Recruitment & Selection Lead

Make it Good; Johannesburg; Remote; ZAR 200 000 - 300 000; Full time

Job summary

A mission-driven NGO is seeking a Recruitment Manager to own the complete recruitment strategy. The role involves leading a recruitment team, designing processes for large volumes of candidates, and ensuring a fair candidate experience. Ideal candidates should have over 5 years of experience in recruitment, along with strong communication and data analysis skills. The position is fully remote, with occasional meetings in major cities.

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits including medical aid

Values-driven culture focused on impact

High levels of ownership and autonomy

Qualifications

• 5+ years’ experience in recruitment or talent acquisition.
• Proven experience designing or managing recruitment processes.
• Hands-on experience with paid social-media recruitment campaigns.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end recruitment and selection strategy.
• Design scalable recruitment processes for large applicant volumes.
• Lead and develop a small recruitment team effectively.

Skills

Recruitment strategy design

Team leadership

Data analysis

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in HR or related field

Tools

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

CRM software

Analytics tools

Job description

Location

South Africa

Work model

Fully remote (can be based anywhere in South Africa). You need to be legally eligible to work in SA to be considered.

Salary

R30k-R40k CTC

Why you'd want to work here

Join a mission-led NGO that uses education and tech to reduce inequality and youth unemployment by creating pathways into high-value digital and tech careers

Fully remote, with intentional in-person connection time in Johannesburg or Cape Town a few times a year, plus an annual all-team event focused on alignment and connection

Comprehensive benefits including medical aid and a retirement annuity

A values-driven culture built around impact, community, learning, accountability, trust and joy at work

High levels of ownership and autonomy – you’re trusted as an adult to deliver, not micromanaged

A genuinely collaborative, kind team that believes in their learners and in each other

The chance to design and scale a recruitment engine that opens life-changing opportunities for thousands of young people every year

About our client

Our client is a global, fully remote NGO building a community of young people, social innovators, employers and funders to create real pathways to livelihoods. They run a series of “labs” – from skills training to real-world paid gigs and support into long-term work – to help marginalised youth move into sustainable, future-fit careers in areas like data, web development and design.

They’re impact-obsessed, data-informed and deeply learner-centred. If you care about using recruitment, systems and data to change lives (not just fill vacancies), this is a powerful place to do it.

What the job involves

• Owning the end-to-end recruitment and selection strategy for all programmes and projects – from lead generation through to onboarding selected candidates
• Designing and continuously improving scalable recruitment processes that can handle tens of thousands of applicants per year, while staying human, fair and inclusive
• Developing and maintaining clear, compliant recruiting procedures and SOPs across sourcing, screening, interviewing and selection
• Creating and managing an annual recruitment calendar, including bootcamps, application deadlines and communication plans
• Planning and coordinating recruitment marketing campaigns with internal teams and agencies, including paid social media and other digital channels
• Partnering with Data and programme teams to ensure clean, structured applicant data that can be used for decision-making across the Skills and Experience Labs
• Tracking and analysing funnel metrics (volume, conversion, time-to-fill, cost-per-hire) and using insights to refine processes and tests
• Leading, coaching and developing a small recruitment team – setting clear targets, doing regular check‑ins and performance reviews, and building a collaborative, data‑forward culture
• Acting as the connector between recruitment and internal stakeholders (Skills, Experience, Placement, Partnerships, Project Operations) to ensure recruitment is aligned with demand and capacity
• Championing a fair, inclusive and positive candidate experience, including timely responses to queries and clear, empathetic communication via email, help desk and WhatsApp
• Overseeing applicant tracking systems and databases, ensuring data hygiene, accurate tagging and accessible assessment records
• Producing regular reports and dashboards on funnel health, candidate demographics, bootcamp outcomes and readiness for placement, and sharing insights with leadership
• Identifying bottlenecks in the funnel, testing solutions and leading pilots for new sourcing methods, automation tools and assessment techniques
• Working with internal teams to match candidates to the right pathways, labs and gigs, and managing the handover into onboarding so that transitions are smooth and well-informed
• Ensuring that all recruitment practices are compliant with policies, labour laws, data privacy regulations and inclusive hiring standards

What you need to be considered

• 5+ years’ experience in recruitment or talent acquisition, with at least 2 years in a lead or management role
• Proven experience designing or managing recruitment processes and supervising a small team
• Strong systems and process design skills – able to map, optimise and scale recruitment workflows across multiple campaigns
• High level of data literacy : comfortable using an ATS, CRM and analytics tools, and turning funnel metrics into practical improvements
• Experience working closely with cross‑functional teams (e.g. programme delivery, project managers, external partners or clients)
• Hands‑on experience planning and managing paid social‑media recruitment campaigns (e.g. Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills – able to engage candidates, brief stakeholders and write clear documentation and SOPs
• Solid understanding of labour laws, data privacy and inclusive hiring practices
• A genuine commitment to social impact and reducing inequality, ideally with a strong interest in education, youth development and / or tech
• Comfortable working fully remotely, with the discipline and self‑management that requires
• A relevant bachelor’s degree (e.g. HR, Industrial Psychology, Business, Organisational Development or similar) is preferred

Bonus points if you

• Have experience in high-volume, assessment-heavy recruitment (e.g. graduate programmes, learnerships, bootcamps)
• Have worked in an NGO, social enterprise, EdTech or youth employability context
• Bring hands‑on experience with South African labour legislation and POPIA in a recruitment context
• Have implemented or optimised an ATS or CRM, or led a migration between systems
• Are comfortable presenting data and insights to senior stakeholders and helping drive strategic decisions
• Have experience working in fully remote, distributed teams across time zones
• Are energised by experimentation – testing new sourcing channels, assessments or automations and sharing what you learn with the team