Payroll Specialist Lead - South Africa/ Sub-Sahara

R; South Africa; Remote; ZAR 577 000 - 1 283 000; Full time

Job summary

A global employment solutions company is seeking a Payroll Specialist Lead. This remote position focuses on managing payroll processes for South Africa and mentoring the team. Candidates should have extensive payroll management experience and be fluent in English. The role offers a salary range of $33,300 to $74,000 USD and various benefits including flexible work hours and parental leave.

Benefits

Work from anywhere

Flexible paid time off

Flexible working hours

Mental health support services

Stock options

Learning budget

Home office budget & IT equipment

Qualifications

• Experience in payroll management.
• Knowledge of payroll processing and compliance.
• Strong analytical skills and problem-solving capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end payroll processes including compliance.
• Ensure data integrity and quality.
• Mentor payroll specialists and support regional managers.

Skills

Payroll management or equivalent experience

Knowledge of payroll best practices

Proficient in using software tools like SAP, Excel / Google Sheet

Analytical mindset, problem-solving abilities

Ability to adapt to fast-paced, international work environment

Fluent in English

Tools

SAP

Excel

Google Sheets

Job description

About Remote

Remote is solving modern organizations’ biggest challenge – navigating global employment compliantly with ease. We make it possible for businesses of all sizes to recruit, pay, and manage international teams. With our core values at heart and future focused work culture, our team works tirelessly on ambitious problems, asynchronously, around the world. You can find Remoters working from 6 different continents (Antarctica left to go!) and all of our positions are fully remote.

We encourage every member of the Remote team to bring their talents, experiences and culture to the table to help us build the best-in-class HR platform. If you are energetic, curious, motivated and ambitious, be part of our world. Apply now and define the future of work!

What this job can offer you

This is an exciting time to join Remote and make a personal difference in the global employment space as a Payroll Specialist Lead joining our Global Payroll Operations Team.

What you bring

• Payroll management or equivalent experience
• Knowledge of payroll best practices.
• Proficient in using software tools like SAP, Excel / Google Sheet.
• An analytical mindset with great problem‑solving abilities.
• Ability to adapt to a fast‑paced, international work environment with a passion for making an impact.
• Is a productivity geek and will constantly think of ways to improve and speed up their work.
• You understand the need and ideal to work largely asynchronously.
• Writes and speaks fluent English
• It's not required to have experience working remotely, but considered a plus

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a true subject matter expert for the South Africa
  • Manage existing relationships with key stakeholder within Payroll Implementation, Finance, Product, Engineers.
  • Process full end to end payroll in-house, statutory filing requirements, exceptions, approvals, payments and compliance.
  • Ensure full data integrity and quality
• Accounting/reconciliations
• Focus on KPIs and SLAs
• Implement and improve processes
• Mentor and support payroll specialists
• Back up regional managers during times of absence

Practicals

• You’ll report to: Manager, Payroll Operations
• Team: Payroll Operations
• Location: For this position we welcome everyone to apply, but we will prioritize applications from the following locations as we encourage our teams to diversify; South Africa
• Start date: As soon as possible

Application process

• Interview with recruiter
• Interview with future manager
• Interview with Senior Manager
• Bar Raiser Interview
• Prior employment verification check

Remote's Total Rewards philosophy is to ensure fair, unbiased compensation and fair equity pay along with competitive benefits in all locations in which we operate. We do not agree to or encourage cheap-labor practices and therefore we ensure to pay above in-location rates. We hope to inspire other companies to support global talent-hiring and bring local wealth to developing countries.

At first glance our salary bands seem quite wide - here is some context. At Remote we have international operations and a globally distributed workforce. We use geo ranges to consider geographic pay differentials as part of our global compensation strategy to remain competitive in various markets while we hiring globally. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level and location, and our job titles may span more than one career level. The actual base pay for the successful candidate in this role is dependent upon many factors such as location, transferable or job-related skills, work experience, relevant training, business needs, and market demands. The base salary range may be subject to change. At Remote, we foster internal mobility as a key element of our culture of employee growth and development, supported by a compensation philosophy that guarantees pay equity and fairness. Therefore, all compensation changes associated with an internal move will be reviewed by the Total Rewards & People Enablement team on a case by case basis.

The annual salary range for this full-time position is $33,300 — $74,000 USD

Benefits

• work from anywhere
• flexible paid time off
• flexible working hours (we are async)
• 16 weeks paid parental leave
• mental health support services
• stock options
• learning budget
• home office budget & IT equipment
• budget for local in-person social events or co-working spaces

How you’ll plan your day (and life)

We work async at Remote which means you can plan your schedule around your life (and not around meetings). Read more at remote.com/async.

You will be empowered to take ownership and be proactive. When in doubt you will default to action instead of waiting. Your life-work balance is important and you will be encouraged to put yourself and your family first, and fit work around your needs.

If that sounds like something you want, apply now!

How to apply

• Please fill out the form below and upload your CV with a PDF format.
• We kindly ask you to submit your application and CV in English, as this is the standardised language we use here at Remote.
• If you don’t have an up to date CV but you are still interested in talking to us, please feel free to add a copy of your LinkedIn profile instead.

Not only do we encourage folks from all ethnic groups, genders, sexuality, age, abilities, disability status and any other under-represented group to apply, but we prioritize a sense of belonging. We have 4 ERGs (Women, Disability, Queer, Minorities in Tech) who meet regularly with the People team. During your interviews and beyond, we ask & encourage anybody who needs an accommodation to request one from their recruiter.

We will ask you to voluntarily tell us your pronouns at interview stage, and you will have the option to answer our anonymous demographic questionnaire when you apply below. As an equal employment opportunity employer it’s important to us that our workforce reflects people of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences and this data will help us to stay accountable. We thank you for providing this data, if you chose to.

At Remote, we embrace AI as a valuable tool while prioritizing human creativity and authenticity. We look forward to meeting candidates who balance innovation with genuine expertise and experience. To learn more about Remote’s AI guidelines check see here. Please note we accept applications on an ongoing basis.