National Field Operations Manager at SMD Technologies

Job Role:

• We are seeking an experienced and commercially driven National Retail Operations Manager to lead our retail merchandising and sales teams across multiple retail stores nationally.
• The ideal candidate is strategic, hands-on, and confident managing large field teams in fast-paced retail environments. This role is responsible for driving in-store sales performance, merchandising excellence, operational compliance, payroll governance, and labour legislation adherence across a national footprint.

Job Description:

Key Responsibilities:

National Retail Team Leadership

• Lead and manage national retail merchandising and sales teams (250+ employees).
• Drive consistent in-store execution standards across all retail chains.
• Implement route planning and store clustering models to improve coverage and efficiency.
• Build a high-performance, sales-driven culture across regions.

Sales & Merchandising Performance

• Drive in-store sales growth through effective field execution.
• Monitor sell-in vs sell-out performance trends.
• Ensure strong merchandising standards, visibility, and brand representation in-store.
• Drive planogram compliance and promotional execution.
• Identify distribution gaps and resolve out-of-stock risks.
• Align field incentives to sales and execution performance.

Staff Performance & Development

• Manage team performance through structured KPIs and improvement plans.
• Oversee onboarding, training, and capability development.
• Develop regional leaders and supervisors.

Payroll Governance & Workforce Compliance

• Ensure payroll accuracy across merchandising and sales teams.
• Validate commission, incentive, and SPIV calculations.
• Oversee attendance, overtime, leave, and time management systems.
• Ensure correct application of all leave, attendance, overtime etc.
• Maintain payroll integrity and reduce compliance risk.

Labour Legislation & Industrial Relations

• Ensure compliance with South African labour legislation.
• Oversee disciplinary processes.
• Maintain compliant employment contracts and policies.

Retailer & Stakeholder Management

• Build and manage senior relationships with key retail groups.
• Align merchandising and sales execution with retailer compliance standards.
• Resolve store-level escalations efficiently.
• Ensure strict adherence to retailer protocols.

Financial & Operational Oversight

• Manage national operational budgets (labour, travel, tools, activations).
• Analyse manpower ROI and sales per representative.
• Control labour cost-to-revenue ratios.
• Drive cost efficiencies without compromising execution standards.

Systems, Reporting & Data Governance

• Oversee field reporting systems (e.g., Repsly).
• Ensure accurate sales and execution reporting.
• Implement audit controls and compliance checks across regions.

Qualifications:

• 8+ years experience in retail operations, merchandising, or field sales leadership.
• Proven experience managing 150+ retail or field staff nationally.
• Strong understanding of retail sales, merchandising standards, and execution models.
• Solid payroll governance and labour legislation knowledge.
• Experience working across multiple retail chains essential.
• Strong leadership, analytical, and stakeholder management skills.