About the role
Department: Finance
Reports to: VP of Finance & Business Performance
Status: Full-time
Role Overview
The Manager of IBP & Business Performance will drive the implementation, governance, and continuous improvement of the Integrated Business Planning process across the Dairy organization. This role ensures end-to-end alignment between demand, supply, operations, finance, and commercial teams to deliver reliable plans that balance service, cost, and profitability. The position requires strong leadership, analytical insight, and cross-functional collaboration to embed a disciplined and data-driven planning culture.
Key Responsibilities
Process Leadership & Execution
- Attend and facilitate discussion in the monthly IBP cycle (Milk, Demand, Supply, IR, and MBR Reviews).
- Ensure discipline, timeliness, and quality of inputs and outputs across all IBP steps.
- Partner with Finance, Supply Chain, and Commercial leaders to align operational plans with financial targets and business strategy.
- Partner with Finance to ensure clear visibility of gaps, risks, and opportunities, with actionable mitigation plans.
- Develop and maintain a 12-month rolling IBP & Finance calendar, ensuring consistency and visibility across all functions.
Continuous Improvement & Governance
- Identify and execute process improvement initiatives to enhance accuracy, responsiveness, and decision-making in IBP
- Standardize & enforce IBP tools, templates, and performance metrics across the organization.
- Lead annual IBP assessment process
- Support glidepath improvement plan with dates and gates
- Partner with IT and data teams to optimize planning systems and analytics capabilities.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Act as the bridge between commercial, operations, finance, and supply chain teams to ensure cohesive planning.
- Facilitate effective communication and decision-making during reviews; ensure alignment between top-down targets and bottom-up plans.
- Encourage transparency and proactive sharing of assumptions, risks, and opportunities to improve business agility.
Performance Management
- Monitor and report IBP performance against key metrics (ie forecast accuracy, bias, inventory health, service levels).
- Supports the VP of Finance in tracking financial signals & productivity initiatives often coordinating with FP&A, commercial & operations finance.
- Align performance mechanisms with measurable business outcomes and behavioral change.
- Support Finance by ensuring accurate and timely inputs for business forecasting, budgets and financial outlooks.
- Meeting and cadence management: Facilitate monthly reviews, board prep, and strategic planning sessions with detailed follow-ups and accountability tracking
Leadership & Capability Development
- Develop and champion the vision, strategy, and roadmap aligning it with the company's overall business objectives and long-term growth plans.
- Champion a culture of collaboration, accountability, and productivity
- Onboarding, mentor, coach & train cross-functional teams on IBP principles and facilitate capability building at all levels.
- Act as the primary point of contact for IBP governance and issue resolution within the business
- Coach leaders and planners on effective participation in the IBP process and on decision-focused planning behavior.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, or related field.
- 8–10+ years of experience leading IBP/S&OP in a manufacturing environment, ideally within Dairy, CPG, or Food industries.
- Proven experience in cross-functional leadership, transformation, and change management.
- Strong understanding of demand/supply planning, manufacturing operations, and financial integration.
- Skilled in Power BI, Excel, PowerPoint, and ERP (D365) planning systems.
- Exceptional communication, influencing, and facilitation skills at all organizational levels.
Gay Lea Foods is a leading Canadian dairy co-operative renowned for producing high-quality, nutritious dairy products that Canadian families love and trust. From farm to table, our 1,200 farmer members in Ontario and Manitoba, and more than 1,200 employees across four provinces, work together to nourish communities through award-winning brands including Gay Lea, Nordica, Salerno, Bothwell Cheese, and more. As part of its deeply rooted, balanced commitment to people, profit, and planet, Gay Lea Foods proudly invests one percent of pre-tax earnings back into Canadian communities through a national food security partnership with Second Harvest, and the community-building efforts of the Gay Lea Foundation. To learn more, visit gayleafoods.com.
Gay Lea Foods is an equal-opportunity employer and values diversity in our workplace.
Reasonable accommodation is available upon request throughout our recruitment and selection process.
Thank you for your interest in Gay Lea Foods.
Wishing you all the best with your career search!
About Gay Lea Foods
With our roots on the farm, Gay Lea Foods has grown to become a leader in the Canadian dairy industry and the largest dairy co-operative in Ontario, with members on 1,300 dairy farms in Ontario and Manitoba, and more than 4,200 producer and investor stakeholders. Our dedication to innovation and the development of high quality products has allowed us to respond to consumers’ evolving tastes and grow the market for Canadian cow and, more recently, goat milk. We are a Canadian success story – and that story is far from over. Moving forward, Gay Lea Foods is poised to seize and create even more opportunities for sustainable, long-term growth in the Canadian dairy industry as we expand beyond our provincial borders, grow our foods and ingredients business, and continue to invest in innovative and industry-leading products.
As much as we evolve, however, we remain a dairy co-operative, owned by dairy farmers. From our farms and production facilities, to our distribution networks and employee ideologies, we embrace and act with co-operative-inspired values, understanding there is no shortcut to quality or success. It takes commitment, passion and collaboration.
Those are the things we’re made of and we’re proud to share our story.
Just like the milk that comes from our farms, so too are Gay Lea Foods’ products and values born on the farm.
