Operations & Store Manager
Stock Control, Equipment & Event Administration
Established entertainment business | 14 years | Maitland, Cape Town
Position
Operations & Store Manager (Technical Equipment & Stock Control)
Purpose
Own the store, the stock and the administration behind every event we deliver — so that what leaves the building matches what was sold, and comes back accounted for.
Reports to
Head of Operations
Location
On-site, business park in Maitland, Cape Town (exact address shared with shortlisted candidates). On a public transport route.
Type
Permanent, full-time. 45 ordinary hours per week across 5–6 shifts, structured around weekend event demand.
Package
R16,000 – R25,000 per month, gauged on experience, plus overtime and performance incentives. Separately, if you engineer sound, you get first refusal on our paid engineering bookings at R1,500 – R3,500 per event. Optional, and not part of the core role.
Leads
Directs crew and drivers through the roster and at dispatch; no permanent direct reports
Growth path
Technical quoting and pricing — reviewed at six months, earned rather than handed over
About us
We're an established entertainment and events business, fourteen years and a few thousand events in. We book DJs, live musicians and bands for weddings and private events across the Western Cape, with sound, lighting and AV production run through a sister production company. We work with some of the most in-demand artists in the country and the venues and estates to match.
We're advertising this role without naming ourselves. We'll tell you exactly who we are as soon as we're in conversation — it's a matter of timing on our side, not evasiveness.
Our clients are planners, venues and couples spending real money on a day that happens once. That sets the standard: the gear works, the crew arrives, and the paperwork is right.
Why this role exists
We've grown quickly over the last two years, and the operational side of the business has grown with it — more events, more equipment, more crew, more moving parts on any given weekend.
This is a dedicated seat for someone to take full ownership of the store, the asset base and the administration around it — working inside a system that's already built and running well, and keeping it that way as the volume grows.
The role
You own the store and everything in it. Stock control, counts, movement, reporting and the condition of every item we own — plus the job cards, the crew roster, dispatch and the administration that holds an event week together. You'll know the equipment well enough to spot a fault on Thursday rather than discover it on Saturday.
This is primarily a store, admin and scheduling role. We have trained production crew and drivers who deliver our events; on the busiest weekends of peak season you may be asked to go out with them, but that's the exception rather than the week.
The core job is store management, and that's what we're hiring for. Separately: some of our events are booked with a sound engineer as a billed line item, and we currently sub those out. If you can engineer, you get first refusal on that work at the same rate we pay our subcontractors. It's a bonus for you and a convenience for us — not part of the job, and not something you need to be able to do to get it.
You'll work closely with the Head of Operations, the office manager and the sales team, and you'll deal directly with suppliers, venues and hire-in partners.
Key responsibilities
Asset control & warehouse discipline
- Run structured weekly stocktakes: Mondays for returns reconciliation, Fridays for dispatch verification — so losses and unbilled breakages are caught within days, not discovered at month end.
- Enforce sign-in and sign-out on every item. Nothing leaves or returns without being recorded, and no gear moves without your knowledge.
- Maintain the asset register: every item tagged, traceable, with serial numbers, purchase records and condition history kept current.
- Keep equipment maintenance logs, schedule repairs, chase turnaround, and hold spares available for peak weekends.
- Manage storage infrastructure, cases, racking and the general order of a store that has to be worked fast under pressure.
- Manage consumables — cable, gaffer, batteries, lamps, adaptors — so nothing runs out mid-season.
Stock reporting
- Track all equipment movement between store, events, repairs and hire-in partners.
- Record and investigate loss, damage and shortages after every event, and follow through on recovery, repair or claim.
- Produce a monthly stock and asset report we can make decisions from: what's breaking, what's missing, what's under-used, and what we're hiring in often enough that we should own it.
- Bring purchase recommendations with a cost and a case attached.
Dispatch & fleet
- Oversee dispatch: gear loaded correctly and securely, the right kit on the right vehicle, and crew sent out with what they need.
- Brief drivers and crew before they leave — what the job is, what's loaded, who they're meeting, what time they're expected.
- Manage the company vehicles: cleanliness, service schedule, licensing, fuel records, and pre-trip inspections with defects logged immediately.
- Maintain safe working practices in the store and on site — lifting, stacking, electrical safety, working at height, PPE — per the OHS Act, and report incidents promptly.
- Drive to an event yourself when the schedule demands it. We have trained drivers and crew, so this is occasional rather than routine — but it does happen.
Job cards & event preparation
- Build job cards off confirmed bookings, checking the technical spec matches what was sold and quoted.
- Query anything that doesn't add up before it becomes a problem on site — undersized PA, missing power, a venue with stairs and no lift.
- Run final pre-event checks: gear allocated and tested, crew assigned, vehicle booked, access details confirmed.
- Close out job cards after the event with what actually went out, what came back, and what didn't.
