Chief People Officer

Gotyme Za (South Africa); Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 2,000,000 - 3,500,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive Group Life Cover

Health Insurance

Retirement Annuity

EAP support

Access to company shares

Wellness days

On-site barista

Social clubs

Job summary

GoTyme Bank is seeking a Chief People Officer (CPO) to lead the People and Culture function, partnering with the CEO to craft a human capital strategy, culture, and governance framework for a cutting-edge digital bank in South Africa.

You will oversee four pillars—Employee Experience, PaC Operations, Talent, and Governance & Controls—driving AI-enabled, lean processes while ensuring regulatory compliance and high-performance leadership across the organisation.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of PaC leadership experience, including fintech or digitally native businesses.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and executive-level stakeholders.
• Experience with EE compliance and SA labour legislation.
• Experience implementing AI and HRIS for lean, efficient PaC operations.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the enterprise PaC strategy aligned to the bank's multi-year plan.
• Lead organisational design, workforce planning, and governance across pillars.
• Advise the CEO and EXCO on talent, culture, leadership and people risk; oversee succession planning.
• Drive AI and HRIS-enabled lean PaC operations and budgeting, with governance controls.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Stakeholder management

Change management

AI/HRIS enablement

People analytics

Tools

HRIS

Job description

The Chief People Officer (CPO) is the principal strategic leader of the People and Culture (PaC) function at GoTyme Bank, accountable to the CEO for ensuring the organisation has the human capital strategy, capabilities, culture, and governance frameworks required to deliver on its business objectives. This is a business-critical executive seat that shapes the bank’s ability to attract, develop, retain, and engage the talent it needs to compete as a cutting-edge digital bank.

The CPO leads a lean, four-pillar People & Culture function: Employee Experience (PaC partnering with Business), PaC Operations (facilities, technology and enablement), Talent (acquisition and capability development), and Governance & Controls (IR, ESG, EE, and Total Rewards). The role is responsible for ensuring that each pillar is appropriately led, that the function operates as a high-discipline, high-velocity lean model enabled by AI and HRIS, and that the overall ratio of PaC team members to employees remains defensible without sacrificing quality.

The CPO advises the EXCO and Board on all people matters, leads the bank’s organisational design and workforce planning, and is the executive accountable for transformation, EE compliance, remuneration governance, and people-related regulatory obligations under South African labour law.

• People Strategy & Organisational Design

  • Define and own the enterprise-wide PaC strategy, aligned to the bank’s three-to-five-year business plan.
  • Lead organisational design reviews, workforce planning, and structural change initiatives across all business units.
  • Advise the CEO and EXCO on talent, culture, leadership, and people risk - including succession planning for critical roles.
  • Ensure the PaC operating model remains lean, scalable, fast moving and enabled by AI/HRIS rather than growing headcount linearly.

• Culture, Engagement & Leadership Standard

  • Define and steward the bank’s culture framework - values, behaviours, psychological safety, and inclusion - ensuring it is lived at every level and embedded in people processes.
  • Design and oversee the employee listening strategy (engagement surveys, pulse checks, exit data) and ensure insights drive action.
  • Own the GoTyme Care & Growth model - a defined, enterprise-wide leadership language that creates consistent intent and behaviour across the business.
  • Commission the design and delivery of the Leadership Standard programme and hold leaders accountable for demonstrating the defined standards through calibration and succession processes.
  • Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion as both a values principle and a commercial imperative.

• Performance Excellence

  • Drive performance excellence through robust and fit-for-purpose goals setting; appraisals in line with Care & Growth; performance calibration; and a bonus system that rewards high performance.
  • Establish a bar-raiser hiring process where every critical hire must be assessed not just for current role fit but for raising the average capability of the team. Embed this standard in the GoTyme hiring framework and hold the leaders accountable for its consistent application.
  • Ensure the bank’s talent intelligence is pro-active - predictive attrition risk, succession gap analysis, and scarce-skills visibility are surfaced to EXCO.

• Governance, Compliance & Remuneration Oversight

  • Ensure full compliance with all South African labour legislation: LRA, BCEA, EEA, SDA, POPIA, and relevant codes of good practice.
  • Oversee the Employment Equity (EE) plan, submit EE reports, and chair the EE Committee.
  • Provide RemCo with the strategic remuneration framework, pay equity analysis, and benchmarking rationale for executive and employee compensation.
  • Maintain accountability for ESG people metrics and their disclosure in regulatory and investor reporting.

• PaC Function Leadership & Enablement

  • Lead and develop the heads of each PaC pillar - holding them accountable for performance, development, and function delivery.
  • Drive AI and HRIS enablement across the function to reduce administrative burden, improve insight, and maintain a lean headcount model.
  • Own the PaC budget and resource allocation across the business.
  • Maintain the function’s readiness for internal audit, regulatory review, and EXCO scrutiny at all times.

• Stakeholder Management & External Positioning

  • Build and maintain credible relationships with EXCO, the Board RemCo, regulators (SARB/PA, CCMA, Department of Labour), and key external partners.
  • Represent the bank externally on people matters - employer brand, talent market positioning, and industry forums.
  • Oversee the bank’s relationships with key talent, benchmarking, and HR technology vendors.

• Experience:

  • 8+ years of PaC leadership experience, at least 4 years of which should be in a fintech or digitally native business.
  • Demonstrated track record of building and leading high-performance PaC functions, not merely managing process.
  • Experience operating across multiple stakeholders incl. senior executives and board members.
  • Hands-on experience with EE compliance, CCMA, and SA labour legislation.
  • Experience with using AI for process automation, implementing modern day HRIS, and making data-led decisions.

• Knowledge:

  • Deep knowledge of South African labour law: LRA, BCEA, EEA, SDA, POPIA.
  • Intricate understanding of employee lifecycle management
  • Understanding of Patterson grading, total rewards philosophy, and pay equity frameworks.
  • Working knowledge of digital banking operating models, fintech talent markets, and high-growth scaling challenges.
  • Familiarity with ESG reporting standards as they relate to people metrics.
  • Understanding of AI/HRIS tools and their application in lean HR functions.

Our Benefits Include:
Comprehensive Group Life Cover

• Life Cover
• Funeral Cover
• Global Education Protector
• Disability Cover (incl. Contribution Protector)
• Severe Illness Benefit

Healthcare That Works for You

• Full company contribution to Health Insurance for eligible employees.
• Partial company contribution to Medical Aid options for eligible employees.

Plan for Your Future

• Access to a Retirement Annuity, with convenient payroll deductions to help you save for retirement while benefiting from applicable tax advantages.

Other benefits include:

• EAP support (counselling, financial and legal for you and anyone financially dependent on you).
• Competitive, industry-benchmarked salaries.
• Non-guaranteed performance bonuses.
• Access to company shares (T’s & C’s apply).
• Wellness days.
• Social clubs.
• On-site barista.