Chief People Officer

GoTyme ZA (South Africa); Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 1,800,000 - 3,500,000; Full time

Job summary

GoTyme Bank seeks a Chief People Officer to lead the People and Culture function, reporting to the CEO and shaping the human capital strategy aligned to the bank's five-year plan. The role drives organisational design, workforce planning, leadership standards, and governance with a focus on culture, engagement, and performance across the business.

You will partner with EXCO to advance talent, leadership, and inclusion, implement AI/HRIS-enabled processes, and ensure regulatory and ESG people

Qualifications

• 8+ years of PaC leadership experience, including fintech or digitally native environments.
• Experience building and leading high-performance PaC functions beyond process management.
• Experience working with senior executives and board members across multiple stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the enterprise-wide PaC strategy aligned to the bank's business plan.
• Lead organisational design reviews, workforce planning, and structural change initiatives.
• Advise the CEO and EXCO on talent, culture, leadership and people risk, including succession planning.
• Oversee leadership development, culture framework, engagement strategy, and inclusion efforts.
• Drive AI and HRIS enablement to reduce administrative burden and maintain lean headcount.

Skills

People leadership

Strategic planning

Organisational design

Talent management

Change management

Stakeholder management

Diversity & inclusion

Education

Master's degree in HRM or related field

Bachelor's degree in HR/Business

Tools

HRIS systems

HR analytics tools

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.

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.