Commercial Executive at Vector Logistics

Job Purpose

• To provide strategic commercial and financial leadership, driving sustainable growth, profitability and long-term business performance.
• Act as a strategic partner to Executive, Customer and Operations leadership teams and supporting the delivery of Vector's strategic objectives.
• Drive customer and principal value creation through commercial insight, pricing excellence, contract management and relationship development.
• Identify, evaluate and enable growth opportunities that enhance revenue, market position and competitive advantage.
• Ensure effective cost management, financial performance tracking and profitability optimisation across the business.
• Provide commercial governance and risk management oversight to support sustainable and responsible business growth while supporting innovation, business development and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Leverage commercial, operational and financial insights to improve decision-making, operational efficiency and value creation across the logistics value chain.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Contribution 

• Lead the development and execution of Vector's commercial strategy to drive sustainable revenue growth, profitability and long-term business value
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with key customers, principals and business partners to strengthen customer retention, growth and service excellence.
• Identify and evaluate new business opportunities, market segments, partnerships and service offerings that support business growth objectives.
• Provide leadership on pricing strategy, customer profitability, contract negotiations and commercial decision-making
• Oversee the commercial opportunity pipeline, ensuring robust governance, financial evaluation and alignment to strategic priorities.
• Lead commercial risk management activities, ensuring contractual, financial and operational risks are identified and appropriately mitigated.
• Leverage commercial analytics and digital solutions where appropriate, to identify trends, improve decision-making and unlock growth opportunities.
• Drive innovation and sustainability initiatives that create competitive advantage, enhance customer value and support Vector's long-term growth ambitions.
• Support the commercialisation of sustainability and ESG initiatives that create customer and business value.
• Evaluate commercial opportunities arising from technology advancements, sustainability trends and evolving customer requirements.
• Promote continuous improvement and business transformation initiatives across the organisation.
• Ensure that assigned and agreed strategic targets are operationalised and achieved.
• Drive the provision of strategic commercial and Operations financial support and constantly evaluate alignment and execution against Business requirements.

Customer and Principal Growth

• Develop and execute customer and principal growth strategies aligned to business objectives.
• Build executive-level relationships with strategic customers and principals to drive retention, growth and long-term partnership value.
• Identify opportunities to expand services, improve customer profitability and increase share of wallet.
• Lead customer business reviews and facilitate strategic engagement with key stakeholders.
• Drive customer-centric solutions that strengthen Vector's competitive position and support sustainable growth.
• Monitor market trends and customer requirements to identify new revenue opportunities.

Budgeting and Forecasting

• Oversee national operations costs to ensure the optimal utilisation of budgets
• Coordinate and control the entire Company’s budget process and delivery within deadlines.
• Prepare the operations budget and forecasting timetable
• Ensure that expense budgets are based on agreed economic indicators.
• Oversee the consolidation of the budget input from the various businesses and sense check reasonableness.
• Consolidate and coordinate the Capex budget within agreed parameters.
• Review the consolidated results of the budgeting and sales forecasting processes, including volume and distribution revenue analysis.
• Provide insight and interpret the impact of key cost drivers on profitability at a leadership level.
• Liaise with the project steercom regarding the prioritisation of projects based on return on investment, risk etc. and for guidance on the Capex budget and forecasts.
• Report summarized budget in the required format to the Executive team.
• Prepare and present executive summary and ensure that the final budget document / presentation reflects the strategic intent and adequately communicates the year’s ‘story’ and explains major variances.
• Review the monthly reports detailing customer and principal sales and performance and engage with the senior leadership of the Business regarding any opportunities.
• Report on a regular basis on actual KPI’s versus budget and work with regional teams to address areas of non-conformance or concern proactively and timeously.
• Implement and encourage cost management initiatives across the regional teams where these do not impact on long term business sustainability.
• Ensure that strategic business risks are mitigated within budgetary constraints through the allocation of spend to areas of high priority across the regions.

Customer Pricingand Contract Oversight

• Oversee the provision of pricing support to the Customer Director for the successful conclusion of annual price negotiations that meet profitability objectives.
• Review consolidated performance data and reinforce engagement with the Business leadership and customers/principals regarding opportunities relating to, among others, improved efficiencies and incentives.
• Oversee contract and service level agreement management by the Commercial and Finance teams ensuring compliance with the agreed commercial aspects contained therein.

