Country Manager – Southern & English-Speaking Sub-Saharan Africa

Cepheid; Centurion; On-site; ZAR 1 200 000 - 1 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading diagnostics company is seeking a Country Manager for Southern and English-Speaking Sub-Saharan Africa. This role involves strategic commercial leadership, managing P&L, and driving business development across the region. The ideal candidate will have over 10 years of experience in the diagnostics or medical devices sector, with a proven track record of leading sales teams and managing distributor networks. Strong strategic thinking and negotiation skills are essential, along with a deep understanding of the African healthcare landscape.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in business management within Diagnostics or Medical Devices.
• 5–7 years in sales leadership in the IVD industry.
• 3–5 years managing distributor networks in regulated markets.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the commercial strategy across South Africa.
• Lead sales teams through strong commercial stewardship.
• Develop 3-year strategic business plans and growth priorities.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Negotiation

Stakeholder management

Executive communication

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Management, Finance, Business, Life Sciences, or equivalent

MBA preferred

Job description

Job title: Country Manager – Southern & English-Speaking Sub-Saharan Africa

Job Location: Gauteng, Centurion

Deadline: January 18, 2026

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Key Responsibilities

Commercial Leadership

• Define and lead the commercial strategy across South Africa & English-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa in full alignment with regional and global vision.
• Lead high-performing direct and indirect sales teams through strong commercial stewardship and accountability.
• Act as the senior representative of Beckman Coulter with customers, ministries of health, regulators, and industry bodies.
• Embed theVoice of the Customer (VOC)in commercial decision-making.
• Drive channel excellence with strong distributor scorecards, governance, and capability building.
• Collaborate across the MEA matrix (Service, Applications, Marketing, Finance, HR, Supply Chain) to build integrated, competitive solutions.
• Monitor market and competitive trends, ensuring proactive and innovative responses.
• Ensure compliance to all legal, regulatory, and internal governance standards.

Business Development & Market Growth

• Develop 3-year strategic business plans, annual operating plans and growth priorities.
• Identify new market segments, product opportunities and customer clusters across the region.
• Strengthen relationships with key opinion leaders, healthcare institutions and national programs.
• Drive tender excellence, pricing strategy and market access execution (including NHLS and regional tenders).
• Optimize product portfolio performance to deliver sustainable market share expansion.

Financial & Legal Oversight

• FullP&L responsibility, ensuring revenue, margin and profitability targets are achieved.
• Lead forecasting, budgeting and financial analysis with accuracy and transparency.
• Own accounts receivable performance, working with Finance to safeguard cash flow.
• Ensure compliance with all corporate and local legal requirements.

Leadership & Talent Development

• Build and inspire a high-performance, high-accountability culture across the region.
• Develop talent pipelines and ensure strong succession planning for critical roles.
• Coach and mentor teams using theDanaher Business System (DBS) to drive continuous improvement.
• Assess organizational structure to ensure readiness for future scale and operational excellence.

Key Performance Indicators

• Quarterly & annual revenue and margin growth
• Market share expansion in South Africa & SSA
• Customer satisfaction and VOC indicators
• Distributor scorecard performance and governance
• Forecast accuracy and operating rhythm discipline
• Compliance to legal, financial and ethical standards
• Talent development and retention of top performers
• Effective execution of new product launches and market-entry initiatives
• Strength of cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder engagement
• Implementation of DBS and continuous improvement initiatives

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Management, Finance, Business, Life Sciences, or equivalent
• MBA preferred
• 10+ years in business management within Diagnostics, Medical Devices or Life Sciences
• 5–7 years in Sales leadership in the IVD industry
• 3–5 years managing distributor networks in regulated markets
• 6+ years of people leadership
• Proven track record in P&L ownership, tender management and commercial strategy execution
• Experience with NHLS and African healthcare systems is highly desirable

Preferred Skills

• Strong strategic thinking with long-term vision
• Advanced negotiation and stakeholder management
• Excellent executive communication and leadership presence
• Deep understanding of compliance, governance and quality systems
• High financial acumen
• Ability to lead in a multicultural, matrixed environment
• Strong operational discipline with DBS / Lean experience
• Analytical mindset and problem solving capability
• Ability to build trust with customers, governments and internal stakeholders
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