Product Lead
Posted 25 Aug 2026
Advertised as “Product Lead (Dark Store Fulfilment Systems)”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 7+ yrs
- Management level
- People management
- Employment
- Hybrid
No salary listed for this role.
Study levelDiploma or higher
Takealot.com, a leading South African online retailer, is looking for a highly talented Product Lead for our Dark Store Systems to join our team in South Africa.
The Product Lead owns the strategic roadmap and functional requirements for our hyper-local micro-fulfillment network. This role serves as the bridge between operations, commercial teams, and engineering to enable ultra-fast delivery.
Your mission is to establish the core software foundations for our dark store operations, ensuring seamless inventory movement from our central supply chain right through to the customer's digital basket, culminating in a frictionless digital handoff to the on-demand delivery fleet.
Think you’ve been challenged before? Think again!
- Scale: Over 4 million happy shoppers shop online on takealot.com and Mr D. 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.
Who’s who
This position reports to the Head of Product (Takealot Group Fulfilment).
Your immediate key responsibilities will include:
- WMS Vendor Selection & Implementation: Drive the functional evaluation, vendor selection, and implementation roadmap for a scalable Warehouse Management System (WMS) tailored for rapid dark store picking, ensuring integration into our existing core systems.
- DC to Dark Store Workflows: Own the product requirements for stock transfer workflows between Main DCs and local dark stores. Define the business logic for automated replenishment triggers based on velocity and minimum stock thresholds.
- Real-Time Stock Availability: Establish data freshness SLAs and business rules for displaying live dark store stock to our online shopping platforms. Partner with engineering to prioritize high-throughput, low-latency solutions that scale.
- Overselling Prevention Logic: Define rules for dynamic inventory safety buffers and stock caching. Ensure the system accurately reflects fast-moving item availability to prevent bad customer experiences from out-of-stock orders.
- Driver-to-Store Handshake: Own the digital workflow that transitions an order from the packing table to the on-demand driver.