Activity-Based CostingModel Oversight and Profitability Analysis

• Oversee the functionality and accuracy of the activity based costing model and leverage its information to guide the business on pricing decisions, efficiency opportunities and cost containment.
• Provide meaningful profitability information by customer and principal across all business units.

New Project Appraisal and Feasibility Assessment Oversight (Business Cases)

• Oversee the appraisal and feasibility assessment of all new projects and efficiency initiatives and provide strategic commercial insight.
• Oversee project costing for accuracy and profitability.
• Proposal Management : Oversee the Commercial input for responses to proposal requests from potential principals or customers ensuring compliance with proposal requirements and alignment with the business strategy.

Capital Investment

• Lead the commercial input for all new investment opportunities.
• Lead the preparation of Capex motivations to support sustainable investment.
• Report and provide recommendations regarding profitability.
• Lead the reporting of post implementation reviews to the business.

Commercial Insight and Technical Expertise

• Oversee calculations, analysis and associated recommendations emanating from any and all queries that arise as a result of changes in business operations, the economic climate or potentially might offer more profitable solutions.
• Provide expertise to executive team and to internal clients and recommend solutions based on insights and findings.
• Provide practical and strategic commercial expertise and insights to external customers and principals as part of regular engagement or ad hoc requests.
• Provide strategic commercial insight for new projects including the application of financial modelling tools such as discounted cash flows to evaluate the financial benefits and payback of new projects.
• Lead the preparation of motivations for Capex’s including presentations to the Exec team and Board.
• Provide strategic commercial insight in the implementation of projects related to Operations.

Financial and Commercial Reporting

• Perform comparative analyses of results to budget, forecast and last year to test accuracy and reasonableness.
• Provide input to EXCO for commentary on monthly reports.
• Drive the operationalization of opportunities for value added reporting to improve the quality and content of reporting and message management.

Staff Leadership

• Lead, develop and inspire a high-performing commercial team aligned to Vector's values and strategic objectives.
• Manage performance, succession planning, talent development and employee engagement to ensure sustainable capability and leadership continuity.
• Encourage a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement and customer focus.
• Ensure compliance with all relevant labour legislation, employment practices and company policies.
• Build multidisciplinary capability and encourage knowledge sharing, innovation and professional development across the team.
• Manage staff leave and general time management in line with organisational deliverables and standards.
• Manage and deliver on succession plans to enable the development of a future generation of leaders and specialists and ensure optimal turnover and retention levels are maintained.
• Champion staff training and development through the utilisation of available training opportunities or contributing to the development of new training solutions in collaboration with national training specialists.
• Conduct regular performance appraisals with subordinates.
• Lead the team towards meeting the strategy and targets through regular communication and utilisation of the full organisational talent management tool set.
• Conduct regular meetings and ensure that records and action plans are maintained and shared across the team.

Key Relationships

Internal

• Vector Board
• Customer team
• Operations management
• Regional and shared service finance teams
• Sales team
• Vector procurement team

External

• Legal representatives
• Auditors
• Existing and potential customers
• Principals and Customers Suppliers

Qualifications, Skills and Experience Required for the Job

Qualifications and Experience

• Minimum Qualification : CA or CMA
• 15 years’ experience, including commercial costing, operational financial support and reporting.
• SAP experience would be advantageous as would exposure to a supply chain/FMCG/ logistics environment.
• People management and cross functional engagement.
• Strong proficiency in SAP, BW or similar reporting systems, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, reporting dashboards and commercial management tools.
• Knowledge of South African transport, logistics and supply chain regulatory requirements will be advantageous.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to balance revenue growth, customer value and profitability.
• Excellent negotiation, presentation and executive stakeholder engagement skills.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to translate market opportunities into actionable commercial plans.
• Strong analytical capability, including pipeline analysis, customer profitability reviews and pricing assessment.
• High level of resilience, urgency and accountability in a competitive logistics environment.
• Ability to work cross-functionally with operations, finance, procurement, fleet and customer service teams.
• Strong leadership capability with the ability to motivate teams, manage performance and build a result-driven culture.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Skills and Competencies

• Financial modelling, feasibility studies and investment appraisal.
• Commercial and strategic analysis.
• Problem solving, decision-making and analytical thinking.
• Strategic influencing and negotiation.
• Verbal and written communication, presentation and stakeholder engagement.
• Relationship management and customer engagement.
• Advanced computer literacy (MS Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint).
• Commercial acumen and organizational awareness.
• Innovation, continuous improvement and lateral thinking.
• Ability to leverage technology and data-driven insights.