takealot.com, a leading South African online retailer, is looking for a highly energetic and analytical Returns Outbound Manager in Johannesburg. The ideal candidate should have experience in reverse logistics, Distribution Centre Operations and the ecommerce environment.

We are a young, dynamic, hyper growth company looking for smart, creative, hardworking 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.

Purpose of position: Responsible for managing the Customer Returns within all Takealot Facilities as well as ensuring that SLA’s are met for the evaluation of these returns to ultimately unsure that our customers receive their preferred outcome. A leader of change, providing overall leadership and management in operational areas such as operational efficiency, continuous improvement, driving performance and optimally satisfying customer orders.

This position reports to the Returns DC manager. 

Your responsibilities will include:

• Lead the Return functions within the Johannesburg or Cape Town returns department
• Inbound operations will include Unloading, receiving, evaluating, filing and shipping of customer returns within the Takealot.com group
• Ensuring that customer returns are processed in time and in full daily
• Introduce and maintain daily productivity metrics to ensure that staff structures are running efficiently
• Management of the Return teams
• Manage and ensure that returns department is well organised and controlled to sufficiently support production and the goals of the business
• Manage stock movement between Good stock, bad stock and Recovery DC’s
• Intradepartmental inventory management to ensure that stock accuracy is at the highest level
• Implement improvement processes and maintain policies and procedures and systems to minimise costs and maximize working capital
• Daily, weekly & monthly commercial reporting management
• Ensuring all work areas are clean and tidy and safe for staff to work in (housekeeping)
• Maintain 5S principals withing the working environment
• Manage and implement the Returns Policy and ensure that it is strictly adhered to, from the time the returned stock arrives back at the warehouse.
• Escalation point for Customer Return queries from various functions within the business
• Manage control measures to ensure mistakes, inaccuracies and discrepancies are highlighted, addressed, and resolved
• Liaise with internal and external stakeholders
• Effective leadership and direction for the operations team through involvement and communication to deliver on the relevant key business drivers
• Measure and manage staff through formal staff appraisals, development, coaching and disciplinary procedures
• Conform to all Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) standards and legislation as set out by the business and the OHS Act
• Drive continuous improvement measures within your department
• Collaborate with project and operations managers
• Work on ad hoc projects and events.

Attributes required:

• Have a detailed understanding of inventory control / warehouse management systems (including reverse logistics)
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Possess excellent verbal and written communication skills for a demanding and customer focused working environment.
• Possess excellent personal organisation and business administration skills in accordance with modern best practice methods.
• Possess the ability to work productively, efficiently & effectively with initiative and drive under tight timescales and pressure whilst maintaining attention to detail and quality.
• Possess the willingness to learn, improve and adapt.
• Good team player, hard worker, willing to be flexible with a positive attitude
• Must be able to work as part of a multi-cultural team
• Must be willing to work overtime as and when required. This overtime will be unpaid due to the level of the position

Qualifications:

• Tertiary qualification / Diploma preferred in Logistics/Operations Management/ Supply Chain Management / Engineering or Business/Commerce Preferred
• 3 - 5 years field experience in operations
• Experience in the management of stock
• Strong People management
• Full understanding of a WMS, application, troubleshooting, and reporting dashboards
• Minimum 3 years’ experience in management role in operations

The Environment:

• 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’s all in the execution after all.
• We love what we do and what we are creating.

We seek to Employ an Extra Ordinary Mind who:

• is forthright but respectful
• is an expert at doing, who can not only design but also execute
• is analytical, able to use data to make decisions
• is competitive, self-directed and strive to be the BEST (GREAT requires a lot of work and does not only happen during business hours
• is passionate about the potential of e-commerce and delivering a world-class customer experience
• is entrepreneurial, thrives under change and accepts it is a constant and always looks for solutions to do something better and faster
• is business SMART. Able to think about problems from a business perspective using technical and product input
• is curious and challenge the status quo
• is innovative and enjoys iteration
• is collaborative
• will be at the cutting edge of developing new concepts for takealot.com.
• thinks like an owner of the business.
• is SMART, has INTEGRITY and is HARDWORKING