Business Operations Manager - Johannesburg

SUMMARY:
Our client, a leading company in the Real Estate and Property Management industry, is seeking a dynamic and results-driven Business Operations Manager to join their team based in Johannesburg, Gauteng.

POSITION INFO:
Requirements: Matric or equivalent. Relevant qualification\/s. At least 3 years in an operations, administration or office management role. Experience in residential letting, tenant vetting, TPN and MRI (or similar property software) are a strong advantage, not a requirement. A valid driver's licence is an advantage for building visits. Clear criminal record and contactable references. A systems thinker. Able to describe a process step by step, spot the gap in it, and explain in plain words exactly what a piece of software should do differently. This will be required on a weekly basis. Numerate and careful. Deposits, lease fees, pro-rata rent, refunds and the monthly loading all run through the Business Operations Manager. Sound judgement with people. Completely comfortable living in software all day: a CRM on laptop and phone, WhatsApp, email, spreadsheets, PDFs and screenshots. Clear written English. Most of the day is written: messages to applicants and tenants, notes on deals, specifications and bug reports. Other South African languages are an advantage. Organised and self-driven. Hundreds of open items at any time, across applications, transfers, notices, loading, staff and the inbox; keep the board clean and the MD's list short. A generalist by temperament. Responsibilities but not limited to: Applications and Tenant Vetting Own the applications pipeline from the moment a form arrives to the day the tenant moves in: documents in, identity and affordability checks, TPN credit checks and credit consent, approval or decline, deposit and lease fee pricing, proof of payment, securing the unit, generating the lease and getting it signed. Make the vetting decisions. Apply the company's affordability and credit rules consistently, deal with the hard cases (expired visas, joint applications, second applicants, former tenants, blacklist matches, password-protected documents) and keep the dormant, duplicate, declined and withdrawn piles clean. Make sure no unit is ever double-booked: one unit status across the price list, applications and transfers, and a unit only comes off the market when the money is in. Communicate with applicants on the company's WhatsApp line, and with agents in the deal chat, so nobody is waiting on us without knowing why. Leads, Letting Agents and Viewings Run the lead flow. Website and WhatsApp leads are opened by our assistant and assigned to agents on a rotation; you keep the rotation fair, the response times short, the dead leads closed and the conversion numbers honest. Manage the letting agents day to day: logins and profiles, deal counts and monthly stats, incentives, extra-work pay, chasing agents who sit on leads, and sorting out disputes over who gets credit for a deal. Oversee viewings: bookings between leads, agents and building managers, weekend and after-hours viewings, and the follow-up when someone did or did not turn up. Tenant WhatsApp Service Own the Whatsapp inbox. The assistant answers tenants, logs maintenance, notices, transfers, occupant and parking requests, and hands anything it cannot finish to a person. You triage what comes through, allocate chats to the right team member, and make sure no tenant waits unnoticed. Keep Whatsapp knowledge right. Power outages, City Power claims, building rules, pricing, the application, transfer and notice processes: when the facts change, you write the update, and when the assistant gets something wrong, you correct it. Set the standard for how we talk to tenants and leads: tone, length, what the assistant may and may not say, when it must hand over to a person, and the safety rules around staff and building information. Changes to Existing Tenancies Transfers between units and buildings: the account check against MRI, the inspection request to the building manager, the costing from operations, the quote to the tenant, the new lease, and the old unit back on the price list on the day the tenant moves. Notices to vacate: logged, confirmed with the tenant, the move-out inspection booked with the building manager, and the unit back on the market with the right date. Occupants and parking: approving additions and removals, keeping the parking register reconciled with the gate system, MRI and the tenant file, and sending gate instructions. Incident reports, statements, complaints and escalations from tenants and building managers: logged, assigned, followed through to a close. Loading, Pricing and Month-end Own the monthly loading list: every new lease, transfer, move-out, parking change and fee that must reach MRI is on the Loading page, loaded in the right month, and queried back to the source when the numbers do not match. Keep the price list and the vacancy list true: units on and off schedule, correct pricing per building and unit type, and the weekly reconciliation against the building managers' vacancy checks and the MRI tenancy schedule. Raise payment requests to the Managing Director for refunds, cancelled deals and money that must move between buildings, with the paperwork attached. Helping the MD Run the Business Help manage the building managers: be their line into the office for move-ins, key releases, move-out inspections, bookings and their own CRM issues, hold them to the standard (inspections done with photos, keys released only when the office has cleared the tenant), and tell the MD when a building is slipping before a tenant does. Help manage the staff: leave, attendance, rosters, logins and permissions, staff details, new starters and leavers, and the follow-through on anything the MD has asked someone to do. Keep the suppliers', agents' and contractors' details current, and the paperwork behind payments and refunds complete. Take on the projects and one-off problems that come up in a growing business: a new process to design, a backlog to clear, a report the MD needs, a supplier to sort out, an audit query to answer. If nobody owns it, you do. General office administration as needed, and the small things that keep an office of this size running. Systems and Process Ownership The CRM is built in-house and changes weekly, driven by tickets from the team. You will be its most demanding user: you write the specification for how a screen or process should work (in plain words, with mock-ups where it helps), you test what is built, you log what is wrong with a screenshot and a clear description, and you sign off before the team uses it. When two rules collide or a process has a gap, you decide, write it down, and make sure the team and the system follow it. Approve the WhatsApp message templates we submit to Meta and the wording of anything that goes to tenants or applicants automatically. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. If you do not receive feedback within two weeks of applying, please consider your application unsuccessful.