About the position
ENVIRONMENT:
SERVE as the right-hand to the Group Managing Direct of a leading provider of Industrial Consumables based in Germiston seeking a Business Analyst whose role will include analysis, reporting and project follow-through. This will also be extended to branch and category performance, margin and mix analysis, lead-time and process diagnostics, preparation of group flash commentary and BCP-facing packs, chasing exco commitments to closure. You will also be expected to run the MD’s operating rhythm, preparing him for BCP, board and customer engagements, ensuring nothing agreed in a meeting quietly dies and diary, travel, inbox triage, gatekeeping. The ideal candidate must possess a completed three or four-year Degree in a numerate discipline — BCom, BSc, Engineering, Actuarial, Statistics, Economics with 3-5 years post-graduation in an analytical, commercial, consulting or finance role. You must also be able to decompose a margin movement into price, volume and mix without being prompted; writes for an executive - one page, conclusion first, no adjectives doing the work of evidence and have Advanced Excel as a working tool including Pivot table, lookups, and enough Power Query or SQL to handle a system extract without asking IT.
DUTIES:
Executive Reporting -
- Prepare and quality-assure the monthly group flash commentary and BCP facing packs to a fixed structure and page limit.
- Own the calendar and the data-gathering behind them.
Performance Analysis -
- Branch, category and rep-level analysis of sales, gross margin, mix and expenses.
- Explain variances in one page, not twenty slides.
Process Diagnostics -
- Root-cause work on operational lead times and order flow — quote-to invoice, open order ageing, factory throughput — with quantified recommendations.
Project follow-through -
- Track every commitment made in exco and MD-level meetings to a dated close-out.
- Escalate slippage early.
Commercial Support -
- Build the analysis behind pricing, campaign, tender and customer profitability decisions.
Governance and preparation -
- Ensure the MD walks into every engagement with the right pack, the right numbers and the right two questions.
Executive Administration -
- Diary, travel, inbox triage and gatekeeping, at a standard that never becomes the MD’s problem.
REQUIREMENTS:
Non-negotiables –
- Numerate to a professional standard. Can decompose a margin movement into price, volume and mix without being prompted.
- Writes for an executive. One page, conclusion first, no adjectives doing the work of evidence.
- Advanced Excel as a working tool, not a line on a CV. Pivot table, lookups, and enough Power Query or SQL to handle a system extract without asking IT.
- Self-starting. Can take a three-line brief, come back with a one-paragraph interpretation and a checkpoint date, and then deliver.
- Discreet. Will sit inside every sensitive conversation in the business, including remuneration, restructuring and disputes.
- Willing to be on a branch floor and in a factory, not only in a spreadsheet.
Essential to have:
- A completed three or four-year Degree in a numerate discipline — BCom, BSc, Engineering, Actuarial, Statistics, Economics.
- 3-5 Years post-graduation in an analytical, commercial, consulting or finance role.
- Business-level English, written and spoken, to executive standard.
- Valid driver’s licence and own transport. Willing to travel domestically.
Preferred to have -
- Honours, CA(SA), CIMA, Industrial Engineering, or a part-time MBA or Postgraduate Diploma in progress.
- Exposure to a multi-branch, multi-site or distribution business.
- Power BI or Tableau, SQL, Power Query, ERP reporting experience.
- Prior experience working directly to an executive or partner.
- Valid passport and willingness to travel to Eswatini and Zambia.
- A second South African language.
Desired Skills:
