Are you a visionary leader with a passion for operational excellence? Reporting to the Chief Executive: Product, you'll lead our Product Operations portfolio, driving quality, compliance, supplier performance, and operational excellence.
If you're driven by creating value through operational excellence, quality leadership, and meaningful partnerships, and want to play a key role in bringing value to life for our customers, we'd love to hear from you.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
You’ll be accountable for:
Strategic leadership and Portfolio Governance: Provide strategic leadership and governance across the Product Operations portfolio, ensuring organisational performance, risk management, leadership capability, and alignment to business objectives.
Quality, Compliance & Technical Governance: Provide strategic oversight of product quality, regulatory compliance, technical standards, and governance frameworks to ensure consistent product excellence, customer satisfaction, and adherence to business and legislative requirements.
Product Operations Execution: Oversee the end-to-end product lifecycle by driving effective execution of the product calendar, critical path, and operational transformation initiatives to enhance speed to market, product quality, compliance, and business performance.
Product Systems & Processes: Custodian of key Product systems, including Centric, as well as the documentation, implementation and continuous improvement of Product processes, including training and adoption across the teams.
Supplier & Sourcing Strategy: Define the supplier and sourcing strategy, fostering strategic partnerships that optimise quality, capability, innovation, cost efficiency, and long-term business performance.
Cross-functional integration: Ensuring Product processes and systems are effectively aligned and integrated with key stakeholders, particularly Supply Chain and Marketing.
Projects & Transformation: Oversight and delivery of key Product projects and initiatives that support the broader Product strategy.
Tender Governance: Oversight of the tender process post product development and Trend Manager handover, ensuring strong governance, commercial rigour and execution through to supplier award.
JOB RELATED KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS REQUIRED
To succeed in this role, you’ll bring:
A minimum of 8 years' senior leadership experience, including 3 years at Executive or General Management level.
Proven success leading multiple product, sourcing, quality, or operational functions within a retail environment.
Strong expertise in product quality, textiles, laboratory standards, and supplier quality management.
Experience overseeing end-to-end product lifecycle management, critical path execution, and supporting business systems.
Significant global sourcing experience, including supplier management, commercial agreements, and compliance requirements.
A strong understanding of ESG, ethical sourcing, EPR, and regulatory frameworks.
A proven track record of driving operational transformation, change leadership, and continuous improvement.
The ability to build high-performing teams, strengthen governance, and deliver strategic business outcomes.
QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED
A relevant degree in Business, Supply Chain, Operations, Retail, Textiles, or a related discipline, with a postgraduate qualification preferred.
If you ready to lead with heart, inspire with product and help shape the next chapter of our brand, we’d love to hear from you.
Applicants will need to be prepared to undergo evaluations / assessments and interviews if and as required.
POLICY: In terms of Company policy for appointments and promotions, preference will be given to candidates who will enhance the diversity of the team and contribute to employment equity within the Company provided that the competencies and minimum requirements for the position have been met.
The Ackermans story goes back as far as 1916, when Gus Ackerman opened the first store in Wynberg in Cape Town. His vision for the store was to create a place where customers could find great products at fantastic prices, which is exactly what Ackermans became. Ackermans was, subsequently, bought by the Pepkor Group in 1986.
Today, there are more than 850 Ackermans stores in 5 countries, making us a leading value fashion retailer for the whole family – continuously setting the standard for value and affordability. With a wide selection of fashion for ladies, kids, babies and men, as well as homeware, cellular and key financial products, we’ll keep bringing value to your life every day.
Our purpose at Ackermans is: Bringing Value to Life, and it lies at the heart of everything we do, whether it’s to the lives of our customers and employees, or to the wider community and value retailing as a whole.
The secret to our success is simple – people. Hiring people who love what they do, and giving them every opportunity to shine. In fact, at Ackermans we’re so committed to this philosophy that we’ve named our staff members Phadimas – which means ‘shine’ in Northern Sotho. Every day, each of our employees is encouraged to shine, reach for the stars and take each other, and the Ackermans brand, to new heights of achievement and success.
We firmly believe that the future of our company rests in the hands of the people we employ. As such, every new Ackermans Phadima is put through a rigorous selection process and chosen with the greatest of care. This process ensures that each new Phadima is a perfect fit for our company culture, and will thrive in our environment of encouragement, motivation and inspiration.
If you feel that this is an environment that you could succeed in, we’d love for you to join us. View our current vacancies, and we could soon be welcoming you on-board as our newest Ackermans Phadima!
