Cluster Engineering Capex Lead at Unilever

JOB PURPOSE

• This role exists to lead the delivery of the Southern Africa cluster capital expenditure (Capex) program with a primary focus on financial governance, compliance, and performance reporting. You will ensure robust adherence to accounting standards, accurate forecasting, and transparent tracking of Capex performance, embedding financial discipline into engineering operations. The role integrates finance expertise with operational execution to drive value-based decision-making, strategic alignment, and operational excellence across the Southern Africa cluster. In addition, you will champion digital transformation through advanced reporting tools and dashboards, enabling data-driven insights and predictive analytics. As a key member of the SnA Team, you will contribute to the end-to-end design and delivery of the cluster Capex program while building financial capability across teams. You’ll be part of a team that believes in doing work that matters — for people and the planet. Because here, we don’t just hire for jobs. We invite you to be part of something bigger.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead capital expenditure planning and governance, ensuring adherence to accounting policies, and driving net productivity.
• Challenge and influence capex decisions to ensure financial prudence and strategic alignment.
• Develop and maintain forecasting tools and dashboards (e.g., Power BI, Jazz), driving digital transformation, through system integration and AI-enabled decision support.
• Act as Marlin/Jazz system lead for Southern Africa, providing user support, training, access control, and maintaining the Schedule of Authority (SOA).
• Deliver regular training sessions on CEPs, DCFs and governance for engineers and finance teams to embed governance and forecasting principles.
• Lead post-investment reviews and savings tracking to ensure capital efficiency.
• Support succession planning through structured handover modules and mentoring.

OUTPUT / PERFORMANCE METRICS

• Forecast accuracy and governance compliance.
• OTIF delivery of Project Reports and Performance Reports.
• Delivery of Cluster Eng. Metrics for Capex
• Annual Capex delivery vs. target
• Net Productivity bias
• Number of training sessions delivered, and feedback received.
• Engagement in One Engineering Community and cross-functional initiatives.

EXPERIENCE & PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Finance degree

SKILLS

• Strong attention to detail
• High bias for action, responsibility and integrity