At Mintel, we help businesses understand people, markets, and what comes next. As a global market intelligence agency, our understanding of consumers, innovation, and industry gives clients the clarity to act and the confidence to lead. With more than 50 years of expertise, we combine the real-world understanding of our experts with advanced technology to uncover patterns, anticipate change, and help organizations make smarter decisions.
We are looking for a Datasets Consultant to help us build, maintain, and continuously improve social datasets that support insight generation. The role combines analytical judgement, curiosity, market and category knowledge, taxonomy curation, and stakeholder collaboration.
You will independently manage assigned datasets, keep them relevant as categories and online consumer conversations evolve, and lead new dataset builds from initial scoping through to handover.
This is a Hybrid position based in Cape Town.
Key responsibilities:
Social dataset builds
- Lead dataset builds from scoping through to handover, balancing agreed requirements, quality standards and delivery timelines
- Define and maintain build plans, priorities, dependencies and risks
- Translate stakeholder needs into documented dataset requirements and acceptance criteria
- Apply appropriate techniques and proprietary tools, documenting key decisions and limitations
- Validate completed datasets against agreed requirements and provide documentation for ongoing use and maintenance
Social dataset maintenance
- Own the ongoing quality, relevance, and usability of assigned datasets
- Review dataset content and apply appropriate techniques to reduce irrelevant content and improve coverage of relevant conversations
- Monitor market developments, category changes, and emerging consumer conversations to identify gaps
- Update taxonomies and document material changes, decisions and known limitations
Process improvement
- Identify recurring challenges and implement practical improvements to datasets building and maintenance
- Contribute to team standards, guidance and consistent working practices
- Evaluate changes against their effect on quality, delivery efficiency, and usability
- Support the adoption of effective approaches through collaborative problem-solving and knowledge sharing
Stakeholder engagement
- Build effective stakeholder relationships and understand dataset needs, usage and priorities
- Communicate progress, decisions, risks, dependencies and limitations throughout builds and maintenance
- Use evidence and professional judgement to resolve competing requirements and manage expectations
- Agree priorities and acceptance criteria with relevant stakeholders
Cross-functional collaboration
- Represent social dataset expertise in cross-functional initiatives and contribute to shared decisions
- Test new tools and approaches, providing structured feedback grounded in dataset workflows and user needs
- Translate operational and stakeholder requirements into practical recommendations that support sustainable dataset delivery
Key outputs
- Completed datasets that meet agreed requirements and acceptance criteria
- Maintained datasets and taxonomies that reflect relevant market and consumer conversation changes
- Documented build plans, quality reviews, decisions, changes and handover guidance
- Clear stakeholder updates on progress, risks and limitations
- Evaluated process improvements and structured feedback on tools and approaches
Skills, competencies and experience
- Demonstrated experience building, maintaining or analyzing social datasets, with examples of independently delivered work
- Practical experience curating taxonomies and assessing the relevance and coverage of dataset content
- Analytical judgement to identify quality issues, investigate causes and implement improvements
- Ability to apply market and category knowledge to dataset scope and taxonomy decisions
- Experience managing delivery priorities, timelines, risks and dependencies
- Ability to translate stakeholder needs into documented requirements and communicate technical decisions clearly
- Evidence of contributing to process improvements and evaluating their impact
- Ability to collaborate across functions, share knowledge and provide constructive feedback
- Ability to learn and apply proprietary dataset tools and relevant analytical techniques
#LI-BF1
Skills Required
- Experience building, maintaining, or analyzing social datasets, with examples of independently delivered work
- Practical experience curating taxonomies and assessing dataset content relevance and coverage
- Analytical judgment to identify quality issues, investigate causes, and implement improvements
- Market and category knowledge applicable to dataset scope and taxonomy decisions
- Experience managing delivery priorities, timelines, risks, and dependencies
- Ability to translate stakeholder needs into documented requirements and communicate technical decisions clearly
- Experience contributing to process improvements and evaluating their impact
- Ability to collaborate across functions, share knowledge, and provide constructive feedback
- Ability to learn and apply proprietary dataset tools and relevant analytical techniques
Mintel Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Mintel and has not been reviewed or approved by Mintel.
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Strong & Reliable Incentives — Performance-tied commissions in sales and account management are described as allowing motivated employees to earn well. Feedback suggests bonuses in these roles are directly linked to targets and can be meaningful.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare is cited as part of a solid benefits package that helps offset average base salaries. Feedback suggests wellness and mental-health support are available in some locations alongside core coverage.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Robust PTO is highlighted positively, and some locations include additional paid days for volunteering. These provisions are seen as meaningful components of the overall benefits package.
Mintel Insights
What We Do
Market Intelligence is what sets us apart and what defines us as a brand – literally in fact: when the company was founded in 1972 it took its name from an amalgamation of the two words. We have been defining and refining the Market Intelligence Mix ever since, to offer our clients a unique perspective on the consumer landscape ahead and a clear roadmap with which to navigate it. So what goes into the market intelligence mix? MARKET RESEARCH is not the only thing we do, but it is right at the core of our business. The vast range of primary research we carry out and commission is the bedrock of our market intelligence, creating data series we can assess incrementally over the long term to track trends and forecast the future. MARKET ANALYSIS is the second key element of the market intelligence mix. Our specialist team of market analysts scours the globe for trade, industry and government data, which our statisticians then integrate into meaningful sizing models and future value forecasts for thousands of sectors worldwide. PRODUCT INTELLIGENCE adds micro-level relevance to the macro context of our market analysis, bringing our clients real-world examples of the launches and goods that are driving the numbers. COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE is the fourth pillar of our work, keeping our clients abreast of their rivals’ strategies, communications and results, to give them the understanding they need to choose the right response to gain or maintain that crucial competitive edge. The magic happens when we pull them all together. Trend analysts, category specialists, systems developers, dedicated account teams and client servicing staff work together to provide our clients with understanding as well as knowledge. That’s our Market Intelligence. That’s how we help businesses grow. It’s why we’re the leaders in it.
