Head of Product Management

**Role Purpose**

The purpose of the Product Manager Lead role is to deliver a customer-centric digital product strategy for ShopriteX in alignment with the overall strategic growth priorities for the Shoprite Group. The role leads a team of product managers and product owners to deliver products that meet customer needs, overseeing the development and delivery of the product roadmap while driving continuous exploration to define the benefit hypothesis, business processes and solution intent for program epics.

The Product Manager Lead owns the overall digital product success, taking concepts, briefs and ideas and crafting a strategy that delivers business outcomes while guiding the execution of the product to market. The Product Manager Lead is the leading driver for building efficient systems and processes within the product team that enables innovation, collaboration and data-driven decision-making. The Product Manager Lead is a seasoned professional with a unique blend of leadership, business and technical expertise to synthesise various technologies and capabilities into viable and profitable business products.

**Role Description**
- Contribute towards the development of the product strategy and roadmap, working with strategic leaders and other cross-functional partners to shape and connect the strategy to a viable course of action to enable a connected consumer platform with personalised experiences.
- Drive the product strategy and roadmap across portfolios and product lines, effectively delivering ROI and expected KPI benefits.
- Drive effective roadmap prioritisation to target needs, delivering against budget, tracking profitability, and reporting on impact and effectiveness against KPIs.
- Own the product development process including refining and driving efficiencies.
- Collaborate across the agile team and environment, to support product roadmap delivery and future planning and initiatives.
- Direct and manage a progressive team of product managers and product owners, empowering and enabling the team to deliver on expected priorities while harnessing talent and instilling a culture of innovation and excellence.
- Ensure products are optimally planned, forecasted and marketed at each stage of the product's lifecycle. Oversee feature breakdown for continuous exploration epics.
- Provide expertise and thought leadership across business and IT teams to drive strategic objectives through product-market fit.
- Participate in ART level events; ART syncs, inspect and adapt, PI planning, system demos and continuous exploration reviews.
- Lead and shape the product team as a centre of excellence and ensure ongoing and meaningful communication with internal departments, clients, customers, and external stakeholders.
- Establish KPIs to define the success of digital experiences and provide strategic input to customer experience improvements that help drive customer acquisition, customer retention, and conversion.
- Keep ahead of changing consumer trends and spearhead new developments that lead to growth and innovation while positioning ShopriteX as a pioneering and differentiated digital platform.
- Drive data-led decision-making based on Xtra Savings customer data.
- Ensure delivery of a consistent, frictionless and delightful customer experience across all digital touchpoints of the Shoprite customer journey.
- Provide strategic input to leadership teams by presenting and pitching concepts and ideas and preparing short-term and long-term product forecasts, reports and analyses.

**Qualifications and experience**
- Degree in Business, IT, Engineering, Marketing or another relevant field - (essential).
- Certified Product Owner / certified SAFe Product Owner / Product Manager (SAFe PO/PM) - (desired).
- +7 years experience in a similar capacity or role, leading the strategic delivery of new, complex and high-impact products and translating business strategy and analysis into successful consumer products - (essential).
- Experience leading and developing a highly talented team of product managers and product owners from diverse backgrounds in an agile environment - (essential).
- Extensive experience in product management, with an end-to-end understanding of product development processes - (essential).
- Excellent knowledge of lean and agile principles, with the ability to identify and develop viable commercial opportunities in a digital-led business environment - (essential).
- Strong technical mindset with experience in user-centred design practice along with an understanding of statistical analysis, machine learning, AI and data modelling across big data sets - (essential).
- Customer user and loyalty experience - (essential).
- Knowledge of legal compliance (POPIA, Electronic Information Act, etc.) - (essential).
- General marketing or retail experience - (desired).
- Exposure to the African digital market and customers - (desired).

**Key competencies and work ethic**
- **Leadership skills**: Provide l