Job at a glance
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 4.5 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 , TFS and Mr D. We like to promote from within: Here's your chance. This position reports to the Product Lead: Data Monetisation & ML 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). Gather and use quantitative and qualitative data to help formulate product requirements. 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. Become an effective evangelist of machine learning within the business vertical you serve; help stakeholders understand the capabilities and potential value of ML as well as its limitations. Break large problems into iterative improvements that meaningfully address stakeholder and customer needs.
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.
Be 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. Experience and Qualifications: Product experience: 7+ years of related and transferable experience or 3+ years of product management experience.
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 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. Preferable: Experience with either Python or R/RStudio as an aid to product decision-making.
Qualifications: P