Job Description

It's fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they're doing!

To manage and co-ordinate the end-to-end licensing and permitting lifecycle for Pick n Pay’s retail operations across South Africa, ensuring that all required licences, permits and compliance certificates are obtained, renewed, amended and maintained timeously and in accordance with applicable national, provincial and municipal requirements, so that stores and support operations can trade without interruption.

The role also provides group-wide licensing governance support and standards for other retail formats (including Pick n Pay Clothing), working in a matrix with the relevant business compliance officer(s) who retain day-to-day accountability for their portfolios.

Qualifications & experience

Relevant qualification (e.g., Paralegal Diploma, Legal Administration, Compliance or equivalent).

A legal qualification (e.g., LLB) is advantageous but not essential where strong licensing experience is demonstrated.

3–5+ years’ experience in a licensing, regulatory administration or legal/compliance support role, ideally in retail, hospitality or FMCG environments with multi-site multi-licence portfolios (municipal and provincial).

Demonstrated experience preparing and managing statutory applications, renewals, inspections and regulator queries within defined timeframes (including municipal licensing offices and/or Environmental Health / fire authorities).

Strong MS Office capability (Excel, Word, Outlook) and experience maintaining trackers, registers and document repositories; experience with workflow tools and SharePoint/Teams environments is advantageous.

Project co-ordination experience (store openings / refurbishments / multi-stakeholder timelines) is advantageous.

Skills & competencies

Working knowledge of licensing and compliance requirements relevant to grocery retail operations in South Africa (national/provincial/municipal), including business/trade licensing, food premises compliance (CoA/Regulation R638), fire compliance processes and liquor licensing where applicable; ability to translate requirements into practical checklists and workflows.

Ability to work across different municipalities and provinces with varying by-laws and processes, and to manage multiple regulators/inspection regimes with consistent internal standards.

High attention to detail and quality control in compiling and reviewing statutory applications and supporting packs.

Excellent planning, prioritisation and deadline management across a high-volume portfolio (applications, renewals and variations) with competing store timelines.

Stakeholder management and clear written/verbal communication, including professional engagement with regulators, consultants, store teams and internal governance stakeholders.

Strong administrative and records management discipline; ability to maintain audit-ready files and registers and to produce reliable status reporting.

Problem-solving capability to resolve application queries, identify bottlenecks, and drive closure with appropriate escalation.

Systems proficiency (MS Office—especially Excel), document management tools and experience working with trackers/databases; comfort working with workflow tools (SharePoint/Teams/other licensing systems) is advantageous.

Key responsibilities

Licensing lifecycle management monitoring

Maintain a master licensing calendar and register for all sites (by store/site and business unit), including statutory expiry dates, lead-times, fees estimate, conditions, inspection requirements, and escalation triggers.

Monitor applications, renewals and amendments for relevant licence/permit categories including business/trade licences (municipal), food premises Certificate of Acceptability (CoA) (Regulation R638), and other Local municipal operational licences/permissions required for trading.

Licensing lifecycle management (all licences: new, renewals, amendments)

Prepare, compile, submit and track applications, renewals and amendments for the following: relevant licence/permit categories, including (as applicable to the site): Liquor licences (provincial), TV licences for business televisions, and other Provincial or National operational licences/permissions required for trading.

Develop and maintain standardised checklists and submission packs by licence type and municipality/province, ensuring application quality and consistency across the estate.

Proactively monitor and action renewals within agreed lead-times to avoid lapses, penalties or enforcement action, and to protect uninterrupted trading.

Stakeholder liaison & document collation

Liaise with store teams, Property/Store Development, Operations, Facilities, Finance and external parties (landlords/sellers/attorneys/consultants/service providers) to obtain, verify and quality-check supporting documentation (e.g., entity documents, proof of premises rights, zoning, building plans, site plans, photographs, fire equipment service records, waste contracts and any municipal forms required).

Provide practical guidance to stores and project teams on licence requirements and document standards, and ensure submissions are complete, consistent and aligned to the applicable municipal/provincial requirements before lodgement.

Legal drafting, submissions & regulatory engagement

Draft and co-ordinate required resolutions, affidavits, notices and supporting submissions for lodgement with licensing authorities, ensuring alignment to Pick n Pay governance requirements and consistent sign-off practices.

Engage with regulators and authorities (municipal licensing offices, Environmental Health, fire authorities, provincial liquor boards and other relevant bodies) and respond to queries, objections and requests for further information, escalating material issues to Legal/Compliance for decision and risk management.

Support the appointment and management of external licensing consultants/service providers (where used), including briefing, tracking deliverables, verifying submissions and maintaining evidence of lodgement and approvals.

Where required, support preparation and collation of documentation connected to licensing outcomes (e.g., lease and title deed packs, zoning/land-use approvals, fire system certificates of service, and other premises compliance documents), and maintain a central repository of executed/issued documents.

Store openings, alterations and evidence packs

Support store opening, refurbishment and change programmes by aligning key licensing milestones (trade licence, CoA, fire compliance, liquor where applicable, signage permits and other required approvals) with Property/Construction plans, and flag risks to go-live dates early.

Source and co-ordinate plans, photographs and compliance evidence required for inspections and approvals (including Environmental Health and fire inspections), ensuring evidence is current, correctly indexed and easily retrievable.

Co-ordinate signage-related submissions and supporting evidence (where municipal permits/approvals apply) and maintain site-level proof of approvals.

Assist internal teams and/or appointed service providers to obtain municipal documentation required for licensing readiness (e.g., zoning/land-use confirmations, building plan approvals, occupancy-related confirmations where applicable), and track to completion.

Records, databases, controls and reporting

Maintain an accurate licensing register (by store/site) and an audit-ready document repository for all licence/permit categories, including certificates, renewal confirmations, conditions, correspondence and proof of submission/payment (including business TV licence evidence where televisions are used on business premises).

Maintain related premises compliance documentation databases relevant to licensing (e.g., lease/title deed repository, zoning approvals, CoA files, fire compliance certificates, and other site compliance records) to support submissions, renewals and audits.

Provide regular status reporting (weekly/monthly) on application pipelines, renewals due, inspection outcomes, queries and trading risks to Group Legal & key business stakeholders.

Support internal audits, regulator inspections and information requests by producing complete, verifiable licensing files and registers and tracking remediation actions where gaps are identified.

Closing Date: 13 June 2026

If you like wild growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you'll enjoy your career with us!

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