Head People Operations

Purpose:

• The Head of People Operations is accountable for the strategic leadership, governance, optimisation, and delivery of People Operations. The role ensures the effective integration of Payroll, People Systems, People Analytics, Employee Data Governance, and Operational Service Delivery to provide a seamless employee experience and enable business performance.
• The role serves as the operational backbone of the People function, ensuring that People processes, systems, data, and services are efficient, compliant, scalable, and aligned to both local business requirements and global standards. Through operational excellence, technology enablement, analytics, and continuous improvement, the Head of People Operations enables evidence-based decision-making, workforce planning, and high-quality employee services while maintaining the highest standards of governance, compliance, and risk management.

Key Responsibilities:

Payroll Leadership & Compliance

• Provide strategic oversight of end-to-end payroll operations.
• Ensure accurate, timely, and compliant payroll delivery.
• Maintain governance frameworks, controls, and segregation of duties.
• Ensure compliance with tax legislation, labour regulations, statutory reporting requirements, POPIA and other regulatory obligations.
• Manage payroll audits, compliance reviews, vendor relationships, and regulatory inspections.
• Drive payroll transformation initiatives, automation, and process optimisation.
• Partner with Finance to support reconciliations, accruals, budgeting, and financial reporting requirements.

People Systems & Digital Enablement

• Own the People Systems strategy and roadmap for HB in alignment with global People technology strategy.
• Oversee People systems including MyHR, AskHR, PaySpace, DocuHR and other integrated platforms.
• Ensure system stability, functionality, adoption, security, and scalability.
• Lead system implementations, upgrades, integrations, automation initiatives, and process redesign projects.
• Manage service delivery, change requests, incidents, and vendor relationships.
• Champion digital transformation and employee self-service capabilities across the employee lifecycle.

People Analytics, Workforce Planning & Insights

• Consolidating the AP process
• Lead the People Analytics agenda and establish a data-driven decision-making culture.
• Deliver workforce insights, predictive analytics, and executive reporting.
• Provide analysis on workforce productivity, attrition, absenteeism, engagement, diversity, headcount, and labour costs.
• Drive strategic workforce planning through scenario modelling, forecasting, and organisational planning.
• Partner with Finance to develop workforce cost forecasts and personnel expense reporting.
• Translate complex workforce and financial data into actionable business insights.
• Enable leadership teams with meaningful analytics to improve organisational effectiveness and workforce decisions.

Data Governance, Risk & Compliance

• Establish enterprise-wide standards for People data governance, quality, integrity, and security.
• Ensure compliance with POPIA, GDPR where applicable, and corporate data governance frameworks.
• Lead data quality audits, reconciliation processes, and remediation activities.
• Establish controls to ensure data accuracy across People systems and payroll platforms.
• Ensure accurate and timely reporting for internal and external stakeholders.
• Maintain operational documentation, policies, SOPs, and governance frameworks.

Operational Excellence & Service Delivery

• Lead continuous improvement initiatives across all People Operations processes.
• Establish service delivery standards and employee experience measures.
• Drive automation and simplification initiatives to improve efficiency and scalability.
• Ensure seamless delivery of employee lifecycle processes including onboarding, organisational changes, benefits administration, payroll support, and offboarding.
• Monitor operational performance and implement corrective actions where required.
• Build a culture of service excellence and accountability.

Stakeholder Management & Strategic Partnership

• Serve as trusted advisor to the Heads of People, Management Team, Finance, Reward, Digital & Technology, and Business Leaders.
• Influence strategic decisions through operational insights and workforce intelligence.
• Build strong partnerships with global People teams and external service providers.
• Manage governance forums, steering committees, and operational review meetings.
• Communicate operational performance, risks, opportunities, and transformation progress to senior stakeholders.

People Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead and develop a high-performing People Operations function.
• Provide leadership to Payroll, People Systems, Analytics, and Operational Services teams.
• Establish a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, customer focus, and innovation.
• Drive succession planning, capability building, and talent development.
• Ensure appropriate workforce planning and organisational design within the function.
• Coach and mentor managers and specialists to strengthen functional expertise and leadership capability.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Information Systems, Finance, Commerce, Analytics, or related discipline.
• Postgraduate qualification in Business, Human Resources, Analytics, Technology, or Finance preferred.
• Payroll, HR Systems, Project Management, Analytics, or Change Management certifications advantageous.
• 8 years progressive experience within Human Resources Operations, Shared Services, Payroll, HR Technology, or Workforce Analytics.
• Minimum 5 years' experience leading multidisciplinary teams.
• Proven experience managing payroll, HR systems, people analytics, and operational service delivery within a large complex organisation.
• Experience leading transformation and digitalisation initiatives.
• Strong understanding of workforce planning, people data governance, compliance, and risk management.
• Demonstrated experience managing executive stakeholders and cross-functional governance structures.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen with experience partnering closely with Finance.