritative source (e.g. the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, under the Open Government Licence). We don’t show numbers we can’t attribute.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Director of Supply Chain Planning is actually changing. In about two minutes, the free confidence check asks where you stand on each of the ten. That's the whole check, and it's what makes the plan yours rather than generic.

12The team that's yours

No two people are taught the same way. This is one-to-one, not one-to-many.

Zavmo is a hyper-personalised AI learning platform. Twelve virtual tutors, each with a different way of teaching, and one orchestration agent that picks the right one for the moment. So every single lesson is shaped around you, your role, and the way you learn. Not a course everyone sits through. A conversation built for you, and no one else.

…and nine more, matched to you after your first chat. Meet all twelve

Start free and meet yours

13What it feels like

A conversation, not a course

Because your tutor knows your role, your projects and your last session, learning sounds like this. And it's different for every single person:

Supply Chain Planning and ManagementLevel 7

Applied to your work in Director of Supply Chain Planning

By completing this unit, learners will understand key supply chain concepts, planning models and approaches, and the integration of planning, scheduling, and control within business operations.

How the thinking builds

Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyse
Evaluate
Create

An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

One to one, not one to many

No two people run this the same way

A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.

Your actual work Every lesson is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.

See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.

DemonstrateIllustration

Evidenced on your work in Director of Supply Chain Planning

You do not finish by watching something. You finish by showing it on the work you already do, against the measures this job is judged on.

On-Time In-Full (OTIF) Delivery for Business UnitThis measures how often we deliver complete orders to customers by the promised date. It's the ultimate measure of our operational effectiveness.If we ship 1,000 orders in a month, you're aiming for fewer than 20 that are either late or incomplete. This means coordinating everything from raw material availability to final delivery.Achieve >98% OTIF consistently across the business unit.
Total Inventory Value ReductionReducing the capital tied up in inventory without hurting service levels. This is a constant balancing act between Finance's desire for cash and Sales' need for product availability.If our current inventory is £10M, you're looking to bring that down to £9M by the end of the year, identifying slow-moving stock and optimising safety stock levels.Reduce total inventory value by 10% year-on-year while maintaining OTIF targets.
Forecast Accuracy (MAPE)Improving the accuracy of our demand forecasts. Better forecasts mean less waste, fewer stock-outs, and more efficient production.If we forecast 100 units of Product X and actually sell 90, that's a 10% error. You'll be driving initiatives to get that error rate consistently lower across the board.Improve Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) from 75% to 85% for key product families.
Planning Cycle Time ReductionStreamlining our planning processes to respond faster to market changes. This isn't just about speed; it's about agility.If our current S&OP process takes 4 weeks from data collection to executive sign-off, you'll be looking to get that down to just over 3 weeks, identifying bottlenecks and automating steps.Reduce the end-to-end S&OP cycle time by 20% within 18 months.

These are this job's own measures, with its own targets. Nothing is marked evidenced, because nobody has started this yet. Yours would fill in from the work you bring.

Your passport

This isn't a certificate you file away. It's a passport to the life you're designing.

Every credit you earn and every fluency you build adds up: evidence where it counts, carried with you. Zavmo keeps the map: where you are, where you're heading, and the next step, at your pace, around your life. From Director of Supply Chain Planning to VP of Operations, and whatever you decide comes after.

Level 7 · in progressAI Fluency→ VP of Operations→ your design

Where this takes you

This role is a significant step towards shaping the future of operations, not just for our company, but potentially across the industry. We're looking for a leader who is ready to take on immense challenges and drive truly transformative change.

See Your Progress GrowIllustration

Director of Supply Chain Planning

S&OP Leadership & Integration
Global Supply Chain Strategy & Optimisation
Advanced Inventory Management & Working Capital Optimisation
Capacity Planning & Capital Expenditure Justification
Demand Forecasting & Analytics Leadership

This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

14The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Director of Supply Chain Planning is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

VP of Operations
Typically 3-5 years as Director of Supply Chain Planning.
From Level 6 to Level 6/7 (depending on company size and scope).
- Oversight of all manufacturing, logistics, procurement, and quality functions.
- Driving multi-year operational transformation across the entire company.
- Defining and executing global operational footprint strategies.
- Leading major capital investment decisions for the entire operational network.
Chief Operations Officer (COO)
Roughly 5-10+ years as Director of Supply Chain Planning, often with an interim VP of Operations role.
From Level 6 to Level 7.
- Leading all aspects of the company's operational execution, including manufacturing, supply chain, IT, and customer service.
- Driving enterprise-level digital transformation and innovation.
- Developing and executing long-term (3-5 year) operational strategies that support overall company vision.
- Building and maintaining relationships with key external partners, regulators, and industry influencers.

Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

As a Director, your time is gold. You're paid to think strategically, lead your team, and drive transformation, not get bogged down in data analysis or report generation. The good news? AI isn't just for junior roles; it's a game-changer for senior leaders too. It can free you up to focus on what truly matters.

Imagine having a personal AI assistant that handles the heavy lifting of data synthesis, scenario modelling, and even drafting strategic summaries. This isn't science fiction; it's happening now. Our AI Productivity Hub is designed to put these powerful tools directly into your hands, letting you focus on the 'why' and 'what next' instead of the 'how'. It's about augmenting your strategic capabilities, not replacing them.

