Product Manager (Catalogue)

Role overview

Takealot.com, a major online retail platform in South Africa, is hiring a Product Manager to support the Catalogue team in Cape Town. The role focuses on building and executing a product roadmap that drives commercial growth while also strengthening compliance and risk controls. You will operate in a fast-moving environment where regulatory awareness, operational security, and product excellence all matter.

This opportunity suits someone who enjoys working in a high-growth, energetic company and can combine commercial thinking with strong governance. The business is looking for people who are clever, inventive, committed, and able to protect the balance between speed and control.

What you will do

• Build a strong understanding of the Catalogue division, including its goals, workflows, available systems and tools, and external best-practice standards.
• Partner with the Product Lead for Catalogue to create and continuously update a roadmap that supports the division’s strategic and technical needs.
• Track the impact of delivered work through relevant performance metrics.
• Improve outcomes by spotting the most valuable roadmap initiatives and setting clear priorities.
• Turn strategic business needs into detailed requirements for technical system changes, using data to guide decisions.
• Convert business needs into functional and technical user stories and project specifications, breaking work into phases that can deliver value quickly.
• Lead technical initiatives from start to finish across the full product lifecycle, including timelines, scheduling, cross-functional delivery, design, release, and production launch.
• Coordinate stakeholder communication so priorities are clearly aligned and roadmap execution is well understood.
• Own sprint planning and backlog prioritisation for the engineering team.

Team and working environment

You will report to the Product Lead for Catalogue and work closely with software engineers, QA engineers, and UX designers.

What the role calls for

• A solid history of delivering strong outcomes in a fast-paced setting.
• Commercial judgement backed by analytical ability, with confidence using SQL to retrieve and interpret data for decision-making.
• A very organised, detail-focused approach to work.
• Practical technical knowledge and direct exposure to the development process.
• Strong project management and communication skills, especially when guiding engineering and other cross-functional stakeholders to deliver on time and to specification.
• Adaptability and flexibility in a changing environment.
• Prior involvement in scalability and automation initiatives.
• The ability to balance rapid growth with strict compliance and quality controls.

Experience and qualifications

• A relevant bachelor’s degree or advanced diploma in Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering, or Commerce, plus at least 3 years’ experience in product management, business analysis, or a similar role, ideally on large company-wide initiatives.
• If you do not hold a relevant bachelor’s degree or advanced diploma, you will need equivalent experience of at least 7 years in product management, business analysis, or a related role, ideally involving large company-wide initiatives.
• Exposure to agile or iterative development and project management is an advantage.
• Experience in e-commerce or compliance-focused environments is also beneficial.

Rewards and benefits

• A market-related total remuneration package.
• A hybrid working setup that combines remote work with office collaboration.
• Access to mentorship and learning opportunities from experienced teams and industry leaders.
• Free access to online learning platforms and internal tech community engagement.
• Regular social activities and team events.
• Staff discounts across a wide product range.
• Birthday leave.
• Confidential counselling plus legal and financial support services at no cost.
• Free parking.
• Exposure to a modern technology stack spanning ReactJS, Python, Scala, Kotlin, Swift, Google Cloud, Kafka, Redis, Kubernetes, and machine learning tools.

Eligibility

Applicants from previously disadvantaged groups and people with disabilities will be given preference. Candidates should meet the stated education and/or experience requirements and be comfortable working in Cape Town with a hybrid arrangement.

Additional information

This is a full-time role within a young, dynamic, hyper-growth business. The company emphasises scale, learning, and internal growth, and encourages ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Equal opportunity

Takealot.com is an equal opportunity employer.