Executive: Product Performance Analysis

**PURPOSE & JOB DESCRIPTION**:
The Executive: Product Performance Analysis & Costing is a key member of the leadership team, accountable for the strategic oversight of value-added product funds across the Group. The role provides executive-level guidance on **financial modelling, costing structures, and product financial performance** to ensure sustainability, transparency, and profitability. This position partners closely with the Executive Team and Board to influence strategic decision-making and safeguard stakeholder value.

**EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES REQUIRED**:
**Technical Skills**:

- Advanced expertise in **financial modelling, forecasting, and scenario analysis**:

- Strong knowledge of **costing methodologies, building costing models, product portfolio administration frameworks, and performance measurement**:

- Proficiency in **financial management systems, ERP, and BI/reporting tools**:

- Skilled in **pricing strategies, and risk-adjusted decision-making**

**Experience**:

- Minimum **8-10 years’ senior finance or product performance and analysis experience**, with at least **2 years in an executive or Exco role**:

- Proven leadership in analysing performance of **large-scale product funds, costing structures, or financial planning operations**:

- Demonstrated track record of **engaging at Board level** and influencing strategic decisions
- Experience in **Product financial performance analysis or financial services** industries preferred
- Good current day knowledge of IFRS relevant to funds
- Strong track record in **leading high-performing teams**, driving organisational change, and implementing best-practice financial governance

**Soft & Leadership Skills**:

- Exceptional **strategic thinking, commercial acumen, and decision-making ability**:

- Strong **executive presence** and communication skills, with the ability to engage diverse stakeholders
- Collaborative leader who inspires trust, accountability, and results
- High integrity, resilience, and adaptability in complex, changing environments
- Critical thinking and inquisitive nature
- An entrepreneurial spirit
- Strong analytical ability to interpret financial information, attention to detail
- Strong verbal and written communication

**DUTIES / KEY RESPONSIBILITIES**:
**Strategic Leadership & Decision Support**:

- Provide **executive oversight** of all financial modelling, product performance analysis, and costing frameworks
- Shape and drive the **long-term financial strategy** for **product** **performance**:

- Serve as the **trusted advisor** to the MD, Exco, and Board on product performance financial matters, pricing strategies
- Lead evaluation of new product or channel opportunities

**Governance, Risk & Compliance**:

- Ensure robust **governance, controls, and reporting** frameworks for all products under management
- Oversee compliance with all **regulatory, statutory, and contractual obligations**:

- Contribute to **finance and fund committees** related to product performance

**Financial Oversight & Performance**:

- Set **costing strategies and principles** to ensure fairness, accuracy, and alignment with business objectives
- Monitor and report on product profitability, performance indicators, and sustainability metrics
- Present **product performance reports and insights** to the Exco and Board, highlighting risks and opportunities

**Stakeholder Engagement**:

- Act as the **primary liaison** for product-related financial matters with external stakeholders, regulators, auditors, and partners
- Ensure clear, transparent communication to members, clients, and business partners

**Leadership & People Management**:

- Lead and develop a **high-performing team**:

- Drive a culture of excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement
- Mentor managers to build succession and long-term capability in product analysis and costing

**EDUCATION**:
**Education and Professional Qualifications**:

- Postgraduate qualification in **Applied statistics and/or Applied mathematics**, **Data Science, Financial Engineering/Quantitative Finance** or similar essential
- Chartered Accountant CA(SA), CFA, CIMA, MBA, or equivalent professional qualification advantageous
- Executive leadership will be an advantage

**Technical skills and data engineering (beyond basic SQL, R, or Python)**:

- ** SQL for data management**: writing complex queries to extract and transform data, including using advanced functions, and improving performance so large queries run efficiently
- ** Working with data and statistics in Python**: handling and cleaning large datasets, performing numerical and scientific calculations, running statistical tests, building predictive models, training machine learning algorithms, analysing survival data, making time-series forecasts, and keeping track of experiments and model versions
- ** Working with data and models in R**: manipulating and summarizing data efficiently, preparing data for analy