Payroll Operations & Business Execution Manager

Payroll Operations & Business Execution Manager

Excelsiar People Management Solutions

South Africa | Primarily Remote | Full-time

Gross Basic Salary: R45,000–R55,000 per month

Annual Performance Incentive: Up to 20% of annual basic salary

About the Role

Excelsiar is a South African specialist payroll services business providing payroll outsourcing, payroll software, compliance support and payroll consulting services.

We are looking for an experienced South African payroll professional who has progressed beyond payroll processing and is ready to take broader responsibility for payroll operations, business execution, systems, process improvement and strategic projects.

This is a senior, hands-on role working directly with the Managing Director.

The successful candidate will help turn business objectives into implemented solutions, improve how Excelsiar operates and progressively reduce the extent to which day-to-day business execution depends on the Managing Director.

Important: What This Role Is – and Isn't

This is not a payroll-processing position.

You must understand payroll deeply, but your primary value will come from improving, managing and scaling how a payroll services business operates rather than personally processing payrolls every day.

This is also not a sales or business-development position.

Commercial awareness and confidence with clients are important, but candidates whose experience is primarily sales, lead generation or new-business acquisition are unlikely to be suited to this role.

We are looking for a payroll professional who has become a business operator and builder.

The Experience We Are Looking For

You should have substantial practical experience in the South African payroll environment, normally gained over at least 8 years.

More importantly, your career should demonstrate progression beyond payroll administration or processing into several of the following:

• Payroll operations or service management
• Outsourced or multi-client payroll environments
• Payroll systems and implementations
• Payroll projects and conversions
• Payroll consulting
• Process and control improvement
• Payroll team leadership
• Automation and technology-enabled improvement
• Complex corporate payroll operations

You should have practical knowledge of South African payroll legislation, statutory processes and compliance, including PAYE, UIF, SDL, EMP201, EMP501 and payroll tax-year processes, together with experience using recognised payroll systems.

Experience within a payroll outsourcing provider, payroll bureau, payroll software/implementation environment or complex corporate payroll operation will be particularly relevant.

The Person We Need

You must be comfortable receiving an objective rather than a detailed set of instructions.

For example, the Managing Director may say:

"We need to reduce our dependency on individual employees knowing how particular clients work."

Your responsibility would be to understand the current environment, identify the risks, consult the relevant people, develop the solution, determine what should be documented or automated, establish responsibilities, implement the changes and measure whether they are working.

You should not require the Managing Director to design every step for you.

We are particularly interested in someone who naturally asks:

"What are we trying to achieve, what is preventing it, and how do I make it happen?"

Key Responsibilities

You will work across the business to:

• Translate MD priorities and strategic objectives into practical implementation plans and completed outcomes.
• Review and improve payroll outsourcing, support and related service-delivery processes.
• Identify operational risks, bottlenecks, duplication and unnecessary dependency on individuals.
• Standardise workflows, controls and operating procedures where appropriate.
• Drive strategic and operational projects from concept through implementation.
• Improve management visibility through practical reporting, dashboards, controls and performance measures.
• Strengthen knowledge capture, documentation, cross-training and operational continuity.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive or manual processes.
• Help Excelsiar make effective use of workflow systems, automation and AI.
• Coordinate initiatives involving employees, clients, suppliers and systems.
• Support implementation of new services, pricing structures and service-delivery models.
• Engage professionally with clients on operational, service and relationship matters.
• Identify client risks and service-development opportunities.
• Ensure agreed actions progress through to completion.
• Identify activities unnecessarily dependent on the MD and develop practical ways to delegate, systemise, automate or eliminate them.

Technology & Automation

You do not need to be a software developer.

You do need to be comfortable with technology and curious about how it can improve a payroll business.

We want someone who sees a repetitive manual process and naturally asks:

"Why are we still doing this manually?"

Experience with payroll systems, workflow platforms, Microsoft 365, automation tools, reporting systems, AI or similar business technology will be advantageous.

Working in an Entrepreneurial Business

Excelsiar is a specialist business, not a large corporate environment.

There will be occasions where a process is not yet perfectly documented, a new service needs to be designed, or an idea needs to be converted into something operational.

The successful candidate must be comfortable building solutions where they do not yet exist.

If your preferred environment requires established corporate structures, large support teams and detailed instructions before you can act, this position is unlikely to suit you.

Conversely, if you have gained valuable experience in a larger organisation and would now like to apply that knowledge across a broader business environment, this could be an excellent next career step.

Leadership, Judgement & Client Capability

This role requires influence rather than simply authority.

You will work alongside experienced payroll and support professionals who already own important areas of the business. Your role is not to take over everyone's work, but to understand existing knowledge, challenge constructively, coordinate effectively and improve how the different parts of the business work together.

You must also be comfortable challenging the Managing Director professionally when you believe there is a better approach.

You should be confident engaging with business owners, executives, payroll professionals and senior client stakeholders. Strong relationships matter, but so do professional judgement, confidentiality and commercial discipline.

Remote Working

The position is primarily home-based.

You must be capable of managing your own priorities, deadlines and workload without continuous supervision and communicating proactively in a remote environment.

You must have a professional home-working environment, reliable internet connectivity and be willing and able to attend client or business meetings in person when required.

Remote working at Excelsiar is based on trust, accountability and outcomes.

What Success Looks Like

We expect measurable progress in areas such as:

• Reduced day-to-day operational dependency on the Managing Director
• Stronger and more consistent payroll service-delivery processes
• Improved operational controls and management visibility
• Greater knowledge capture and cross-training
• Reduced dependency on individual employees
• Successful implementation of strategic projects
• Increased use of automation and technology
• Improved client-service consistency
• Greater operational scalability
• Business initiatives progressing from idea to implementation without constant MD involvement

Remuneration

Gross basic salary: R45,000–R55,000 per month, depending on demonstrated payroll expertise, operational capability and relevant experience.

The position does not currently include employer-funded medical aid or provident/pension fund benefits.

The role also qualifies for an annual performance incentive of up to 20% of annual basic salary.

The incentive will be based on agreed, measurable outcomes rather than simply activity or hours worked, including operational improvement, project implementation, systems and automation, knowledge transfer, client-service outcomes and measurable reduction in MD dependency.

A formal remuneration review will be conducted based on demonstrated performance, expansion of responsibility and measurable contribution to the business.

Career Opportunity

This role is particularly suited to an experienced payroll professional who has reached the point where their next career step should extend beyond payroll management alone.

You will work directly with the owner and Managing Director and gain broader exposure to payroll operations, systems, automation, service design, client strategy, commercial decisions and business management.

For the right individual, the intention is for the scope and seniority of the position to grow as Excelsiar develops.

Before You Apply

This role is likely to suit you if you can demonstrate:

Deep South African payroll experience.

Progression beyond payroll processing.

Independent implementation and project ownership.

Strong operational and process thinking.

Confidence with payroll systems and technology.

Professional client-facing capability.

Commercial judgement.

The ability to build, improve and execute without constant supervision.

If your career has primarily been in sales/business development, or if your payroll experience has remained predominantly transactional payroll processing, this is unlikely to be the right position for you.