Operations Manager [Cross Border]

Takealot.com, a leading South African online retailer, is looking for a highly talented Operations Manager 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. We offer a market-related, Total Remuneration Package which allows full flexibility according to your needs, a great work environment and a promise that you won't be bored as long as you are prepared for a challenge and want to build something great.

This is a senior position reporting to the Head of Cross-Border Commerce.

Purpose of the Role

Takealot.com is building a cross-border commerce business unit from the ground up, enabling international sellers to reach South African consumers through Africa's leading e-commerce marketplace. The Operations Manager, Cross-Border Selling is responsible for designing, implementing, and continuously improving the systems, processes, and performance frameworks that make this channel operate at scale — spanning the full seller lifecycle from registration and onboarding through to fulfilment, inventory management, and seller performance. This role is the operational backbone of the cross-border channel: it sets the standards, builds the infrastructure, and drives the collaboration that enables international sellers to succeed on Takealot while consistently delivering a high-quality experience for South African customers.

Key Responsibilities

Seller Registration & Onboarding

• Design and own the end-to-end process for registering and onboarding international sellers onto the Takealot platform. Build a framework that is scalable, compliant with cross-border trade and import requirements, and quality-controlled — ensuring every seller that goes live meets Takealot's standards before their first order is placed.

Order Fulfilment & Logistics Framework

• Design and manage the operational framework that governs the movement of goods from seller warehouses in their origin country through to Takealot's local warehouses and, ultimately, to the South African customer. Define SLAs at each stage of the logistics chain, build exception-management processes, and work with logistics partners and internal fulfilment teams to ensure consistent, on-time delivery.

Inventory Management

• Own the processes and standards for inventory management across the cross-border channel covering seller stock held in origin-country warehouses and stock held locally. Design workflows that maintain healthy stock levels, enable accurate stock balancing between locations, and minimise out-of-stock and overstock situations.

Product Quality & Listing Standards

• Establish and enforce product quality standards from the point of listing request through to post-sale customer feedback. Define the requirements sellers must meet for product content, imagery, and compliance with South African consumer and import standards. Build feedback loops that surface quality issues early and drive corrective action.

Seller Communications

• Design and own a structured, scalable seller communications framework that keeps international sellers informed, compliant, and supported at every stage of their lifecycle. This includes onboarding communications, operational updates, performance feedback, and compliance notifications.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Act as the primary operational interface between the Cross-Border team and Takealot's internal services — including warehousing, fulfilment, marketplace, tech/product, finance, and legal teams. Drive alignment on processes, SLAs, and platform capabilities to ensure the cross-border channel is fully integrated into Takealot's broader operational ecosystem.

Seller Experience & Performance Management

• Own the frameworks, metrics, and processes used to monitor and manage seller performance. Define seller health scores, track performance against agreed SLAs, and build structured improvement loops that escalate underperformance and reward excellence.

Data, Reporting & Operational Visibility

• Build and maintain the reporting infrastructure that gives the cross-border business real-time visibility into operational performance across all key metrics. Use data to identify problems before they escalate, prioritise improvement initiatives, and provide senior stakeholders with accurate, timely reporting.

Compliance Framework Design

• Define the cross-border compliance requirements that sellers and logistics partners must meet — covering import documentation, product standards, regulatory requirements, and operational SLAs. This role sets the framework and holds parties accountable; direct execution of customs clearance, SARB payment flows, or SARS filings remains with sellers and their appointed third parties.

Continuous Improvement & Problem-Solving

• Identify operational bottlenecks, process gaps, and systemic risks across the cross-border channel. Lead root-cause analysis and drive the design and implementation of durable solutions. Own improvement projects end-to-end, from problem definition through to outcome measurement.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience in cross-border commerce, marketplace operations, international trade, or e-commerce logistics — with proven, hands-on experience in a similar role. Broad exposure without delivery ownership is insufficient.
• Bachelor's degree in Commerce, Supply Chain Management, Logistics, International Trade, or a related field.
• Demonstrable track record of designing and implementing operational processes and frameworks at scale, ideally within a marketplace or platform environment.
• Deep, working knowledge of cross-border trade: international logistics flows, import and export documentation requirements, compliance frameworks, and trade regulations relevant to South Africa or comparable markets.
• Strong analytical and data skills — able to build operational models, interpret large datasets, identify patterns, and translate data into clear decisions and recommendations.
• Proven ability to solve complex, ambiguous operational problems independently — with evidence of root-cause thinking and durable solutions rather than short-term fixes.
• Experience working in or with an e-commerce marketplace is strongly preferred.

Desired Skills & Attributes

• Analytical rigour: Breaks down complex problems using structured frameworks and data. Comfortable with quantitative analysis and building models to support decision-making.
• Problem-solving track record: Designs solutions that address root causes, not symptoms. Thrives in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and applies first-principles thinking under pressure.
• Data-driven decision-making: Uses data and operational insights as the primary lens for prioritisation, performance management, and escalation.
• Independence and ownership: A self-starter who takes full accountability for their deliverables and drives work to completion with minimal supervision.
• Learning agility: Fast learner who quickly develops competence in new domains — whether that is a new regulatory environment, a new market, or a new logistics model — and applies that knowledge immediately.
• Innovation: Actively seeks better ways of doing things. Challenges existing processes with evidence and proposes improvements that are practical and implementable.
• Leadership and influence: Leads through credibility and structured accountability. Able to hold sellers, logistics partners, and internal teams to agreed standards without direct authority.
• Communication: Clear and structured communicator — written and verbal. Able to translate operational complexity into plain language for seller, partner, and executive audiences. Produces sharp SOPs, briefs, and performance updat