Supply Chain Analyst

1What you'd actually do

• Pulling data out of a planning or ERP system (ERP = enterprise resource planning software, the central system a company uses to track stock, orders and finance) and cleaning it up in Excel or SQL so it can actually be analysed
• Producing and reviewing demand forecasts - estimating how much of each product will sell in coming weeks or months - and adjusting them for promotions, seasonality or one-off events
• Monitoring performance measures such as stock cover, on-time-in-full delivery, forecast accuracy and service levels, and chasing down why a number moved
• Investigating specific problems: why a line went out of stock, why a supplier missed a delivery window, why a warehouse is holding far more of something than the plan says it should
• Building or maintaining dashboards and reports in tools like Power BI, Tableau or Excel so that planners and managers can see what is happening without asking
• Sitting in weekly planning meetings with buyers, suppliers, transport teams or production planners and explaining what the data suggests they should do
• Running one-off pieces of analysis for a project - for example modelling the cost impact of changing a supplier, adding a distribution centre, or shifting order frequency

2How graduates get in

• Graduate schemes in supply chain, logistics or operations - common at large retailers, FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods, i.e. groceries and household products) manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and third-party logistics providers. These usually rotate you through planning, procurement and distribution roles over a couple of years.
• Direct entry into an analyst or junior planner vacancy advertised outside a scheme - very common, and often a faster route into a specific team than waiting for a scheme intake. Titles vary: demand planner, inventory analyst, supply planner, replenishment analyst.
• Internal moves from a related first job - customer service, warehouse or transport coordination, buying admin, or a general data/reporting role. This is a well-trodden route and employers are usually happy to move someone across if they have shown they can handle the systems and the numbers.
• Placement years and summer internships, particularly in FMCG and retail, which frequently convert into graduate offers. Where a company runs a placement scheme, a decent share of its graduate intake tends to come from it.
• Consultancy - joining an operations or supply chain practice at a consulting firm and working on client supply chain projects. This is a different flavour of the job: more project work, less ownership of a live stock position.
• Apprenticeship or school-leaver routes exist in logistics and can lead to the same roles, so a degree is not universally required - but for roles advertised as graduate jobs it usually is.

3What employers ask for

• A degree, usually 2:1 or 2:2 depending on the employer - many supply chain employers are less fixated on classification than, say, investment banking, and some accept a 2:2 or use skills-based assessment instead
• Subject often matters less than people expect. Degrees in supply chain management, logistics, business, economics, maths, statistics, engineering or geography are all common, but plenty of analysts come from unrelated subjects. What employers actually check is whether you are comfortable with numbers and spreadsheets.
• Demonstrable Excel ability - pivot tables, lookups, and enough confidence to handle a large messy dataset. This is frequently tested at interview or in a case exercise.
• Some employers ask for or reward SQL, Power BI or Python; others have no expectation of it at graduate level. This varies a lot by sector - data-mature retailers and logistics firms tend to expect more technical skill than smaller manufacturers.
• Professional qualifications are a nice-to-have rather than an entry requirement. CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply) is the main one if the role leans towards buying; CILT (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport) if it leans towards transport and distribution. Employers often fund these once you are in.
• Any exposure to a real operation helps - a warehouse job, retail stockroom work, a placement year - because it shows you understand that the numbers describe physical things that have to be moved.

4Skills that matter

5Where it leads

1. Analyst or junior planner: you own reporting and analysis for a category, region or set of products, working to someone else's plan.

2. Planner or senior analyst: you own the plan itself - the forecast, the stock targets or the replenishment settings for your area - and are accountable when availability or stock levels drift.

3. Team lead or manager (demand planning manager, inventory manager, supply chain manager): managing a small team, setting the process rather than running it, and negotiating with commercial and finance colleagues over targets. Timing to this point varies widely - some reach it in a few years, others take considerably longer, and it depends heavily on company size and turnover.

4. Specialisation or broadening. Some people go deep into a technical area such as network design, S&OP (sales and operations planning - the monthly cycle where commercial and supply teams agree a single plan) or supply chain analytics. Others broaden into procurement, logistics operations, or general operations management.

5. Senior roles include head of supply chain, operations director, or moves into supply chain consultancy and supply chain software/technology. A sizeable minority of analysts also move sideways into data analytics or commercial roles, since the skills transfer well.

6Where this varies

The job differs a lot by sector. In grocery and fast-moving consumer goods, the pace is high, product lifecycles are short and you work in weekly or even daily cycles. In pharmaceuticals, aerospace or industrial manufacturing, lead times are long and the work is more about long-range planning, compliance and supplier risk. In third-party logistics the emphasis shifts towards transport, warehousing cost and customer service levels rather than stock ownership. Consultancies do project-based supply chain work for clients, which means more modelling and presenting and less living with the consequences of your own decisions. Company size matters too: at a large employer you may own a narrow slice of one category with dedicated planning software, whereas at a smaller firm you might cover forecasting, purchasing and reporting all at once in Excel. Geographically, supply chain roles cluster around distribution and manufacturing hubs - the Midlands, the North West, Yorkshire and areas near major ports - rather than concentrating in London the way finance roles do.