Planning Director

 

Garden Greens  |  Vertically Integrated Grow & Manufacturing  |  Department Builder Role

 

 

Reports To Chief Operations Officer

Location Remote / Hybrid (NJ on-site visits required)

Employment Full-Time

Compensation $110,000 – $145,000 base

 

Garden Greens is a vertically integrated grow and manufacturing operation based in New Jersey — 85,000 square feet of cultivation and a full manufacturing operation producing CPG products across multiple brands. We operate as a wholesale business, serving the market through white label partnerships, bulk sales, and our own branded portfolio.

 

We are building the operational infrastructure to match the scale of what we've built on the cultivation and manufacturing side — and the Director of Planning is one of the most critical hires we are making.

 

This is a true ground-floor opportunity. There is no inherited process, no existing demand plan, and no planning team to step into. You will build it. That means designing the forecasting methodology, establishing the S&OP cadence, building the tools, and becoming the operational backbone that connects sales demand to production execution. If you have done this before in cannabis and thrive in a build environment, this role was written for you.

 

The Director of Planning owns demand and supply planning end-to-end for a multi-brand, multi-SKU cannabis grow and CPG operation. You will sit at the intersection of sales, product development, procurement, and production — translating what the business needs to sell into what the business needs to make and when.

Demand Planning

• Work with sales to build and own the bottoms-up demand forecasting process by SKU across all brands and channels — branded retail, white label, and bulk
• Collect and synthesize unit forecasts from the sales team and ownership; challenge assumptions and drive forecast accuracy over time
• Maintain a rolling 13-week demand plan updated on a regular cadence
• Model new SKU launch volumes in partnership with Product Development and Sales

 

Supply & Production Planning

• Translate the demand plan into a weekly and monthly production schedule for the Director of Operations  — what to make, how much, and when
• Communicate forward material requirements to the procurement team based on the production plan and vendor lead times
• Identify capacity constraints, scheduling conflicts, and inventory imbalances before they become floor-level problems
• Build in contingency planning for harvest yield variability, equipment downtime, and demand spikes

 

S&OP Process Ownership

• Design and run a weekly or biweekly Sales & Operations Planning meeting with the COO, Directors, and sales lead
• Publish a pre-read ahead of every S&OP with current forecast, production plan, inventory position, and open risks
• Drive alignment and decisions in the room — this is not a reporting meeting, it is a decision-making meeting

 

Tools & Infrastructure

• Build the planning toolset from scratch — Excel/Google Sheets initially, with a clear point of view on when and what to graduate to
• Design dashboards and reporting that give the COO and leadership real-time visibility into production outlook, inventory levels, and fill rates
• Document all planning processes and methodologies so the function can scale and be handed off to a team

 

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Partner with Product Development on new SKU introduction timelines — ensure procurement and production are ready for launch
• Work with Procurement to align purchase order timing with production needs and vendor lead times
• Coordinate with the Head of Cultivation on harvest schedules and fresh frozen inputs for extraction planning
• Serve as the single source of truth for what is being produced, when, and in what quantity

 

Required

• 5+ years of supply chain, demand planning, or S&OP experience with at least 2 years in the cannabis industry
• Direct experience planning for a cannabis grow and/or CPG manufacturing operation — you understand harvest variability, extraction yields, compliance timelines, and the nuances of cannabis supply chains
• Proven track record building a planning function or process from scratch — not inheriting someone else's system, but designing and implementing your own
• Strong analytical skills — you live in spreadsheets, you build clean models, and you can explain what the numbers mean to people who don't
• Experience running S&OP or equivalent cross-functional planning meetings
• Multi-SKU, multi-channel planning experience — you have managed a complex portfolio, not a single product line

 

Strongly Preferred

• Experience at a vertically integrated grow and manufacturing operation — understanding both the cultivation and manufacturing sides of the supply chain
• Familiarity with New Jersey cannabis market dynamics, compliance timelines, and regulatory requirements
• Experience planning for white label and bulk sales channels in addition to branded retail
• Exposure to ERP or cannabis-specific inventory management systems (Metrc, BioTrack, or similar seed-to-sale platforms)

 

Who You Are

• A builder, not a maintainer — you are energized by building something from zero, not frustrated by the absence of existing infrastructure
• Analytically rigorous but pragmatic — you build the right level of model for the business you are in, not the business you wish you were in
• A strong communicator — you can translate a demand plan into plain English for a sales lead and a production schedule for a floor manager in the same meeting
• Comfortable with ambiguity — cannabis supply chains are unpredictable and you have learned to plan for it
• A self-starter with high ownership — you will not wait to be told what needs to be built

 

We are committed to paying competitively for the right person. This role carries significant strategic weight — the person we hire will be building a function, not filling a seat. Compensation is calibrated to reflect that.

 

Scenario	Base Salary	Bonus Potential	All-In Estimate
Strong cannabis candidate, NJ/regional market	$110,000 – $125,000	10–15% base	$121,000 – $144,000
Senior multi-state operator experience	$125,000 – $145,000	15–20% base	$144,000 – $174,000
Remote candidate (top-tier, proven)	$105,000 – $130,000	10–15% base	$116,000 – $150,000

 

Base salary will be determined based on depth of cannabis planning experience, prior scope of responsibility, and demonstrated track record of building planning infrastructure. We will not underpay for the right candidate.

 

Additional benefits include health, dental, and vision coverage, PTO, and potential equity or profit-sharing participation as the business scales.