Southern Africa Regional Manager

About Watsmen

Watsmen is building an engineering-led industrial group. We connect technical capability, disciplined execution and practical commercial judgement to deliver valuable industrial solutions.

Role Purpose

Build accountable Southern African execution around industrial customers, trade and logistics, processing partners and engineering-service interfaces. Convert regional relationships into reliable customer and operating evidence, and coordinate approved delivery without creating parallel Group strategy or unapproved local commitments.

Key Accountabilities

• Maintain a prioritised regional customer and opportunity portfolio based on verified needs, delivery capability, commercial merit and a named Group owner for each material pursuit.
• Coordinate trade and logistics interfaces across relevant corridors, identifying route, supplier, processing and delivery constraints and returning actionable evidence to Group Trade and commercial owners.
• Develop industrial customer and partner relationships with documented requirements, service expectations, capability checks and follow-up actions accessible to the institution.
• Connect regional engineering and project needs to the competent Group technical team; organise scoping and delivery interfaces without promising unverified engineering or certification capability.
• Maintain the South Africa Anchor's local readiness and control record with Finance, Legal, Risk and People, including entity truth, employment prerequisites, expenditures and compliance actions.
• Run regional performance and risk reviews that reconcile customer outcomes, contribution, cash, corridor performance and open issues; build practical local cover and transferable relationship knowledge.
• Develop regional accounts around accepted outcomes and repeat demand; coordinate trade execution and report contribution, cash, corridor constraints and capacity gaps through the shared customer record.

First 90 Days

• By day 30: Validate active customers, suppliers, processing partners and corridor dependencies; document the regional mandate, local control gaps and the most consequential delivery constraints.
• By day 60: Establish shared customer/corridor records and a regular operating review; develop qualified opportunity briefs and tested handover routes to trade and engineering owners.
• By day 90: Demonstrate measurable progress on approved customer or corridor priorities, with attributable evidence, current compliance actions and explicit recommendations to advance, pause or decline regional pursuits. Demonstrate regional account and execution evidence with accepted outcomes or verified buying milestones, repeat potential and recorded capacity gaps.

Essential Requirements

• Evidence of managing industrial customers, trade/logistics, resources or engineering-service activity across Southern Africa.
• Ability to combine local operating insight with commercial economics, customer requirements and disciplined execution.
• Experience coordinating technical, financial, legal and supply-chain contributors across organisational or national boundaries.
• Sound judgment on counterparty integrity, safety, local obligations and the limits of regional authority.
• Clear communication, credible stakeholder management and evidence of building durable systems and teams rather than privately held relationships.

Desirable Experience

• Experience with processing/supplier development and South Africa-linked regional logistics corridors.
• Relevant regional-language capability and experience introducing controlled customer relationship management (CRM), operating reviews or multi-entity coordination.

Authority And Decision Boundaries

• Coordinate the approved regional mandate, lead local relationships and recommend commercial or execution actions.
• No regional title grants technical certification, independent capital allocation, entity-creation or unrestricted contract authority; cross-border work and local operating company (OpCo) responsibilities remain separately governed.

Key Interfaces

Commercial & Partnerships Director and Group Trade Manager; Group Engineering and Project Engineering Manager; Mezzarion and Zimbabwe Country Director; Group Finance, Legal, Risk and People; Industrial customers, processing partners and logistics providers.

Commercial, Group Trade Manager and COO on regional accounts, execution constraints and repeat demand.

How Success Is Evidenced

• Verified customer progress, delivery outcomes and attributable commercial contribution.
• Corridor reliability, timely exception resolution and quality of regional evidence.
• Compliance readiness, accurate institutional records and effective cross-functional handovers.
• Accepted regional outcomes, repeat demand and contribution or collection progress with corridor and capacity gaps visible.

Activation And Delivery Readiness

Assigned work requires confirmed resources, competent delivery capacity and the applicable approvals. The role operates within its documented delegation; appointment alone does not confer contracting, spending, technical-approval or system-access authority.

Location And Travel

Johannesburg, South Africa. Customer, partner and site travel within South Africa and approved Southern African markets is expected; exact frequency and travel arrangements are confirmed before appointment.

Employment And Working Arrangements

Full-time employment, with annual performance reviews. Twelve-month renewable contracts where legally appropriate, with probation and renewal terms determined under local law.

Roles are on-site by default. Hybrid or remote working requires prior approval. No relocation assistance or visa support is provided.

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