Strategic Scenario Modelling & Analysis

AI can rapidly simulate hundreds of 'what-if' scenarios for your supply chain – what if a key supplier fails? What if demand spikes by 30%? It'll crunch the numbers on inventory, capacity, and cost implications in minutes, giving you data-driven insights for strategic decision-making that would take your team weeks to produce manually.

Executive Report & Presentation Generation

Instead of spending hours crafting board-level presentations, AI can ingest your raw data, key performance metrics, and strategic objectives, then draft compelling slides and executive summaries. You'll spend your time refining the message and preparing for tough questions, not formatting charts.

Proactive Enterprise Risk Identification

AI continuously monitors global news, market trends, and internal data to identify potential supply chain risks (e.g., geopolitical instability, raw material shortages, competitor moves) before they become critical. It'll flag these, summarise the potential impact, and even suggest initial mitigation strategies, allowing you to be truly proactive.

Optimised Resource & Capacity Planning

AI can take your long-range demand forecasts and automatically optimise resource allocation across multiple facilities and product lines. It'll recommend staffing levels, capital expenditure for new equipment, and even identify potential M&A targets for capacity expansion, giving you a strategic edge.

Common questions

How do you become a Director of Supply Chain Planning?

Common routes in include Production Planning Manager / Senior Manager (Typically 3-5 years in a senior management role before stepping up to Director.), Director of Logistics / Manufacturing Operations (Roughly 2-4 years in a peer Director role, often moving across operations functions.) and Management Consultant (Supply Chain Specialisation) (Often 5-10 years in consulting, with a focus on supply chain strategy and transformation.). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Director of Supply Chain Planning progress to?

This role can lead on to VP of Operations (Typically 3-5 years as Director of Supply Chain Planning.) and Chief Operations Officer (COO) (Roughly 5-10+ years as Director of Supply Chain Planning, often with an interim VP of Operations role.), depending on the skills you build.

What level is a Director of Supply Chain Planning in the UK?

This role aligns to RQF Level 7 on the UK framework, a guide to the depth of qualification it maps to, not a hard entry bar.

What new skills matter most for a Director of Supply Chain Planning?

Increasingly, AI-Driven Strategic Decision Making and Circular Economy & Sustainable Supply Chain Leadership. These are the areas where the higher-paid, future-proof work is heading.

The honest bit

You’ve started things before

Most of them were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.

There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.

And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.

What it costs

Less than one coaching session. Every month.

A single career-coaching hour costs more than a month of this, and it ends when the hour does. Zavmo doesn't. It's £70 a month, about £2.30 a day, for a companion that knows a Director of Supply Chain Planning, works on the job you actually do, and keeps going at your pace rather than a timetable's.

Searching and planning stay free. You only pay when you start learning.
Your credits are yours. Regulated, and they don't vanish when a subscription ends.
Cancel any time and billing stops. No notice period, no minimum term.

Your path, personalised

You have the map. Walking it is the part we do together.

This route runs to 13 national skill standards. That is a real journey.

Zavmo shapes a learning experience as unique as you are. It fits how you learn, your pace and the work you already do. Every step stays benchmarked to recognised national standards. That’s the plan for becoming a Director of Supply Chain Planning: personal to you, and it still counts. The first steps are free.

Independent research finds well-designed intelligent tutoring performs nearly as well as one-to-one human tutoring: VanLehn (2011), Educational Psychologist.

A private tutor in the UK averages £35–40 an hour . Zavmo is £70/month.

A Zavmo curriculum screen: a three-month plan of nine units, ninety credits, each one an Ofqual-regulated unit the learner can tick or untick before starting. — A real plan on learn.zavmo.ai: Ofqual-regulated units, credits, and a three-month run at your own pace.

Start free No commitment. See your first steps free.

15Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 7

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

Other roles in Operations

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.

If you leave this industry

Your skills as a Director of Supply Chain Planning are highly transferable across various industries, including FMCG, automotive, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, high-tech manufacturing, and retail. The core principles of planning, optimisation, and strategic leadership remain consistent, though the specific product and market dynamics will vary.

Not sure this is the right direction?

Work out what you actually want from work first, then come back and see which roles fit it. Takes about ten minutes.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Build my plan, free Here's the first ten minutes: a 2-minute confidence check → your personalised roadmap → meet the tutors matched to you. No card, cancel any time. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.

Director of Supply Chain Planning

What's rising in its place

AI-Driven Strategic Decision Making

Circular Economy & Sustainable Supply Chain Leadership

Skills this role draws on

Technical

How you actually get there, here

Production Planning Manager / Senior Manager

Director of Logistics / Manufacturing Operations

Management Consultant (Supply Chain Specialisation)

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

Roles this leads to

No two people are taught the same way. This is one-to-one, not one-to-many.

A conversation, not a course

No two people run this the same way

This isn't a certificate you file away. It's a passport to the life you're designing.

This role is a significant step towards shaping the future of operations, not just for our company, but potentially across the industry. We're looking for a leader who is ready to take on immense challenges and drive truly transformative change.

Everything else the record holds

The career path, and where it branches

VP of Operations

Chief Operations Officer (COO)

Where AI is starting to help

Strategic Scenario Modelling & Analysis

Executive Report & Presentation Generation

Proactive Enterprise Risk Identification

Optimised Resource & Capacity Planning

Common questions

You’ve started things before

Less than one coaching session. Every month.

You have the map. Walking it is the part we do together.