Finance Analyst - Strategic Analysis & Insights

takealot.com, a leading South African online retailer, is looking for a highly talented Finance Analyst (Strategic Analysis & Insights) to join our team in Cape Town.

Reports to: Head of Corporate FP&A

takealot.com, South Africa's leading e-commerce and marketplace, is looking for a highly talented Finance Analyst to own the Strategic Analysis & Insights pillar of our Corporate FP&A team in Cape Town.

Corporate FP&A is on a journey from operational reporting to strategic value creation. This role sits at the heart of that shift: you will own the Group's strategic analysis capability — turning business questions into actionable insights, deep-diving profitability across categories, suppliers and customers, and providing the analytical foundation for CFO, CEO and Board decision-making.

You will be the accountable owner of a pillar, not a contributor to it. You will set the standard for analytical depth and insight quality across all business units, drive the automation of recurring analysis, and mentor junior analysts across the FP&A team.

Your responsibilities will include:

Pillar ownership: strategic analysis & insights

• Own the Group's strategic analysis agenda across all BUs, ensuring Exco, divisional leadership and the Board receive actionable, decision-grade insights — not data.
• Develop and continually refine the P&L logic to reflect current business operations, delivering the most accurate profitability analysis at category, supplier, customer and product level.
• Turn business questions into structured analysis: understand the business and the data behind it, frame the right question, and deliver a recommendation — not a chart.
• Define and maintain analytical standards, data definitions and governance that safeguard the validity and consistency of insights across BUs.

Profitability and performance analysis

• Lead deep-dive profitability analysis across all BUs: unit economics, contribution margin drivers, AOV, take rate, GMV, and cost-to-serve by channel, category and customer segment.
• Provide ongoing optimisation, revenue opportunity and lost-opportunity analysis that Retail and Marketplace teams can act on to improve metrics and increase sales and revenue.
• Perform analyses to provide insights into areas of risk and opportunity to influence pricing strategies and commercial decisions.
• Produce monthly management insights comparing business performance to plans, unpacking variances with root-cause clarity, not just variance descriptions.
• Design and perform complex, multi-variable analyses applying appropriate statistical methodologies to resolve operational and business concerns.

Strategic projects and CFO/CEO support

• Lead and deliver cross-BU strategic projects: MrD finance analytics, TFS growth analysis, marketplace profitability, new-business-case modelling.
• Provide direct analytical support to the CFO and CEO on capital allocation, investment cases, and strategic decisions — own the numbers behind the narrative.
• Assist and be actively involved in the annual Takealot Group budgeting and forecasting process, providing the analytical backbone for assumptions and challenges.
• Consider multiple scenarios, points of view and potential outcomes to recommend actions based on analysis.

Automation & process redesign

• Own the pillar's automation roadmap: prioritise analytical processes by hours saved and insight quality gained, then deliver them.
• Build and redesign analytical workflows using SQL, Looker, Excel/Gsheets(AppsScript) and AI tools to remove manual, high-volume work and free the team for strategic analysis.
• Act as Finance's lead representative on analytical and data projects, partnering with BI, IT, Tech and Product to specify requirements, get the right data points into the correct models, test outputs and sign off delivery.

People & stakeholders

• Build trusted relationships with BU finance partners, operational teams and senior stakeholders, and communicate insights with clarity and commercial judgement.
• Mentor and develop junior analysts across the FP&A team, raising analytical capability and output quality.
• Provide cover and support to the Reporting & Analysis and Planning & Forecasting pillars during peak cycles.

How Success Is Measured:

• Insight quality: analysis that drives decisions, not just describes results; reduction in "so what?" follow-ups from Exco.
• Business impact: measurable outcomes from recommended actions — revenue captured, cost avoided, margin improved.
• Timeliness: strategic analysis and project deliverables completed on or ahead of agreed deadlines.
• Automation rate: share of recurring analytical tasks automated; analyst hours released to higher-value work.
• Team development: growth and analytical capability of mentored analysts.

Attributes required:

• Owner's mindset: takes full accountability for a pillar's outcomes, not just its tasks.
• Systems thinker who understands how data flows through the business and where it breaks.
• Exceptional attention to detail combined with the judgement to know what matters.
• Builder and doer: designs the solution and executes it.
• Clear, concise written and verbal communicator, confident with senior stakeholders.
• Collaborative partner to BI, Tech and Product; able to translate finance needs into technical requirements.
• Thrives in a fast-paced, changing environment and juggles competing priorities calmly.
• Coach who raises the capability of those around them.

Qualifications and Experience:

• BCom (Hons) or equivalent in Finance/Accounting; CA(SA), CIMA or CFA (completed or in progress) advantageous.
• At least 5 years' relevant experience in FP&A, strategic analysis, management reporting or a finance/BI role, including ownership of an analytical or reporting process.
• Demonstrated track record of delivering analytical automation or process redesign with measurable results.
• Strong understanding of accounting, management accounts, financial reporting and P&L logic.
• Advanced Excel and working SQL skills; experience building in Looker or a similar BI tool.
• Familiarity with TM1, Sage and Board beneficial; exposure to Python or AI/automation tools is a plus.
• Experience in e-commerce, retail, marketplace or tech highly advantageous.
• Experience supervising or mentoring junior analysts preferred.

The Environment:

• takealot.com employees are entrepreneurial and dynamic, smart, customer-centric, fun and have the shared ambition of takealot.com being the leading e-commerce company in Africa.
• We have fun, work hard, take ownership, work in teams to create solutions, and are always open to direct feedback/new ideas on where we can improve.
• We are short on ego and high on output.
• We are doers and not only thinkers, it's all in the execution after all.
• We love what we do and what we are creating.

If you meet the above you are an Extraordinary Mind so come and join us!

Takealot is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants from the previously disadvantaged groups and people with disabilities will be given preference