Principal Technical Product Manager

Main Purpose of the Role

Reporting to the Head of Software Engineering, the main purpose of this role is to drive the Technology strategy and execution by collaborating with key stakeholders to identify and define technology challenges, designing comprehensive specifications and data requirements for product deployment programs, while developing deep expertise in both technology solutions and our business domain to ensure strategic alignment and successful outcomes. The role could be based at our Randburg or Cape Town offices.

Key Performance Objectives

Research, Reporting and Benchmarking

• Organize experts from business lines, data scientists and engineers to create shared goals and specifications for Technology products
• Perform benchmarking and gap analysis on existing Emerging Technology solutions
• Identify opportunities to leverage common use cases across the group and drive cross-group Technology product development opportunities
• Oversee the delivery of accurate product roadmaps and timelines for key strategic Technology products
• Anticipate and identify new Technology trends/data needs

• Provide budgetary and forecasting support to the business
• Assist with the creation of business cases to support the justification of new AI initiatives
• Provide direction to the business for business opportunities and key saving initiatives

• Work with executives and business line stakeholders to define the problems we need to solve with Technology
• Help executives and business line stakeholders to prioritize and rank the Technology solutions proposed and, where appropriate, assist with business case creation
• Provide subject matter expertise in working with solution development teams to define and implement Technology solutions

• Define and implement a group-wide demand management and prioritization forum for Technology products
• Work with individual business units to ensure that their Technology priorities are in line with each other and with group priorities
• Identify opportunities to innovatively use Technology to provide strategic & operational insights to business
• Use Technology to generate new business insights
• Create Technology products that provide quantifiable business value
• Conduct deep dives and prepare Executive level quality presentations
• Lead the market discovery and innovation processes related to Technology solution domains
• Provide subject matter expertise in the review of data sets, whether for training, validation or testing
• Identify new Technology-driven solutions and evaluate such technologies
• Manage user acceptance testing to ensure the products deliver expected business value
• Develop and test Technology POCs making use of existing products or services

Qualification

• Post graduate degree in Engineering, Computer Science or Quantitative field (Econometrics, Mathematics or Statistics)

Experience and Knowledge

• A minimum of 8-10 years of relevant enterprise product development experience working as a lead developer, data scientist manager or product manager
• Experience defining and developing a new product or service
• Demonstrated commitment to learning about Emerging Technologies through own initiatives through courses, books, or side projects
• Basic statistics skills acquired through academic study (i.e. math, computer science, engineering, economics, physics) or comparable work experience
• Understand how the products are developed and the ethical responsibilities associated with AI and customer privacy implications
• Understand or be willing to build a strong capability in the use of Emerging Technologies in media across the media value chain and lifecycle

Technical Competencies

• Product Management
• Agile Software Development
• Project Management
• Cost/Budget Management
• Risk Management
• Customer Expectation Management
• Risk Management
• Market Intelligence

Behavioral Competencies

• Relationship Building
• Conflict Resolution
• Decision Making
• Critical Appraisal
• Holistic Thinking
• Persuading & Influence
• Coaching