Manager, Product Taxonomy and Hierarchy, Lowe’s, Mooresville NC
Posted August 30, 2013
Job Description
The primary purpose of the Manager, Product Taxonomy and Hierarchy is to lead efforts for requirements gathering of enterprise level product data and hierarchy and taxonomy management with an emphasis on sales and marketing attributes – to ensure the most effective information is collected about products Lowe’s sells. The Manager, Product Taxonomy and Hierarchy is the primary strategist for controlled vocabulary for all Lowe’s product marketing data and is responsible for the overall categorization of products, as well as ensuring collection of the most appropriate attributes for internal and customer facing requirements.
The Manager, Product Taxonomy and Hierarchy will also have primary responsibility for supporting Lowe’s initiatives by collaborating with key business stakeholders to ensure that the business requirements regarding product data are met, including educating others on how to access and use product data and how to ensure compliance with all product data standards.
The Manager, Product Taxonomy and Hierarchy manages a team of individual contributors focused on identifying the right attributes to collect about products we sell. The Manager, Product Taxonomy and Hierarchy will strategize, design, and execute Lowe’s product attribute hierarchy and ensure metadata adheres to Master Data & Content Management Standards to drive business value across channels.
To accomplish this, the Manager, Product Taxonomy and Hierarchy must have an in-depth understanding of taxonomy, controlled vocabulary, and product data. In addition, the Manager, Product Taxonomy and Hierarchy will monitor the effectiveness of the production teams and track their progress on implementing a new taxonomy.
This position is critical for ensuring products are associated into the correct categories and that all vital attributes are collected for categorization. This position plays a fundamental role in ensuring products are organized to their optimal potential for ease of searching across channels.
Essential Responsibilities:
Establishing Product Taxonomy / Hierarchy
•Oversees project management of all Product Specific Selling Attributes (PSSA) categories, etc.
•Directs team members in project managing controlled vocabulary
•Manages the review of all product taxonomy changes for strategic accuracy and compliance to standards
•Monitors adherence to project completion goals and monitors execution of re-collected information
•Approves product level data schemas researched and designed by team
•Researches and designs revised product taxonomies
•Ensures the product specific attributes and controlled vocabulary aligns to product domain and enterprise Standards
•Normalizes PSSA templates for data collection
Design, Execute and Drive continuous improvement in product hierarchy
•Provides complete and accurate item level data, relevant to each category
•Establishes processes to control and manage attribute management change requests
Collaboration
•Collaborates with key stakeholders to define the data and content to collect regarding product data
•Partners with Lowe’s Business Users to develop best in class models, needs and uses across the company
•Provides input regarding standards or processes involving product attribute hierarchy to the Strategy, Standards, and Solutions team
•Contributes to enterprise metadata, governance programs and data standards by collaborating with Taxonomy Community of Practice, MDCM Leadership, and other stakeholders.
Business Influence
•Drives the development of tactical plans aligned with Lowe’s business strategy in order to bring the vision into realization
•Uses a critical eye to examine and streamline work flows and processes within the team, to increase efficiency
•Develops short-term and long-term plans for management of product taxonomy
•Functions as the Master Data business solution SME on product taxonomy requirements
•Raises any business issues, risks or concerns where appropriate
•Identifies and develops creative solutions/workarounds where applicable in terms of the business solution decisions
People Leadership
•Aligns the team’s time and effort on projects that are critical to Lowes’s success
•Delegates the right tasks and decisions to the people who are in the best position to execute them.
•Provides open feedback and mentorship to team members to encourage growth and greater responsibility
•Hires, trains and develops the talent necessary to achieve stated objectives providing meaningful development opportunities for individuals in preparation for succession planning
•Performs time and schedule tracking for all reports, managing request for time off, holidays, and sick days to ensure adequate workforce coverage
•Ensures meaningful development opportunities for individuals in the organization so that the right people are being developed in preparation for succession opportunities
•Hires, trains and develops the talent necessary to achieve stated business goals
•Provides thoughtful and tactful feedback to direct reports regarding performance and career expectations
•Develops employees by helping them set the appropriate priorities and removing barriers and obstacles
Self-Leadership
•Negotiates effectively for the organization with internal and external stakeholders and builds relationships with key individuals necessary for collaboration
•Develops and presents communications, frequently to management, communicating the desired message, at the appropriate level, for the right recipient
•Stays current with industry trends related to product data attribute management
•Solves tactical problems using problem solving tools and techniques to generate fact-based solutions
Visit Lowes.com/Careers to apply. Job ID 555564BR.