About the role
Department: Finance
Reports to: VP of Finance & Business Performance
Status: Full-time
Role Overview
The Manager of IBP & Business Performance will drive the implementation, governance, and continuous improvement of the Integrated Business Planning process across the Dairy organization. This role ensures end-to-end alignment between demand, supply, operations, finance, and commercial teams to deliver reliable plans that balance service, cost, and profitability. The position requires strong leadership, analytical insight, and cross-functional collaboration to embed a disciplined and data-driven planning culture.
Key Responsibilities
Process Leadership & Execution
- Attend and facilitate discussion in the monthly IBP cycle (Milk, Demand, Supply, IR, and MBR Reviews).
- Ensure discipline, timeliness, and quality of inputs and outputs across all IBP steps.
- Partner with Finance, Supply Chain, and Commercial leaders to align operational plans with financial targets and business strategy.
- Partner with Finance to ensure clear visibility of gaps, risks, and opportunities, with actionable mitigation plans.
- Develop and maintain a 12-month rolling IBP & Finance calendar, ensuring consistency and visibility across all functions.
Continuous Improvement & Governance
- Identify and execute process improvement initiatives to enhance accuracy, responsiveness, and decision-making in IBP
- Standardize & enforce IBP tools, templates, and performance metrics across the organization.
- Lead annual IBP assessment process
- Support glidepath improvement plan with dates and gates
- Partner with IT and data teams to optimize planning systems and analytics capabilities.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Act as the bridge between commercial, operations, finance, and supply chain teams to ensure cohesive planning.
- Facilitate effective communication and decision-making during reviews; ensure alignment between top-down targets and bottom-up plans.
- Encourage transparency and proactive sharing of assumptions, risks, and opportunities to improve business agility.
Performance Management
- Monitor and report IBP performance against key metrics (ie forecast accuracy, bias, inventory health, service levels).
- Supports the VP of Finance in tracking financial signals & productivity initiatives often coordinating with FP&A, commercial & operations finance.
- Align performance mechanisms with measurable business outcomes and behavioral change.
- Support Finance by ensuring accurate and timely inputs for business forecasting, budgets and financial outlooks.
- Meeting and cadence management: Facilitate monthly reviews, board prep, and strategic planning sessions with detailed follow-ups and accountability tracking
Leadership & Capability Development
- Develop and champion the vision, strategy, and roadmap aligning it with the company's overall business objectives and long-term growth plans.
- Champion a culture of collaboration, accountability, and productivity
- Onboarding, mentor, coach & train cross-functional teams on IBP principles and facilitate capability building at all levels.
- Act as the primary point of contact for IBP governance and issue resolution within the business
- Coach leaders and planners on effective participation in the IBP process and on decision-focused planning behavior.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, or related field.
- 8–10+ years of experience leading IBP/S&OP in a manufacturing environment, ideally within Dairy, CPG, or Food industries.
- Proven experience in cross-functional leadership, transformation, and change management.
- Strong understanding of demand/supply planning, manufacturing operations, and financial integration.
- Skilled in Power BI, Excel, PowerPoint, and ERP (D365) planning systems.
- Exceptional communication, influencing, and facilitation skills at all organizational levels.
Gay Lea Foods is a leading Canadian dairy co-operative renowned for producing high-quality, nutritious dairy products that Canadian families love and trust. From farm to table, our 1,200 farmer members in Ontario and Manitoba, and more than 1,200 employees across four provinces, work together to nourish communities through award-winning brands including Gay Lea, Nordica, Salerno, Bothwell Cheese, and more. As part of its deeply rooted, balanced commitment to people, profit, and planet, Gay Lea Foods proudly invests one percent of pre-tax earnings back into Canadian communities through a national food security partnership with Second Harvest, and the community-building efforts of the Gay Lea Foundation. To learn more, visit gayleafoods.com.
Gay Lea Foods is an equal-opportunity employer and values diversity in our workplace.
Reasonable accommodation is available upon request throughout our recruitment and selection process.
Thank you for your interest in Gay Lea Foods.
Wishing you all the best with your career search!
About Gay Lea Foods
With our roots on the farm, Gay Lea Foods has grown to become a leader in the Canadian dairy industry and the largest dairy co-operative in Ontario, with members on 1,300 dairy farms in Ontario and Manitoba, and more than 4,200 producer and investor stakeholders. Our dedication to innovation and the development of high quality products has allowed us to respond to consumers’ evolving tastes and grow the market for Canadian cow and, more recently, goat milk. We are a Canadian success story – and that story is far from over. Moving forward, Gay Lea Foods is poised to seize and create even more opportunities for sustainable, long-term growth in the Canadian dairy industry as we expand beyond our provincial borders, grow our foods and ingredients business, and continue to invest in innovative and industry-leading products.
As much as we evolve, however, we remain a dairy co-operative, owned by dairy farmers. From our farms and production facilities, to our distribution networks and employee ideologies, we embrace and act with co-operative-inspired values, understanding there is no shortcut to quality or success. It takes commitment, passion and collaboration.
Those are the things we’re made of and we’re proud to share our story.
Just like the milk that comes from our farms, so too are Gay Lea Foods’ products and values born on the farm.