Senior Human Resources Manager

Senior HR Manager | People Operations, Fintech / Financial Services | Senior Management, South Africa (Remote) | R30,000.00 - R50,000.00

Key Details

• Location: South Africa, remote-based
• Compensation: Market-related (to be confirmed)
• Reports to: Chief of Staff
• Requirements: Relevant HR or Industrial Psychology qualification; 3-5 years' HR experience, ideally with financial services exposure
• Relocation: Not applicable, remote role
• Right to work: South African right to work required

Overview

SATĀYA is representing a fast-growing South African fintech business operating in the international money transfer and investment space. The business has moved through a period of significant expansion, both in terms of its operational footprint and the volume and complexity of its transaction activity, and continues to scale at pace.

This is a newly shaped, senior standalone HR position reporting directly to the Chief of Staff. The business currently has no dedicated senior HR leadership in place, so the person taking on this role will effectively build and own the People function from the ground up, working across a full remit that spans policy, employee relations, performance, learning and development, and HR systems and reporting. Given the regulated nature of the business, there is a strong compliance dimension to the role, with close ties into workforce planning for regulated and representative-linked positions.

This is a role for someone who enjoys structure and process as much as people, and who is comfortable operating without a large existing HR infrastructure to lean on. It would suit an HR generalist or People Operations specialist looking to shape a function in a business that is still defining how it scales.

Scope of Role

1) HR Strategy & Business Partnering

• Act as a strategic HR partner to department heads and senior leadership, advising on workforce planning, organisational design and succession planning for critical and regulated roles.
• Lead the design and continuous improvement of HR policy across recruitment, leave, wellness, disciplinary process and transformation, in line with South African labour legislation.

2) Employee Relations & Compliance

• Manage the full employee relations lifecycle, including grievances, disciplinary processes and CCMA referrals, ensuring procedural fairness and legal defensibility throughout.
• Oversee recruitment and onboarding processes, ensuring screening and vetting meet both business needs and the fit-and-proper requirements that apply to representative and key-individual roles.
• Work closely with the Compliance function on mandatory and regulatory training, including tracking of continuing professional development for licensed representatives.

3) Performance, Learning & Development

• Own the end-to-end performance management cycle, from KPI framework design through to review facilitation, calibration and reporting on trends and development needs to senior leadership.
• Own the learning and development function, identifying skills gaps, designing and rolling out training plans, and tracking the completion and effectiveness of interventions.
• Manage the relationship with the business's employee assistance provider, monitoring utilisation and engagement data and escalating any service issues.

2) HR Operations, Systems & Reporting

• Act as system owner for the HR information platform, overseeing employee records, organisational structure, leave, and onboarding and offboarding workflows, with responsibility for data integrity and access control.
• Own HR reporting and people analytics, including headcount, turnover and organisational structure reporting to leadership and the board where required.
• Manage relevant internal and external stakeholders, including service providers and HR consultants.

3) Team Leadership & Culture

• Lead and develop the People Operations team, setting objectives and managing capacity across the HR function as it grows.
• Drive employee engagement and culture initiatives, including internal communications and wellness programmes, across a remote and distributed team.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• A relevant tertiary qualification in Human Resources, Industrial Psychology or a related field.
• 3-5 years' experience in a Human Resources role, with prior exposure to financial services considered an advantage.
• Solid working knowledge of South African labour legislation, including the Employment Equity Act, LRA, BCEA and Skills Development Act.
• Comfortable owning and administering an HR information system end-to-end, including reporting and integrations with other business systems.
• Strong attention to detail, with the discipline to build and document processes accurately in a business that is still formalising many of its own.
• An analytical, structured mindset with a genuine interest in process improvement, paired with the flexibility to operate in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Confident operating with a high degree of autonomy, comfortable setting direction in a function without established senior HR precedent to follow.
• Clear, credible communicator, able to work closely with senior leadership as well as staff across departments.

Why Our Client

• A genuinely senior, high-impact People role with real ownership of the function from day one.
• Direct line to the Chief of Staff and close visibility of senior leadership decision-making.
• A business in an active growth phase, with scope for the role and function to expand as the company scales.
• A flexible, deliverable-focused working culture, with an emphasis on outcomes over hours.
• A collaborative, transparent working environment with minimal bureaucracy.

This represents a confidential search conducted on behalf of our client. To protect the privacy of the brand and its high-profile clientele, specific company details will be shared exclusively with shortlisted candidates. If you have not received a response within two weeks, please consider your application unsuccessful at this time.