Care Workforce Sr. Forecasting Analyst
OVERVIEW
The Care team is focused on supporting our broad ecosystem of customers, shoppers, retailers, and internal stakeholders through direct support and scalable solutions. We are a service-centric and analytics-driven team that thinks upstream to implement solutions that delight our community, improve performance, and scale through better automation, process and product experience.
The ideal Care Senior Forecasting Analyst (Senior Forecaster) brings multiple years of directly relevant experience in contact center workload forecasting to include volume, proficiency, efficiency, and productivity at micro- and macro-levels. Instacart moves fast, so experience building and maintaining robust spreadsheet-based models is imperative for success. You’ll need to be able to identify gaps that relate to your role, fill them, and still meet the deadlines associated with your regular day-to-day responsibilities.
ABOUT THE JOB
- Build, often from scratch, complicated spreadsheet-based models to support long term growth strategies and changes in business objectives
- Create and manage predictive models to include multiple forecasting scenarios using multivariate regression, trend projection, ARIMA, and/or other techniques
- Oversee volume (demand), efficiency, and productivity forecasting at the monthly, weekly, daily, and interval level for a network of global sites comprised of internal and vendor-managed locations (BPOs)
- Understand and account for the impacts of seasonality and holiday demand patterns throughout all planning and forecasting activities
- Continually review and qualify critical source data, highlighting opportunities to improve source measurement, warehousing, and overall data quality
- Design and conduct regular reverse-forecasting or backcasting to validate functionality and reliability of models; publish findings to include model variation and forecast accuracy
- Proactively identify and notify key stakeholders of risks and opportunities based upon forecast simulations and analyses
- Partner with, influence, and assist colleagues in other departments (finance, business intelligence, human resources, others) on a regular basis; maintain relationships with key partners
- Participate in the budget planning and month-end close processes as needed
- Analyze and report historical data and trends
- Aid in development and improvement of processes and procedures
ABOUT YOU
- Expert-level knowledge of Microsoft Excel (and/or Google Sheets) and SQL programming (required) and knowledge of machine learning and programming in Python and/or R (preferred)
- 5+ years call center experience in a workforce management environment, 2+ years of which in a mid- or long-range forecasting role (headcount, capacity planning, demand forecasting)
- 2+ years experience with workforce management software, preferably Verint Workforce Management, formerly Verint Impact 360 and Blue Pumpkin
- BS/BA required, or equivalent combination of education and directly relevant work experience
- Familiarity with budgeting, planning, and forecasting software applications
- Ability to gather, transform, and analyze statistical data and generate reports
- Ability to design/generate and implement systems necessary to collect, maintain and analyze data.
- Ability to prepare and present reports accurately and well within the time frame specified
- Ability to maintain composure in critical situations and communicate effectively, both written and verbal
- Display a high level of professionalism, integrity, and maturity
- Detail oriented with good organization and time management skills
- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively with individuals at all levels