Payroll Manager

Purpose:

The payroll manager is accountable for the strategic leadership, governance, optimization, and operational excellence of payroll across several countries and jurisdictions. The role ensures that payroll is delivered accurately, compliantly, cost-effectively, and in alignment with corporate governance standards, while supporting the organization’s broader people, financial, and business strategy. This role goes beyond transactional payroll management to drive standardization, automation, risk management, robust reporting, delivering high-quality employee experience and trusted payroll outcomes across the region.

Key Responsibilities:

Payroll Strategy & Operating Model

• Design and maintain an optimal payroll operating model for Africa & South Africa, balancing in-house delivery, and third-party providers where applicable.
• Drive standardisation of payroll processes, controls, and policies across countries while respecting local legislative requirements.
• Contribute to global payroll transformation initiatives (where applicable), including system upgrades, vendor selection, and regional rollouts.

Payroll Operations & Service Delivery

• Oversee end-to-end payroll processing across multiple countries, ensuring accuracy, adhered to timeliness, and consistency.
• Ensure correct calculation and payment of salaries, incentives, allowances, benefits, statutory deductions, and off-cycle payments.
• Ensure high-quality employee payroll experience, with clear escalation paths and resolution of complex payroll queries.
• Ensure payroll outputs support accurate financial reporting and management decision-making.

Compliance, Risk & Corporate Governance

• Ensure compliance with country-specific payroll legislation, tax regulations, and labour laws across relevant payroll jurisdictions
• Implement strong internal controls, segregation of duties, and approval frameworks in line with corporate governance standards.
• Maintain audit readiness, including internal audits, external audits, and regulatory inspections.
• Identify and mitigate payroll-related risks, including compliance, fraud, system, and operational risks.
• Ensure alignment with global policies on data privacy, confidentiality, and information security (e.g., POPIA, GDPR where applicable).
• Stay abreast of industry best practices, emerging technologies, and regulatory changes impacting payroll.

Reporting, Insights & Decision Support

• Provide analytics on payroll costs, trends, variances, headcount movements, overtime, and statutory liabilities.
• Ensure statutory, tax, and regulatory reporting is accurate, complete, and submitted within required deadlines.
• Support Reward and HR with payroll data for remuneration reviews, incentives, audits, and workforce planning.
• Partner with Finance to support accurate payroll accruals, reconciliations, and financial close processes.

Process Optimization & Technology Enablement

• Drive continuous improvement and automation of payroll processes to improve accuracy, turnaround times, and scalability.
• Partner with HRIS, IT, and external vendors to optimise payroll systems, integrations, and data quality.
• Lead payroll-related system implementations, upgrades, and enhancements across the region.

Stakeholder Management & Collaboration

• Act as a trusted payroll advisor to HR, Reward, Finance, Legal, and country leadership teams.
• Manage relationships with external payroll vendors, tax authorities, auditors, and regulatory bodies.
• Ensure effective governance forums, steering committees, and working groups are in place to support payroll outcomes.
• Communicate payroll risks, issues, and improvements clearly to senior stakeholders.

People Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, develop, and motivate a payroll team, fostering a culture of accountability, learning, and service excellence.
• Drive performance management, succession planning, and talent development within the payroll function.
• Ensure appropriate workforce planning, recruitment, onboarding, and skills development aligned to future payroll needs.
• Embed strong process discipline, quality standards, and continuous improvement mindset across the team.
• Provide coaching and hands-on leadership to build technical payroll expertise and leadership capability

Education & Experience:

• Ndip or BCom Degree or similar
• SAPA Membership (Advantageous)
• 8 - 10 years’ payroll experience, including leading a team
• Proven experience managing multi-country payrolls, ideally within Africa and South Africa
• Strong knowledge of payroll legislation, tax, statutory reporting, and compliance requirements, as well as financial reconciliations, audit processes and budget preparations.
• Demonstrated experience in payroll management, governance, optimisation, and system implementations
• Experience managing external stakeholders, Senior internal stakeholders