Cluster Engineering Capex Lead

Join us as Cluster Engineering Capex Lead

Function:Supply Chain

Reports to: SnA Strategy Execution Manager

Scope: Local

Location: 61 Katherine Street, La Lucia Ridge

Terms & Conditions: Full time

ABOUT UNILEVER

Unilever is the place where you can bring your purpose to life with the work that you do – creating a better business and a better world. You will work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. You will lead innovations, big and small, that will make our business win and grow. You will learn from brilliant business leaders and colleagues who provide mentorship and inspiration so that you can become a better you.

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

LEADERSHIP

• Personal Excellence & Emotional Intelligence:

Consistently striving to perform at their best, maintaining wellbeing, resilience, and high personal standards, while demonstrating empathy and emotional intelligence.

• Collaboration & Influence:

Facilitating productive engagement within and outside the organization, inspiring and motivating others, and fostering a results-driven environment.

• Accountability & Ownership:

Taking responsibility for outcomes, making data-driven decisions, and showing initiative without the need for close supervision.

• Agility & Continuous Improvement:

Embracing agile principles, iterative learning, and prioritizing customer value, while actively contributing to building an agile culture.

• Purpose-Driven Leadership:

Acting with humility, guided by a strong sense of purpose aligned with Unilever’s mission of sustainable living, and viewing leadership as service to others.

• Employee Advocacy:

Encouraging employees to champion company values and initiatives, understanding the importance of advocacy and managing external perceptions.

• Resilience & Problem-Solving:

Demonstrating adaptability, resilience, and the ability to navigate ambiguity and solve problems independently.

Critical SOL (Standards of Leadership) Behaviors

• Care deeply:  caring deeply about how consumers experience our brands every day, everywhere; about our people’s growth and development, and our impact on the planet. You care about your performance, to a point where it hurts when you don’t win.  Always brings their best self. Has emotional intelligence to take feedback, manage mood and motivations and build empathy for others. Sets high standards for themselves. Has humility, understanding that leadership is service to others, inside and outside of Unilever.
• Focus on what counts: We set clear and stretching goals and recognise maximum performance impact.  Generates intensity and focus to motivate people to deliver results at speed.
• Stay three steps ahead:  We think boldly and creatively to make breakthroughs in performance. We are always curious and confident – anticipating and staying ahead of consumer needs and external trends to beat the competition. Approaches delivery with an iterative and incremental, test - do - learn approach. Has an owner’s mindset, using data and insight to make decisions.
• Deliver with excellence:  We deliver everything we do with excellence and pace. We take personal ownership and hold each other to account – always finding a way to do what we said we will do.  Takes personal responsibility and accountability for execution and results.

Leadership

• Critical SOL (Standards of Leadership) Behaviors
  • PASSION FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE: Takes personal responsibility and accountability for execution and results. Has an owner’s mindset, using data and insight to make decisions.
  • PERSONAL MASTERY: Sets high standards for themselves. Actively builds own wellbeing and resilience.
  • CONSUMER LOVE: Whatever their role, always looks for better ways to serve consumers. Invests time inside and outside to understand the needs of consumers.
  • TALENT CATALYST: Develops and magnifies the power of people. Creates an inclusive climate, empowering everyone to be at their best.
  • AGILITY: Explores the world around them, continually learning and developing their skills.
  • BUSINESS ACUMEN: Brings the outside in, encouraging experimentation and intelligent risk-taking. Creates new opportunities for profitable growth through the core and beyond.
  • PURPOSE & SERVICE: Has own inner compass of purpose, which inspires actions. Has humility, understanding that leadership is service to others, inside and outside Unilever. Believes in and contributes towards Unilever’s purpose.

Unilever is an equal opportunities employer and committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.  We are intentional in employing the best talent that reflects the demographics of our country and which will help build representation of currently under-represented groups. We therefore invite applications from all candidates representing diversity of age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief. When appointing potential candidates, the South African Employment Equity and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Legislation will be considered.  

We are required by law to verify your ability to work lawfully in South Africa. If you are applying as a foreign national, please note that you may be requested to provide supporting documents supporting this.

This is an office-based role in Johannesburg and requires 100% of time attendance on site.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.