- Source and check hired-in equipment when a job needs more than we own, and hold the line between what was quoted, ordered and delivered.
Crew scheduling & administration
- Build the weekly crew and driver roster against the event calendar.
- Identify over-committed weekends early and escalate before they arrive, rather than solving them at 14:00 on a Saturday.
- Handle swaps, no-shows and last-minute replacements.
- Review, cross-check and process crew timesheets and overtime for accuracy before management sign-off.
When we're at full stretch
- We run a trained production crew and our own drivers, and in the normal course of things they handle events without you leaving the store. This role is store, administration and scheduling first.
- On the busiest weekends of peak season that changes. You may be asked to take a vehicle out, run a job through to delivery, or cover a crew gap — occasionally, when volume demands it, not as a standing part of the week.
- We'd rather say that up front than surprise you in November. It's also why a valid driver's licence is a firm requirement rather than a preference.
Optional: sound engineering work
- Some events are booked with a sound engineer as a paid service, and that work currently goes to subcontractors. If you can engineer, it's offered to you first: R1,500 to R3,500 per event, set by the size of the band and the setup time involved, agreed before the event and paid on top of salary.
- This applies only to events sold with engineering as a billed service. It isn't a fee for the operational side of event days, which sits inside your salary — and it isn't part of the job. The store role stands entirely on its own.
Systems
- We run on Zoho CRM — a customer relationship management platform. Every job runs through it end to end, from enquiry to post-event close, so the whole business works off one record rather than someone's inbox.
- The system is established, tight and working well. Your job is to work inside it with absolute consistency — equipment allocations, event status, repairs, scheduling and stock records kept current and accurate, every time, without shortcuts or parallel spreadsheets.
- Over time, help us fine-tune it. Not rebuild it — sharpen it. Records need to be right, because this is where the rest of the business looks.
How you'll be measured
Six things, reviewed with your manager. The full operating procedures come with the role once you start — these are what determine whether it's working:
- Stock variance — under 0.5% of register value at each Monday and Friday count, with every discrepancy explained rather than absorbed.
- Dispatch readiness — every event's gear prepared, tested and allocated ahead of the agreed cut-off, correct and complete on departure, with no event affected by something that left the store wrong.
- Job card discipline — cards built against the confirmed booking, closed out within 72 hours of the event.
- Systems currency — equipment allocations, event status and stock records current and accurate in Zoho at all times, with no parallel records.
- Roster and timesheets — crew schedule published to a fixed weekly deadline; timesheets checked and submitted on time and accurately.
- Reporting — monthly stock and asset report and weekly operational report delivered on the agreed dates.
Where the role goes
Your growth here is tied to the company's, and the company is growing quickly. Bigger events mean bigger equipment specs, more complex builds, larger crews and higher-value stock to control. The person in this seat grows with that — the job in two years will ask more of you than the job you're applying for, and we'll invest in the skills to meet it.
Concretely: technical quoting — speccing and pricing sound, lighting and AV off a client brief or a venue site visit — currently sits with our Head of Operations. We review this role at six months. If you've shown you can price a rig accurately and hold a margin, that work starts moving across to you and the money moves with it.
We'd rather build that than pretend it's a day-one expectation. It happens at the pace you earn it, but the review date is fixed and the conversation is an honest one — you'll always know where you stand and what the next step needs from you.
What you'll need
Essential
- At least 5 years in the industry, one way or another — technical production, AV, events, equipment rental, warehousing or operations, in any combination. We care that you've lived this kind of work, not which title you held while doing it.
- A real understanding of sound and lighting equipment. You know a soundstage — what the components do, how a PA goes together for a room, how lighting rigs are built and powered, what each item is worth and how it breaks. Enough to test gear properly, catch a fault before it leaves, and know when a job card's spec is wrong.
- Exceptional organisation. This role runs on records, counts, checklists and cut-off times. If your instinct is to remember it rather than log it, this isn't the seat.
- Strong computer skills — non-negotiable. You'll spend real time in spreadsheets and systems every week. Confident Excel (counts, variance, reporting) and comfortable working across email, shared files and cloud software. We'll train you on our setup, but software needs to be second nature to you, not something you tolerate.
- The discipline to work inside someone else's system. Ours is established and it works. We're not looking for someone to redesign it in month one — we're looking for meticulous, consistent use of it, and then thoughtful suggestions once you've earned the right to make them.
- Valid Code 8 (Code B) driver's licence and a clean record — a firm requirement, not a preference. Most event driving is handled by our own drivers, but on busy peak-season weekends you may be asked to take a loaded van out to a venue across the Western Cape. Day-to-day travel to the store is your own — we're on a public transport route, so that's straightforward.
- Physically able to do the job: lifting, loading, and long days on your feet.
- Available weekends. Our work happens on Saturdays. That's not negotiable, and we'd rather you self-select out now than in month three.
