Product Lead – Commission Cycle Transformation (6+ Month Contract)

Our client is undertaking a major transformation of its Sales Administration Commission Cycle — a core financial process responsible for calculating, validating, accruing, and paying commissions across multiple business units and up to 3,000 entities per month.

We are seeking a Product Lead who will also act as:

• Delivery Manager, and
• Lead Business / Technical Analyst

for this initiative. This is a hands-on role suited to someone who can own the problem end-to-end: shaping the product vision, structuring complex rules, leading analysis, coordinating delivery, and ensuring the solution is commercially viable, auditable, and fit for purpose .\

Project Context

The commission cycle currently spans multiple systems (including OPS, legacy platforms, Oracle Fusion, and spreadsheets) and is heavily rule-driven. Over time, this has created:

• High operational complexity,
• Strong dependency on IT for changes and fault-finding,
• Limited configurability by the business, and
• Growing financial and audit risk.

The direction is therefore a bespoke, modular solution, designed to:

• Separate rule management from calculation and posting,
• Enable Sales Administration to manage rules and exceptions directly,
• Integrate cleanly with Oracle Fusion, and
• Support future analytics and automation.

The Product Lead will play a central role in turning an already substantial body of business knowledge into a clear, implementable product and delivery roadmap.

Key Responsibilities

Product Leadership

• Own the product vision and scope for the commission cycle solution.
• Translate business objectives into a clear, modular product structure.
• Balance short-term delivery needs with long-term scalability and governance.

Business & Technical Analysis

• Consolidate and formalise existing commission, incentive, and split rules.
• Design rule structures, data models, and calculation logic suitable for systemisation.
• Define commissionable transaction lifecycles and state transitions.
• Produce high-quality functional and technical specifications.

Delivery Management

• Plan and manage phased delivery, including discovery, design, build, and rollout.
• Coordinate internal stakeholders (Sales Admin, Finance, IT) and external service providers.
• Drive prioritisation, dependency management, and delivery cadence.
• Own acceptance criteria, testing strategy, and business sign-off.

Vendor & Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as the primary interface between ooba and the selected development partner.
• Challenge and validate solution designs to protect business intent.
• Facilitate structured decision-making across Sales, Finance, and Technology.

Governance & Control

• Ensure rules are date-effective, version-controlled, and auditable.
• Design processes for exception handling, overrides, and approvals.
• Support reconciliation, accrual accuracy, and financial integrity.

Required Experience & SkillsCore Experience

• 10+ years in business analysis, product ownership, or solution design roles.
• Proven experience delivering bespoke, rules-driven systems.
• Strong exposure to financial processes (commissions, incentives, pricing, accruals, or settlements).
• Experience working with or integrating into financial systems (Oracle preferred).

Analytical & Technical Capability

• Exceptional ability to structure complex, ambiguous rules into clear models.
• Comfortable designing data structures, decision tables, and calculation logic.
• Able to bridge business language and technical implementation.
• Experience producing detailed specifications that developers can build from.

Delivery & Leadership

• Confident leading workstreams without formal authority.
• Able to operate as both strategist and hands-on analyst.
• Comfortable working with external vendors and holding them accountable.
• Strong communication and facilitation skills with senior stakeholders.

Mindset & Attributes

• Systems thinker with a strong sense of commercial impact.
• Detail-oriented, disciplined, and outcomes-focused.
• Pragmatic: able to balance ideal architecture with real-world constraints.
• Comfortable working in an environment where not everything is defined upfront.

Contract Details

• Engagement: Initial 6-month contract, with intention to extend to 12 months.
• Start Date: Asap.
• Location: Cape Town (hybrid / remote possible).
• Rate: Market-related (negotiable based on experience).

Why This Role Is Different

This is not a traditional BA or PM role.

You will:

• Shape a core financial product, not just document requirements.
• Influence how Sales Administration operates long-term.
• Work on a system that directly impacts revenue, cost of sales, and audit outcomes.
• Have real ownership, autonomy, and visibility at executive level.