{"id":1588162,"url":"https://alion.io/job/circana-team-lead-item-coding-management","title":"Team Lead - Item Coding Management","company":{"id":1765215,"name":"Circana","domain":"circana.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/circana","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Eightfold","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":79,"open_postings":7,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.857,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":49,"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"}},"role":"Management","role_family":"Management","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Cape Town, South Africa"],"countries":["ZA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":22000,"max_usd":50000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":20},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-29T05:00:47Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-01","last_verified_at":"2026-10-14T12:54:04Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":15,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":15},"description":"Team Lead - Item Coding Management\nLet’s be unstoppable together!\nCircana is a leading provider of technology, AI, and data solutions for consumer packaged goods companies, manufacturers, and retailers. Our predictive analytics and Liquid Data® platform help clients measure market share, uncover consumer behavior, and drive growth-powered by six decades of expertise and an expansive, high-quality data set.\nAt Circana, we are fueled by our passion for continuous learning and growth, we seek and share feedback freely, and we celebrate victories both big and small in an environment that is flexible and accommodating to our work and personal lives. We’re a global company dedicated to fostering inclusivity and belonging. We value and celebrate the unique experiences, cultures, and viewpoints that each individual brings. By embracing a wide range of backgrounds, skills, expertise, and beyond, we create a stronger, more innovative environment for our employees, clients, and communities. With us, you can always bring your full self to work. Join our inclusive, committed team to be a challenger, own outcomes, and stay curious together. Circana is proud to be Certified™ by Great Place To Work®. This prestigious award is based entirely on what current employees say about their experience working at Circana. Learn more at www.circana.com.\nRole Overview\nThe Team Lead - Item Coding Management is responsible for leading a team responsible for Item Acquisition & Intake, Coding & Enrichment, Matching & Identity Resolution, Quality Control, and Item Content Management.\nThe primary objective of this role is to establish scalable, accurate, and client-ready item dictionaries that support customer requirements and high-quality client delivery. Success is measured by the organization's ability to maintain complete, accurate, and commercially relevant item structures that support current and future business needs.\nThis leader is accountable for the quality, consistency, and scalability of the item dictionary. They are responsible for building item foundations with near-zero error tolerance while enabling highly automated ongoing operations.\nThe successful candidate combines strong people leadership, operational excellence, and a technology-first mindset. Working closely with Product, Commercial, Technology, and Engineering teams, the role drives improvements in quality, speed, automation, and scalability and understands that sustainable AI adoption depends on high-quality data foundations.\nJob Responsibilities\nLead the Item Management team and deliver client-ready item dictionaries.\nOwn dictionary quality, completeness, consistency, and client readiness.\nEnsure item structures scale across categories, customers, and business needs.\nEvaluate and validate third-party content and data sources.\nBuild, develop, and lead a high-performing team focused on quality, continuous improvement, and professional growth.\nSuccess Measures\nDictionary readiness for client delivery.\nDictionary accuracy and completeness.\nClient delivery quality.\nAutomation rate.\nScalability without proportional headcount growth.\nRequirements\nBachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Analytics, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.\n5+ years of progressive experience in Item Management, Product Information Management, Master Data, Data Operations, Analytics Operations, or related environments.\nExperience leading operational teams and delivering business-critical outcomes.\nExperience building, managing, or improving item dictionaries, classification frameworks, product hierarchies, or master data structures.\nDemonstrated success improving quality, productivity, consistency, or scalability.\nStrong understanding of how data quality impacts client delivery.\nAbility to identify operational constraints and translate them into actionable improvements.\nExperience partnering effectively with Product, Technology, and Engineering teams.\nQualifications for Success\nExperience in retail, consumer goods, market measurement, analytics, or information services.\nExperience evaluating and integrating third-party content or product data sources.\nDemonstrated success driving automation, process improvement, or operational transformation initiatives.\nPractical experience applying AI, automation, or digital tools to improve productivity and business outcomes.\nStrong interest in AI-enabled operating models and data foundations that support automation at scale.\nCircana Behaviors\nBeyond technical skills, experience, and role-specific attributes, these shared behaviors are fundamental to our culture and success. We seek individuals who consistently demonstrate and champion these behaviors in their daily work:\nStay Curious: Being hungry to learn and grow, always asking the big questions.\nSeek Clarity: Embracing complexity to create clarity and inspire action.\nOwn the Outcome: Being accountable for decisions and taking ownership of our choices.\nCenter on the Client: Relentlessly adding value for our customers.\nBe a Challenger: Never complacent, always striving for continuous improvement.\nChampion Inclusivity: Fostering trust in relationships engaging with empathy, respect, and integrity.\nCommit to each other: Contributing to making Circana a great place to work for everyone.\nLocation: This position can be located in the following area(s): Cape Town / Johannesburg, South Africa","description_format":"text","description_chars":5454,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Continuous learning"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"South Africa","iso":"ZA","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Sales & Marketing","Frozen Food","Market Research"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-01T15:25:26Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":89,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.886,"p_room":1,"age_days":15,"expected_fill_days":49,"reasons":["conf:2","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/circana-team-lead-item-coding-management","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/circana-team-lead-item-coding-management.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-14T13:31:52Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":16576,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1765215},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1765215"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcircana-team-lead-item-coding-management"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcircana-team-lead-item-coding-management"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcircana-team-lead-item-coding-management"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/circana-team-lead-item-coding-management\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcircana-team-lead-item-coding-management"}]}