About the position
An international freight forwarding and supply chain logistics company is seeking a Product Manager who will act as the internal "mini-CEO" for an IT product, holding single-point accountability across its entire lifecycle—from inception through operation to retirement.
Responsibilities:
- Own the full financial picture and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) across run and change costs.
- Maintain a tiered cost model (Direct $\rightarrow$ Allocated $\rightarrow$ Unknown) targeting $\ge 80\%$ Cost Confidence.
- Track unit economics (cost per user, transaction, or capability) and explain monthly budget variances.
- Act as the financial gatekeeper: review/approve all invoices prior to payment and present annual data-backed lifecycle investment recommendations.
- Define and sign off on formal Product Definitions (Canvas & Charter) before work commences.
- Own a 12+ month rolling roadmap across 5 swim lanes: Business Capability, User/Stakeholder, Data & Integration, Platform/Technology, and Risk & Compliance.
- Establish and defend strategic lifecycle positions (Retain, Grow, Consolidate, Migrate, or Retire) backed by annual evidence.
- Drive outcome-based decisions, ensuring every initiative links to a named sponsor, KPI, and measurable ROI.
- Serve as a strategic advisor—shaping demand and evaluating requests against value, cost, and risk.
- Map stakeholders, track sentiment, and adapt engagement strategies accordingly.
- Conduct regular business reviews based on product criticality; diplomatically challenge requests using data.
- Retain end-to-end service performance accountability regardless of the underlying delivery model.
- Manage vendors through SLAs, scorecards, and trend analysis; track adoption alongside technical metrics.
- Escalate failures with root-cause analysis and bring commercial recommendations (renew, renegotiate, exit) backed by 12 months of performance data.
- Maintain continuous ownership of security, compliance (POPIA/GDPR), and risk posture.
- Drive access governance (least privilege, MFA/SSO), validate vendor security, and ensure BCP/DR plans are tested.
- Formally review and sign off on residual risks annually.
- Maintain continuous market scanning, competitor benchmarking, and customer discovery to inform the roadmap.
- Act as a domain thought leader, publishing points of view and translating industry trends into competitive advantages.
- Champion innovation (including AI and automation) and represent the customer's voice in prioritization decisions.
- Make non-delegable architecture and technical trade-off decisions in partnership with Enterprise Architecture, Cloud, and Security teams.
- Possess deep technical understanding of the product stack, APIs, data flows, and technical debt to drive build vs. buy calls.
- Ensure all technical decisions align with governance standards (SRB, CAB/ITIL, GitLab) and support security by design.
Minimum Requirements:
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, Engineering, or an equivalent field. Product certifications (e.g., Pragmatic, SAFe PO/PM) are advantageous.
- Experience: 5+ years in IT Product Ownership, Technical Product Management, or Senior Technical/Solution roles with proven TCO/P&L accountability.
- Domain Knowledge: Experience within the logistics, supply chain, or warehousing sectors is highly preferred.
- Continuous Learning: Willingness to complete a Pluralsight Role IQ baseline and follow a targeted learning path within the internal framework.
- Accountability: Single-point ownership mindset; ability to drive outcomes independently.
- Technical Depth: Deep understanding of systems architecture, integration, and engineering (hands-on background strongly preferred).
- Financial Acumen: Strong grasp of P&L, TCO, unit economics, and contract/vendor negotiations.
- Strategic Influence: Excellent stakeholder management and evidence-based decision-making skills.
- Agile Fluency: Expertise in Agile/Scrum, backlog management, and product delivery models.
- Compliance & Risk: Thorough understanding of POPIA/GDPR and security governance.
- Communication: Exceptional written and spoken English (additional global languages are advantageous).
Benefits:
Competitive salary based on experience (salary can potentially be more based on experience/skills)
IF you meet the above requirements and want to make a career-changing move, apply today by emailing your CV to [Email Address Removed].com
Desired Skills:
- Product Manager
- Product Manager
- Product Manager
