Product Manager (Machine Learning)

Takealot.com, South Africa's leading online retailer, is looking for a highly talented Product Manager in Machine Learning to join our team in Cape Town.

We are a young, dynamic, hyper-growth company looking for smart, creative, hard-working people with integrity to join us!

Think you've been challenged before? Think again!

• Scale: Over 2.5 million happy shoppers shop online on takealot.com. Show them what you can do.
• Learn: We work with the best of the best, and then some. Code alongside industry leaders and upskill in record time.
• Grow: Expand your career in the fast-growing Takealot Group: takealot.com, Superbalist.com and Mr D Food. We like to promote from within: Here's your chance.

This position reports to the Product Lead (Artificial Intelligence)

Your responsibilities will include the following:

• Create and facilitate the delivery of the Machine Learning roadmap for one or more of the Takealot Group’s key AI focus areas:
  • Merchants (Retail & Marketplace)
  • Supply Chain & Logistics
• You will work closely with relevant business units to identify opportunities for driving meaningful business results through ML solutions and then work with stakeholders to prioritize projects for roadmap inclusion.
• Work hand-in-hand with a team of dedicated machine learning engineers, aiming to deliver projects reliably against projected roadmap timelines (set and communicated to stakeholders quarterly by you).
• You will also be responsible for defining and reporting on the success metrics of the projects on your roadmap.
• Effectively move the needle of your vertical’s “North Star” metric through consistent execution of machine learning projects.
• Becoming an effective evangelist of machine learning within the business vertical you serve; helping stakeholders understand the capabilities and potential value of ML as well as its limitations.
• Solve stakeholder and customer needs in a novel and iterative manner.
• Balance longer-term product vision and goals with short-term wins. 

Attributes Required:

• Ability to distill technical subjects to their fundamental concepts, to facilitate the effective exchange of ideas between business stakeholders and software development teams.
• Strong commercial acumen for understanding the factors driving business success in a fast-paced e-commerce environment
• Be comfortable with data deep-diving, individually and collaboratively, in order to generate product-level insights.
• Being proactive in exploring your problem space and surroundings, in support of the product vision and roadmap of your team.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to reduce uncertainty and set actionable deliverables.
• Has a drive to actively unlearn and relearn mental models for as long as there is supporting data.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Product experience:
  • Bachelor’s Degree or Advanced Diploma in a related field (Management Science, Statistics, Data Science or Computer Science) with at least 5 years of product management experience or exposure (through projects or responsibilities)
  • In the event that the candidate does not have a Bachelor's Degree or Advanced Diploma in a related field (Management Science, Statistics, Data Science or Computer Science), an equivalent experience requirement must be met, which equates to at least 8 years of product management experience or exposure (through projects or responsibilities)
  • Experience leading and executing cross-functional projects, preferably in high-traffic environments.
  • Familiarity and proficiency with agile methods and tools to support project management in a timeline-sensitive environment.
  • High accountability when it comes to meeting deadlines and ship dates.
  • Preferably, a proven track record in delivering machine learning and/or data products including defining AI/ML problems, defining data strategies, building ML MVPs, and subsequent maturing iterations at scale.

• Data experience:
  • A solid understanding of AI/ML and engineering fundamentals, allowing you to understand and earn the respect of experienced machine learning engineers and data scientists.
  • Experience with either Python or R/RStudio as an aide to product decision-making.
  • Experience with Google sheets and/or Microsoft Excel at an advanced level.
  • Experience with MySQL or PostgreSQL, and BigQuery or a similar technology, preferably in a high-load environment.

The Environment: 

• takealot.com employees are entrepreneurial and dynamic, smart, customer-centric, fun and have the shared ambition of takealot.com being the leading e-commerce company in Africa. 
• We have fun, work hard, take ownership, work in teams to create solutions, and are always open to direct feedback/new ideas on where we can improve. 
• We are short on ego and high on output. 
• We are doers and not only thinkers, it is all in the execution after all.
• We love what we do and what we are creating.

Let’s talk about life @ Takealot Group

• The power is in your hands: We offer a market-related, Total Remuneration Package that allows full flexibility according to your needs. Go on, be the master of your own destiny.
• No doors: We aren’t fans of stuffy offices or siloed work environments. See someone you like? High five, collab and make something great.
• Remote working: Love water cooler chats and working from home? Takealot.com offers a hybrid working model for the best of both worlds.
• Mentorship programme: We aren’t kidding when we say the people with the best people win. Now’s your chance to be one of the best, by learning from the best.
• Naspers Tech Community & Online Learning: Share ideas and grow with global industry leaders who are all just a Slack message away. Love to learn? Up-skill with free access to courses on MyAcademy, Udacity, Coursera and more.
• Good times: Get to know the other extraordinary minds at takealot.com during regular social events and out-of-office activities (think hikes, think mini-golf, think good times).
• Staff discount. Millions of products across 28 departments. What more could you ask for?
• Birthday leave: Cake Day all the way. Enjoy your day off - you deserve it. 
• Right tools, right job: Mac or Windows, two monitors or one. Whatever your preference, you’ll work on the latest tech, off the latest tech.
• Help when you need it most: Confidential counselling, legal support and financial guidance, for free, anytime, anywhere.
• Free parking: No more 5km fun runs to your desk (unless you want to).

Like what you see? 

If you meet the above you are an Extraordinary Mind. Apply today!!

Takealot is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants from the previously disadvantaged groups and people with disabilities will be given preference.