Regional Pay & Benefits Leader – Africa

British High Commission Pretoria; Pretoria; On-site; ZAR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

British High Commission Pretoria seeks an experienced Payroll Lead to oversee regional pay and benefits services for Country Based Staff across Sub-Saharan Africa. This role combines team leadership with strong governance to ensure accurate, timely payroll processing and robust risk management.

You will line-manage Pay and Benefits Officers, forecast demand, monitor SLAs, maintain controls, and drive continuous improvement through stakeholder engagement and system enhancements.

Qualifications

• At least 5 years end-to-end payroll processing experience, including 2+ years in a supervisory role.
• Experience managing multiple payrolls, ideally across several countries in Africa.
• Strong analytical and numerical skills with proficient MS Office and advanced Excel.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with strong organisational skills.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision and maintain high levels of accuracy and prioritisation.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop Regional Pay and Benefits Officers; set objectives and standards.
• Forecast demand, plan capacity and allocate workloads across regions.
• Maintain compliance, risk management and control frameworks for payroll services.
• Ensure delivery against SLAs and KPIs; monitor performance with reporting to leadership.
• Drive continuous improvement, data quality and standardisation with cross-functional teams.
• Engage with Posts, Finance, HR hubs and service providers to align policies and outputs.

Skills

Payroll processing

Team management

Excel – Advanced

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Discretion & confidentiality

Multi-country payroll

Education

Diploma/Degree in Accounting, Finance or HR

Tools

MS Excel

Payroll systems

Job description

British High Commission Pretoria seeks an experienced Payroll Lead to oversee regional pay and benefits services for Country Based Staff across Sub-Saharan Africa. This role combines team leadership with strong governance to ensure accurate, timely payroll processing and robust risk management.

You will line-manage Pay and Benefits Officers, forecast demand, monitor SLAs, maintain controls, and drive continuous improvement through stakeholder engagement and system enhancements.