Southern African Regional Manager

Position Overview

Westrocon is looking for an ambitious professional who can help develop our South East African business unit and share in its growth and success.

Applicants must have a proven business track record, including extensive project management experience, with demonstrated responsibility for leading customer engagement, business development, and overseeing operational matters involving multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, timelines, resources, risks, and commercial considerations.

In addition, candidates should demonstrate significant experience in:

• Key account and client relationship management;
• Business development and sales;
• Senior stakeholder engagement;
• Project planning, governance, reporting, and delivery;
• Commercial negotiations and proposal development; and
• Managing multiple client engagements or projects concurrently;
• International business or consulting exposure.

This is a dedicated IT, business development and leadership role based on the SAP technology stack as such the applicant is expected to understand, Enterprise Solutions, IT Consulting, Consulting Professional Services, or a similar project-driven environment is critical.

Minimum Qualification Requirements

Candidates must meet the following minimum academic requirements and the additional requirements will be beneficial:

• A minimum Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Project Management, Information Technology, Commerce, Management, Engineering, or another relevant field; and
• An MBA or Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Project Management, Management, Commerce, Information Technology, Engineering, or another relevant discipline is preferred.
• A recognised project management certification, such as SAP Project Management, PMP, PRINCE2, Agile/Scrum, or equivalent, will be advantageous.

Location Requirement

The candidate must either:

• Be currently based in Malawi; or
• Be able and willing to travel frequently to Malawi to manage clients, projects, business development activities, and stakeholder relationships.

Extended physical presence in Malawi is mandatory of the role.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of this role include:

1. Project Governance and Oversight

• Lead and monitor project execution from initiation through to completion.
• Review and oversee project activities such as project plans, timelines, budgets, resource requirements, and delivery milestones.
• Monitor project risks, issues, dependencies, and overall progress.
• Coordinate internal teams, clients, and external stakeholders to ensure successful delivery.
• Ensure projects are delivered within agreed scope, timelines, quality standards, and commercial expectations.
• Provide regular project updates and escalate risks or delays where necessary through the project office team.

2. Key Account Management

• Manage and maintain relationships with key and strategic clients.
• Act as a primary point of contact for assigned customer accounts.
• Develop a strong understanding of client needs, business objectives, and challenges.
• Conduct regular account reviews and follow up on outstanding client requirements.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen and expand existing client relationships.
• Manage client concerns and escalations professionally and effectively.
• Manage client receivables and overdue accounts.

3. Sales and Business Development

• Identify and pursue new business opportunities within Malawi, and the South Eastern Africa territory.
• Build and maintain a strong pipeline of prospective clients and opportunities.
• Develop and present proposals, quotations, presentations, and other commercial documentation.
• Lead or support client meetings, presentations, and commercial discussions.
• Progress opportunities through the sales cycle from initial engagement to closure.
• Contribute towards the achievement of agreed sales and revenue targets.

4. Country and Market Development

• Support the organisation’s growth and presence within the Malawian and South Eastern Africa market.
• Develop an understanding of market trends, customer needs, competitors, and emerging opportunities.
• Identify potential clients, partners, and strategic relationships.
• Represent the organisation professionally at client meetings, industry engagements, and relevant business events.
• Provide management with insight into developments within the local market.

5. Stakeholder Management

• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, partners, internal teams, and senior stakeholders.
• Coordinate communication between commercial, technical, delivery, and management teams.
• Manage stakeholder expectations throughout projects and client engagements.
• Facilitate discussions where different stakeholder priorities or expectations need to be aligned.
• Ensure important decisions, actions, and commitments are clearly communicated and followed through.

6. Commercial Management

• Monitor the commercial performance of projects and client accounts.
• Support budgeting, forecasting, revenue planning, and commercial reviews.
• Ensure commercial commitments made to customers are achievable and appropriately managed.
• Identify commercial risks and raise them with management where necessary.
• Support contract, pricing, proposal, and negotiation activities.

7. Client Relationship and Customer Success

• Maintain regular engagement with customers to understand their satisfaction, concerns, and future requirements.
• Ensure client expectations are managed throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Work with delivery teams to address service or project-related challenges.
• Identify opportunities to provide additional value to existing customers.Build trusted, long-term relationships with key client decision-makers.

8. Leadership and Team Coordination

• Provide direction and coordination to teams involved in client projects and engagements.
• Ensure responsibilities, timelines, and expectations are clearly understood.
• Promote accountability and timely completion of agreed activities.
• Support collaboration between sales, project, technical, and operational teams.
• Lead by example and maintain high standards of professionalism and delivery.

9. Reporting and Performance Management

• Provide regular reports on sales activity, project progress, client accounts, opportunities, and risks.
• Maintain accurate records of client engagements, opportunities, project actions, and key decisions.
• Track progress against agreed targets, milestones, and performance objectives.
• Provide management with accurate and timely information to support decision-making.

10. Risk and Issue Management

• Identify potential project, commercial, client, and operational risks.
• Develop appropriate mitigation and corrective actions.
• Escalate significant risks and issues to management in a timely manner.
• Monitor outstanding issues through to resolution.Ensure lessons learned are incorporated into future projects and client engagements.

11. Strategic Planning

• Contribute to the development of country, account, and sales strategies.
• Develop plans for key accounts and priority business opportunities.
• Align project, account, and sales activities with wider organisational objectives.
• Identify areas for sustainable business growth and improved client engagement.
• Support management in developing short-, medium-, and long-term plans for the Malawian market.

12. Travel and Local Client Engagement

• Maintain a regular physical presence in Malawi where required.
• Travel to client sites and meetings to support project delivery, account management, and business development activities.
• Maintain close relationships with clients and stakeholders through consistent in-person engagement.
• Be available to travel regionally where required by client or business needs.

Key Attributes

1. Core Attributes

• Strong project leadership and project management capability
• Commercial and financial acumen
• Strategic account management
• Business development and sales capability
• Strong stakeholder management
• Leadership and team coordination
• Executive-level communication
• Strategic thinking and planning
• Sound decision-making and problem-solving
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills
• Market and business awareness
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and engagements
• Strong client relationship management
• Results and performance orientation

2. Behavioural Attributes

• Ownership and accountability
• Proactive and self-driven
• Resilient under pressure
• Adaptable and flexible
• Highly organised and disciplined
• Client-focused
• Collaborative and team-oriented
• Professional and dependable
• Confident and assertive
• Strong interpersonal awareness
• High level of integrity and ethics
• Emotionally mature
• Culturally and situationally aware
• Comfortable operating independently
• Able to build trust and credibility
• Solutions-oriented
• Consistent follow-through on commitments