Head of Product (Takealot.com)

Takealot.com, a leading South African online retailer, is looking for a Head of Product to join our team in Cape Town.

We are a young, dynamic, hyper-growth company looking for smart, creative, hard-working people with integrity to join us.  We offer a market-related, Total Remuneration Package which allows full flexibility according to your needs, a great work environment, and a promise that you won’t be bored as long as you are prepared for a challenge and want to build something great.

Think you’ve been challenged before? Think again!

• Scale: 4 million happy shoppers shop online on takealot.com. Show them what you can do.
• Learn: We work with the best of the best, and then some. Work alongside industry leaders and up-skill in record time. 
• Grow: Expand your career in the fast-growing Takealot Group: takealot.com and Mr D. We like to promote from within: Here’s your chance. 

Reporting Structure

This position reports to the Group Chief Product and Technology Officer.

Your Mission

• As Head of Product, you’ll drive the vision for Takealot.com’s customer experience, leading a team of Product Managers to innovate across marketing, search, checkout, payments, and more. You’ll collaborate across teams, refine product practices, and ensure strategic alignment to deliver a seamless shopping journey to our customers.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and execute the vision, strategy, and roadmap for Takealot.com’s customer-facing shopping experience across desktop and mobile, covering marketing, search, product pages, recommendations, checkout, payments, and advertising.
• Lead a team of Product Managers while overseeing BI analysts, UX Specialists, and UI Designers. Guide teams in defining requirements, analyzing competition, and delivering high-quality products.
• Collaborate with engineering, design, operations, and executive leadership to drive products from conception to launch, ensuring alignment with business objectives.
• Champion data-driven, customer-centric decision-making to shape business strategy and product design.
• Ensure consistency in design patterns and advocate for UX-driven solutions to customer challenges.
• Partner with stakeholders to understand strategic priorities and translate them into initiatives that enhance customer-facing products.
• Make strategic prioritization decisions on high-impact projects while influencing engineering team structures and development processes.
• Drive alignment between business and technical goals by assessing technical risks, motivating tech initiatives, and ensuring product teams understand overarching technical strategies.
• Maintain strong stakeholder relationships across verticals, securing buy-in for prioritization and providing clear roadmap updates.
• Establish and refine Product Management practices that drive efficiency, cost-effective execution, and delivery of commitments.
• Mentor and develop direct reports to ensure impact at scale and develop a clear succession plan.
• Build and scale teams for optimal performance, ensuring a structured approach to growth and long-term success.

Attributes Required

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Proven experience presenting to senior stakeholders
• Strong attention to detail
• Prior experience optimizing the UX/UI of a customer-facing platform
• Proficiency in data analytics tools (e.g., Excel, Looker, SQL)
• Experience with wireframing tools (preferred)

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree or Advanced Diploma in a related field. In the event you don’t have a professional qualification, equivalent experience is sufficient. 
• 10+ years of product management experience (including exposure through projects or responsibilities)
• 3+ years of experience managing a team of Product Managers

Let’s talk about life @ Takealot Group

• The power is in your hands: We offer a market-related, Total Remuneration Package that allows full flexibility according to your needs. Go on, be the master of your own destiny.
• No doors: We aren’t fans of stuffy offices or siloed work environments. See someone you like? High five, collab and make something great.
• Remote working: Love water cooler chats and working from home? Takealot.com offers a hybrid working model for the best of both worlds.
• Mentorship programme: We aren’t kidding when we say the people with the best people win. Now’s your chance to be one of the best, by learning from the best.
• Naspers Tech Community & Online Learning: Share ideas and grow with global industry leaders who are all just a Slack message away. Love to learn? Up-skill with free access to courses on MyAcademy, Udacity, Coursera and more.
• Good times: Get to know the other extraordinary minds at takealot.com during regular social events and out-of-office activities (think hikes, think mini-golf, think good times).
• Staff discount. Millions of products across 28 departments. What more could you ask for?
• Birthday leave: Cake Day all the way. Enjoy your day off - you deserve it. 
• Right tools, right job: Mac or Windows, two monitors or one. Whatever your preference, you’ll work on the latest tech, of the latest tech.
• Help when you need it most: Confidential counselling, legal support, and financial guidance, for free, anytime, anywhere. 
• Tech stack (for days): ReactJS, Python, Scala, Kotlin, Swift, Google Cloud, Kafka, Redis, Kubernetes and all things machine learning. If you build it, they will come.
• Free parking: No more 5km fun runs to your desk (unless you want to). 

Like what you see? 

If you meet the above you are an Extraordinary Mind. Apply today!!

Takealot is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants from previously disadvantaged groups and people with disabilities will be given preference.