Product Manager - remote

A global freight forwarding and logistics service provider, helping businesses manage international supply chains and local distribution, is seeking a Product Manager (internally, Product Owner) who will be the single point of accountability for an IT product across its full lifecycle—from inception through operation to retirement.

Responsibilities:

• Pillar 1: Financial & Investment Accountability (Own the Money)

  • Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Manage the complete financial picture across run and change costs, ensuring zero unmanaged spend.

  • Tiered Costing: Maintain a structured cost model (Direct $\rightarrow$ Allocated $\rightarrow$ Unknown) targeting $\ge 80\%$ Cost Confidence; proactively close financial gaps.

  • Unit Economics & Governance: Track unit economics (cost per user/transaction/capability), explain monthly budget variances, and manage vendor contract renewals.

  • Financial Gatekeeping: Review and approve all invoices prior to payment ("No PO sign-off, no payment") and produce annual data-backed investment recommendations.

• Pillar 2: Product Strategy & Lifecycle Ownership (Own the Direction)

  • Product Definition: Create and maintain the Product Canvas and Charter detailing the why, who, what, and how.

  • Rolling Roadmap: Own a 12+ month rolling roadmap across 5 swimlanes (Business Capability, User/Stakeholder, Data & Integration, Platform/Tech, Risk & Compliance).

  • Lifecycle Positioning: Establish evidence-backed lifecycle positions (Retain, Grow, Consolidate, Migrate, or Retire) reviewed annually.

  • Outcome-Driven Metrics: Assign a named sponsor, KPI, and measurable target to every initiative; validate value realization (revenue enabled, cost avoided, hours saved).

• Pillar 3: Business Stakeholder Leadership (Own the Relationships)

  • Strategic Advisory: Frame business requests against value, cost, and risk rather than acting as a ticket processor.

  • Stakeholder Mapping: Map stakeholders using a Power/Interest matrix and tailor engagement based on sentiment (Champion, Supportive, Neutral, Resistant).

  • Governance Reviews: Run recurring business reviews tailored to product criticality; diplomatically challenge requests using objective data.
• Pillar 4: Service, Vendor & Operational Performance (Own the Performance)

  • End-to-End Ownership: Retain accountability for overall service delivery regardless of the underlying vendor or delivery model.

  • Vendor & SLA Management: Evaluate vendors via scorecards, trend analysis, and SLAs; track user adoption and satisfaction alongside technical metrics.

  • Escalations & Improvements: Lead root-cause escalations and make data-driven commercial recommendations (renew, renegotiate, exit). Partner with Service Owners on day-to-day operations.

• Pillar 5: Security, Risk & Compliance (Own the Risk)

  • Continuous Posture: Actively manage security, risk, and compliance posture (including POPIA/GDPR). Remediate security findings to closure.

  • Access & Continuity: Enforce least-privilege governance (MFA/SSO), validate vendor security attestations, and ensure BCP/DR plans are tested.

  • Risk Formalization: Formally remediate, accept, or escalate risks, signing off on annual residual risk.
• Pillar 6: Customer Insight & Thought Leadership (Maturity Horizon)

  • Market Benchmarking: Perform continuous market scanning, competitor analysis, and customer discovery to inform the product roadmap.

  • Domain Leadership: Act as a subject matter expert by publishing points of view, guiding executive strategy, and translating logistics/tech trends into strategic advantage.

  • Innovation & AI: Champion domain innovation (including AI and automation opportunities) and represent customer needs during prioritization.

• Pillar 7: Technical & Architecture Ownership (Maturity Horizon)

  • Architectural Decisions: Own key technical trade-offs in collaboration with Enterprise Architecture, Cloud, Identity, and Security teams.

  • Technical Depth: Maintain deep knowledge of the technology stack, API/integration landscape, data flows, and technical debt to drive build-vs-buy decisions.

  • Standards Alignment: Ensure technical decisions align with organizational governance, ITIL standards, and security-by-design principles.

• Ownership & Accountability: Ability to operate independently as a single point of accountability.

• Technical Depth: Solid understanding of software architecture, APIs, integrations, and cloud infrastructure. Engineering background strongly preferred.

• Thought Leadership: Proven track record of influencing leadership and driving strategic direction.

• Financial Acumen: Comfort with P&L/TCO models, unit economics, budget variances, and vendor contracts.

• Evidence-Based Decision Making: Data-driven approach to prioritizing features and assessing trade-offs.

• Stakeholder Management: Exceptional negotiation, advisory, and conflict-resolution skills across global teams.

• Agile Fluency: Hands-on experience with Agile/Scrum frameworks, backlog refinement, and capacity planning.

• Security & Compliance Awareness: Knowledge of enterprise risk management and regulatory requirements (POPIA/GDPR).

• Communication: Fluency in written and spoken English. Additional languages are beneficial.

• Preferred Qualifications & Experience

  • Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or an equivalent field.

  • Certifications: Product Management certifications (e.g., Pragmatic Institute, SAFe PO/PM) are advantageous.

  • Experience: 5+ years in IT product ownership, technical product management, or senior solution architecture roles with direct TCO/P&L accountability.

  • Industry Domain: Prior IT experience within logistics, supply chain, or warehousing environments.

  • Continuous Development: Willingness to undertake role baselining assessments and pursue targeted skill development aligned with enterprise frameworks.

Benefits:

Competitive salary based on experience (salary can potentially be more based on experience/skills)

IF you meet the above requirements and want to make a career-changing move, apply today by emailing your CV to itcareers@hireresolve.za.com