Inventory Control Specialist II

Socket.dev; Aurora (IL); On-site; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel opportunities

Professional development

Job summary

Socket.dev seeks an Inventory Control Specialist II to run count programs, analyze variances, and lead reporting at a scalable site. You will own cycle counts, perform VMI audits, and build dashboards using SQL and Excel/Power BI. You will mentor junior staff and support go-live readiness across assigned locations.

The role requires travel to partner sites, strong data skills, and experience with SyteLine.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of Inventory Control experience.
• Proficient in SyteLine inventory transactions and SOPs.
• Working SQL skills to query data.
• Experience building dashboards in Excel/Power BI/Tableau.
• Ability to trace variances to root cause with data.
• Willing and able to travel to sites and partner locations.
• Experience mentoring Specialists I/II or demonstrated coaching skills.

Responsibilities

• Own execution of full cycle-count program at the site.
• Audit external Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI) at partner locations.
• Build and adjust site-level count schedules.
• Lead root-cause investigations on variances using data.
• Maintain variance/KPI reporting with SQL/Excel/Power BI.
• Mentor Specialist I's and serve as first point of contact.
• Support go-live readiness activities at the site.

Skills

Independent work

Mentoring

Data analysis

Travel readiness

Tools

SyteLine

SQL

Excel

Power BI

Tableau

Python

Job description

Description

The Inventory Control Specialist II runs their site's count program independently and knows the full program end-to-end — policy, procedures, and system — well enough to execute without day-to-day direction. The Inventory Control Specialist II is expected to be as comfortable writing a query or building a variance dashboard as they are walking the floor and counting a skid. The Individual leads root-cause investigation on variances, builds the reporting that makes that investigation visible, and mentors Specialist I's — but does not have final decision authority: schedule changes, process changes, SoD conflict resolution, and anything that sets precedent across sites route to the Supervisor.

Requirements

Key Responsibilities

Count & audit execution

• Own execution of the full A/B/C/D cycle-count program at the assigned site.
• Execute recurring external Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI) audits at assigned partner locations, applying the same accuracy and dual-confirmation standards as internal counts.
• Build and adjust the site-level count schedule within the cadence set by policy (e.g., B every 2–3 months) — operational scheduling, not cadence policy itself.

Analysis & reporting

• Lead root-cause investigation on variances: trace the handoff chain (receiving, production movement, transfers) to identify where the process broke down, using SyteLine transaction data rather than anecdote.
• Build and maintain the variance and KPI reporting layer for the assigned site (e.g., count-accuracy trends, aging of open variances, VMI discrepancy trends) using SQL queries and Excel/Power BI.

Governance & mentoring

• Maintain the site's entries in the Location Ownership Matrix (IC-MTX-001); propose updates when locations, owners, or scope change.
• Mentor and check the work of Specialist I's at the site, including basic reporting/query skills as they grow toward II; be the first point of contact for their questions before escalating to the Supervisor.
• Flag separation-of-duties conflicts when observed (e.g., an area owner attempting to approve their own adjustment)
• Support go-live readiness activities at the site (dry-run walkthroughs, baseline counts, checklist items) as the site's IC point of contact.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of Inventory Control Specialist experience, or equivalent external cycle-counting/inventory experience.
• Demonstrated independent command of SyteLine inventory transactions and the site's SOPs.
• Working SQL skills — able to write and modify queries against SyteLine or a reporting layer.
• Comfortable building reporting/dashboards in Excel (Power Query, pivot tables) or Power BI/Tableau; exposure to Python or basic statistics is a plus but not required.
• Able to trace a variance to root cause methodically using data.
• Comfortable coaching a newer team member without formal authority over them.
• Explicitly willing and able to travel to assigned sites/VMI partner locations and perform physical audit work as a routine part of the job.