Advantageous
- Live sound engineering capability. Not required and not part of the job, but it gives you first refusal on our paid engineering bookings at R1,500 – R3,500 an event.
- CRM experience — counts strongly in your favour. We run on Zoho CRM. Anyone who's worked daily inside a CRM-driven operation, whatever the platform, starts well ahead of the field.
- Xero or comparable accounting software exposure.
- Dry-hire or equipment rental background.
- Forklift, rigging or working-at-heights certification.
- Experience leading a crew of 5–15.
- Code 10 (C1) licence or a PrDP.
- Experience working inside a structured, system-driven operation and keeping the data clean.
The kind of person this suits
- Self-starting. You'll be given the responsibility and expected to run with it. Nobody is going to stand over you with a checklist.
- Forward-looking. You spot the problem on Wednesday rather than managing the crisis on Saturday. This is the most valuable thing in the role.
- Straight with people. You can tell a crew member their packing isn't good enough, or push back on a salesperson who's promised something we can't deliver, without it becoming a fight.
- Honest about mistakes. Gear gets broken and things go wrong. We can work with that. What we can't work with is finding out late.
- Precise where it counts. Numbers in the stock report and specs on a job card are either right or they're a problem waiting to happen.
- Consistent, not just capable. The value in this role is doing the same things properly every week — the Monday count, the Friday check, the report on the date it's due. Brilliance in bursts is worth less to us than someone who never drops the rhythm.
- In it for the long haul. We're not looking to fill a seat for a year. We want someone who sees the bigger picture — how the store connects to the sales pipeline, to the client experience, to where the business is headed — and wants to grow with it rather than use it as a stopgap. Loyalty and hard work matter more to us than a polished CV, and we'll invest accordingly in someone who's genuinely in this with us.
What we offer
- Pay stated plainly. R16,000 – R25,000 a month, moved up the band by experience, technical depth and CRM fluency.
- First refusal on engineering work, if you can do it. R1,500 – R3,500 per event, the same rate our subcontractors get, agreed before each event. This depends on how many engineered events we sell, so treat it as a bonus, not guaranteed income.
- A structured week. 45 hours across 5–6 shifts. Overtime by arrangement, capped at 10 hours a week per the BCEA and paid accordingly.
- Performance incentives. An annual bonus plus event-linked incentives tied to stock accuracy and client feedback, reviewed openly.
- You're covered. Vehicles and equipment are insured; loss while following procedure is the company's risk, and any deduction follows the BCEA process.
- Coaching that's real. Day-to-day management from our Head of Operations, who'll teach you quoting directly as you take it on.
- Reviews with dates on them. Three-month probation review, then a six-month review with a defined route into quoting and a salary adjustment to match.
- Growth that comes with the business. Bigger projects each year mean more scope to grow into — where a skill or certification is what's standing in the way, we'd rather fund it than hire around you.
- Exposure that counts. Some of the most in-demand DJs and bands in the country, and the venues to match.
- 21 days' annual leave, weighted towards our quieter months.
The honest version
Weddings run late and load-outs happen in the dark. Peak season is October to April and it's relentless; the quieter months are when you fix everything that broke. You'll be on your feet, in the store and behind a desk in roughly that order, and some Saturdays will test you.
And on the season's busiest weekends, you may be asked to step outside your patch — the people who do well here are the ones who don't need to be asked twice when that happens.
What you get for it is a real seat in a growing business, direct access to the people making the decisions, and ownership of something that genuinely matters to whether the company works.
How to apply
Email [email protected] with the subject line "Operations & Store Manager – [Your Name]" and send:
- Your CV, maximum three pages. Tell us what you were actually responsible for — the size of the store, the value and volume of stock, the systems and software you used, and the gear you know. If you engineer sound, say what consoles and systems you've worked on.
- A short answer to this, a few paragraphs, not a template cover letter:
It's 14:00 on a Saturday. Two events are loading in — one 40 minutes away, one 180km out. The far crew calls to say a powered speaker is dead and they only have one spare. The nearer event hasn't started load-in because the venue changed the access route. Walk us through what you do in the next thirty minutes — and what should have happened earlier in the week to stop it happening at all.
We reply to every serious application. Shortlisted candidates come in for an interview and a walk-through of the store. All references will be checked, along with any other standard background verification — this happens after a strong interview and before any offer, not as part of your application.
Equal opportunity employer. Preference may be given to candidates in line with our employment equity objectives.
Experience: Technical production, AV, events, equipment rental, warehousing or operations — 5 years (required)
Licence: Code 8 (Code B) driver's licence (required)
Willingness to travel: 20% (required — event days, mainly peak season, Western Cape)
Work location: In person, Maitland, Cape Town
Job type: Permanent, full-time
Pay: R16 000,00 - R25 000,00 per month
Work Location: In person
