Head Business Development (Fixed-Term Contract) at South African National Parks (SANParks)

• The Organisation requires the services of a Head: Business Development in the Tourism and Marketing Division on a fixed-term contract of 5 years. The role is to be based in any of the National Parks under our mandate.
• The role is to provide South African National Parks (SANParks) with strategic and operational direction in both Public Private Partnerships (PPP) as well as tourism business development opportunities.

Requirements

• NQF Level 8 in Commerce, Business, Marketing, Finance, or related field.
• NQF Level 9 in Commerce, Business Marketing, Administration, Finance, or related field will be advantageous.
• 10 years management experience in a commercial deal structuring environment either in the private or public sector.
• 5 years of which should have been at senior management level.
• 5 years’ experience in managing and procuring private -public-partnerships.
• Sound knowledge of investment / deal structuring and evaluation.
• Experience in business feasibility analysis.
• Contract Management.

Responsibilities

Lead and Drive Commercialisation vision of SANParks:

• Drive a dynamic and innovative commercialisation vision for SANParks.
• Develop, implement, and monitor the strategic plan for commercialisation in line with SANParks and National Treasury requirements.
• Actively source and identify commercialisation high return opportunities for SANParks and stakeholders.
• Document and implement approved changes to streamline operations, efficiency, and effectiveness of the business development function in the organisation.
• Evaluate new business opportunities for tourism PPPs through market research, competitive analysis, and financial modelling.
• Analyse industry and consumer/tourism trends to identify growth opportunities that translate into tourism revenue and volume growth.

Develop and implement the Commercialisation strategy and related processes:

• Analyse all relevant new and existing policies, business processes, operating procedures and work rules for impact and effectiveness, and identify areas for improvement to ensure that SANParks’ risk exposure is minimised.
• Ensure all policies, procedures and work rules are analysed with the intention of also reducing governance and commercial risk exposure to SANParks.
• Develop short, medium, and long-term income generating strategies for tourism business development.
• Align the strategic plans with SANParks’ strategy including the Tourism Growth and Recovery Plan 2022-2030.
• Align Commercialization Strategy to the organisation’s vision 2040.
• Proficiency in financial modelling and analysing market data to drive business decisions.
• Ensure that the commercialization strategy is aligned across all affected business units.

Manage Tourism PPPs Transactions and Tourism Projects:

• Advise and negotiate on key commercial terms including valuation and deal structure for PPP transactions.
• Oversee the production of comprehensive feasibility studies for tourism PPP.
• Ensure that all agreements reached are financially, commercially, and legally sound, and that the interests of all parties are adequately protected though out the product and project life cycle.
• manage and retain solid internal and external stakeholder relationships at strategic level.
• ensure sound financial, technical, and legal management of all tourism PPP procurement transactions.
• Maintain SANParks leadership in the PPPs tourism environment.
• Deliver business improvement projects on time, to budget, and to quality results in accordance with SANParks’ preferred project management principles, frameworks, and methodologies.
• Document and implement approved changes to streamline operations, efficiency, and effectiveness in line with project deliverables.
• Ensure change initiatives and projects are implemented according to change management principles, and that frameworks are in accordance with SANParks’ preferred methodologies to ensure effective and impactful change management from a people, process, and systems perspective.

Stakeholder Management:

• Work collaboratively with various SANParks departments, business units and teams to ensure alignment and effective communication of deliverables, plans, effort, and status of the initiatives throughout the implementation process.
• Ensure coordination and collaboration are done in a manner that ensures alignment and effective communication of business development initiatives across all areas of the organisation.
• Lead and facilitate engagements with National Treasury (Including the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC)
• Facilitate engagements and audit queries, requests for information and stakeholder engagement with the Auditor General South Africa.
• Lead and facilitate change management efforts by building positive relationships with all stakeholders, ensuring they are engaged, informed, trained, and supported throughout the change process.

Human Capital Management:

• Provide leadership, development, and management of human capital.
• Ensure that the BDU management team is trained appropriately to the highest standards.
• Recommend optimal resource plans, propose training programs to skill, reskill and upskill employees in the department

Salary

• R1 795 710.00 – R2 244 637.00 Annual Package

Closing Date

• 03 July 2026