Product Manager - Catalogue Division

About the Role

Takealot.com, South Africa's foremost online retail platform, is seeking a skilled Product Manager to join its Catalogue team based in Cape Town. The key responsibility involves creating and executing a product roadmap that harmonizes commercial expansion goals with stringent compliance and risk reduction protocols. This role demands adept navigation through complex regulatory environments to guarantee the secure and excellent functioning of the merchant division within a youthful, dynamic company experiencing rapid growth.

With a customer base of 4 million satisfied online shoppers, this position offers a stage to showcase your capabilities, learn from industry experts, and advance your career within the expanding Takealot Group, which includes takealot.com, TFS, and Mr D. Internal promotions are favored.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the Catalogue division’s strategic aims, operational workflows, tools, systems, and external best practices.
• Collaborate closely with the Product Lead for Catalogue to establish and uphold a product roadmap facilitating technical developments aligned with strategic objectives.
• Track and assess the success of product developments using relevant performance indicators.
• Take accountability for enhancing performance metrics by identifying and prioritizing product roadmap initiatives.
• Define strategic business requirements for technical system developments tied to prioritized projects, leveraging data-driven insights to guide decisions.
• Convert business needs into detailed functional and technical user stories and project specifications, ensuring phased project breakdowns to achieve immediate benefits.
• Manage the complete product development lifecycle for technical projects, including timeline setting, schedule management, leading cross-functional design and development teams, and overseeing production launches.
• Handle all communication with stakeholders to secure input on roadmap prioritization and updates on execution progress.
• Oversee the engineering backlog through effective sprint prioritization and planning.

Required Attributes and Experience

• Proven success in delivering impactful results within fast-paced environments.
• Strong commercial insight complemented by analytical skills, adept at using SQL to extract and evaluate data, and leveraging these insights for intelligent decision-making.
• Highly organized thinker with meticulous attention to detail.
• Robust technical comprehension of development processes.
• Excellent project management and communication skills to coordinate cross-functional teams and ensure timely delivery.
• Adaptability and flexibility in approaching work challenges.
• Experience with system scalability and automation initiatives.
• Capability to balance rapid business growth with thorough compliance and quality assurance standards.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor's Degree or Advanced Diploma in Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering, Commerce, or a related field plus a minimum of 3 years working in product management, business analysis, or similar roles, ideally handling large-scale company-wide initiatives.
• Alternatively, at least 7 years of relevant experience is required if formal qualifications are not held.
• Experience working in agile or iterative project management and development is advantageous.
• Background in e-commerce or regulatory compliance environments is beneficial.

Working Environment and Benefits

• Open, collaborative workspace with a hybrid remote work model balancing home and office environments.
• Participation in a mentorship program to foster professional growth.
• Access to the Naspers Tech Community and online learning platforms such as MyAcademy, Udacity, and Coursera for skill development.
• Regular social and team-building events including hikes and mini-golf outings.
• Employee discounts across multiple departments offering millions of products.
• Birthday leave entitlement giving you a day off to celebrate.
• Free confidential support services including counseling, legal aid, and financial advice.
• Technology stack features tools such as ReactJS, Python, Scala, Kotlin, Swift, Google Cloud, Kafka, Redis, Kubernetes, and machine learning technologies.
• Complimentary parking facilities provided.

Diversity & Inclusion

Takealot is committed to equal opportunity employment. Candidates from previously disadvantaged groups and individuals with disabilities are particularly encouraged to apply.