How To Become An Inventory Control Lead: What It Is and Career Path

What is an inventory control lead and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

As an Inventory Control Lead, it's your job to keep your team in line with your inventory management. You'll be responsible for keeping track of the inbound and outbound products, documenting and monitoring the processes, and resolving any issues or conflicts that may arise.

Having strong leadership and communications skills are not only required for this position, but it'll give you a boost when working with your team. By motivating them to stay safe, efficient, and timely, your processes will continue with fewer mistakes and hit deadline limits with less hassle. As you and your team continue to work and function together well, these positive outcomes become the new norm.

You'll need to have a number of years of experience either with your team or in a similar inventory management position. The highest degree that's typically required is a high school diploma/GED, with safety certification being a bonus on your resume. An Inventory Control Lead typically makes about $48,000 a year, on average, in the U.S.

ScoreInventory Control LeadUS Average

Salary

3.5

Avg. Salary $45,155

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.8

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.53%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 10.17%

Hispanic or Latino 16.78%

Unknown 4.94%

White 60.58%

Gender

female 32.06%

male 67.94%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

7.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.9

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an inventory control lead

Explore inventory control lead education requirements

Most common inventory control lead degrees

Bachelor's

37.1 %

High School Diploma

27.7 %

Associate

21.3 %

Start to develop specific inventory control lead skills

Skills	Percentages
Logistics	14.99%
Inventory Adjustments	7.15%
Physical Inventory	5.72%
Inventory Cycle Counts	4.80%
Inventory Control Procedures	4.69%

Complete relevant inventory control lead training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New inventory control leads learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an inventory control lead based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real inventory control lead resumes.

Research inventory control lead duties and responsibilities

Manage inventory and production reports through WMS for efficiency improvement opportunities.
Work with MRP and Macola inventory systems.
Report inventory balances and cycle counts in WMS systems.
Cycle counted a multi-million dollar cell phone inventory using AS400.

Get inventory control lead experience

Generally, it takes 1-2 years to become an inventory control lead. The most common roles before becoming an inventory control lead include customer service representative, cashier team lead and material handler.

Prepare your inventory control lead resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your inventory control lead resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an inventory control lead resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable inventory control lead resume templates

Build a professional inventory control lead resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your inventory control lead resume.