SATIC: Employment Law Manager

PwC South Africa; Wes-Kaap; On-site; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

PWC UK Employment Law Team in South Africa seeks an experienced Manager to lead and deliver high-quality employment law support for UK clients. The role combines leadership of a virtual team with strong technical, commercial and project-management skills to oversee complex investigations, reports and cross-border matters.

The successful candidate will guide junior lawyers, manage client relationships, contribute to proposals, and drive service improvements within a dynamic, non-traditional legal

Qualifications

• At least 5–7 years’ post-qualification experience in employment law, in a law firm, in-house legal team or professional services.
• Extensive experience in redundancy and reorganisations, changes to terms and conditions, investigations and employee relations advisory.
• Experience managing litigation and cross-border projects; complex technical legal work.
• Experience advising on and handling matters involving the UK Employment Tribunal system.
• Strong knowledge of the ACAS Code of Practice and its application to disciplinary, grievance and dismissal processes.
• Ability to assess legal and procedural risk under UK employment law, Tribunal practice and ACAS requirements.
• Experience leading employment workstreams on transactions and large-scale change programmes; project management capability.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a broad range of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters with senior oversight when required.
• Lead workforce change projects, including restructuring, redundancy programmes, transfers and multi-jurisdictional moves.
• Manage and oversee high-profile non-financial misconduct investigations.
• Provide strategic employee relations advisory support, investigations guidance and risk management with HR, Reward, Compliance and senior stakeholders.
• Draft, review and oversee legal documents governed by England and Wales law and cross-jurisdictional documents.
• Collaborate with PwC teams outside Legal to support transactions, leading the employment workstream domestic and cross-border.
• Prepare plain-English advice notes identifying material risks and recommended positions aligned to playbooks and client risk standards.
• Liaise with clients and internal stakeholders to explain requirements and transaction positions.
• Lead day-to-day team delivery across matters and workstreams, ensuring high-quality outcomes against SLAs.
• Allocate work, review outputs, manage capacity, and support capability development.

Education

Admission as an attorney in South Africa or equivalent common law jurisdiction

Job description

SATIC ,the South Africa Technology and Innovation center is supporting PwC UK's Employment Law Team, delivering project‑based assignments, specialist legal advice and ongoing managed legal services. The team’s core offerings include client facing work and being responsible for supporting UK lawyers with undertaking workplace investigations, drafting reports and undertaking research and advising on a broad range of employment law matters.

The Manager will play a key leadership role in delivering high-quality employment legal support to the PwC UK Employment Law Team, combining strong technical excellence with commercial judgement, team leadership, project management and a collaborative approach to cross-disciplinary delivery. This is an opportunity to work on high-profile and strategically significant matters in a dynamic, non-traditional legal environment, while helping to drive quality, efficiency and team development.

The role includes day-to-day leadership of a virtual team delivering managed employment law services, with responsibility for work allocation, quality oversight, coaching, stakeholder coordination and delivery against agreed SLAs.

Summary

• The Manager will provide employment legal support to the PwC UK Employment Law Team, focused on delivering high-volume, high-quality employment legal work for UK clients.
• The role will involve leading and managing employment law matters, supporting client-facing work, overseeing workplace investigations, drafting and reviewing reports, undertaking complex legal research, and supervising delivery across multiple workstreams.
• The successful candidate will combine strong technical excellence with commercial judgement, people leadership, project oversight and a collaborative approach to cross-disciplinary delivery. The role also requires contribution to business development, process improvement, stakeholder management and the ongoing development of the SATIC employment law capability.
• Responsibilities include leading a virtual team delivering managed employment law services for PwC UK, ensuring consistent, high-quality outcomes against agreed SLAs. The Manager will act as the day-to-day escalation point for complex matters, guide junior lawyers on legal approach and issue resolution, oversee team delivery and quality, and contribute to service innovation and technology-enabled ways of working.

Qualifications/Certifications

• Admission as an attorney in South Africa or equivalent common law jurisdiction

Experience required

• At least 5–7 years’ relevant post-qualification experience in employment law, gained in a reputable law firm, in-house legal team, or professional services environment
• Strong experience across a number of the following:
• redundancy and reorganisations
• changes to terms and conditions
• investigations and employee relations advisory
• managing litigation
• cross-border projects
• complex technical legal work
• Experience advising on and handling matters involving the UK Employment Tribunal system.
• Strong working knowledge of the ACAS Code of Practice, including its practical application in disciplinary, grievance and dismissal processes.
• Ability to assess legal and procedural risk in line with UK employment law, Tribunal practice and ACAS requirements.
• Experience leading the employment workstream on transactions and large-scale change programmes, including project management of multi-jurisdictional matters
• Proven experience managing client relationships and providing clear, outcome-focused advice
• Demonstrated business development capability, including cross-selling, contributing to proposals and thought leadership
• Strong matter management discipline, including scoping, budgeting, profitability and risk management
• Proven people management experience leading and managing junior lawyers, associates and/or senior associates in a high-volume managed services, legal services or in-house environment
• Demonstrated ability to manage team capacity, workload allocation, quality oversight and delivery against agreed service levels
• Experience supervising junior team members, reviewing work, and supporting capability development
• Strong people leadership skills, including delegation, coaching, feedback and development
• Demonstrated ability to support performance management processes and deliver coaching and training
• Proven ability to manage high document volumes accurately and at pace, meet tight deadlines, and manage multiple priorities
• Proficiency with project management tools and legal technology, including process improvement and technology-enabled delivery models

Responsibilities of the role

• Lead and manage a broad range of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters, including high-value and complex mandates, with appropriate senior oversight where required
• Lead workforce change projects, including restructuring and redundancy programmes, transfers, changes to terms and conditions, and intra-group workforce moves, often across multiple jurisdictions
• Manage and oversee high-profile non-financial misconduct investigations
• Provide strategic employee relations advisory support, investigations guidance and risk management advice, partnering with HR, Reward, Compliance and senior leadership stakeholders
• Draft, review and oversee a wide range of legal documentation governed by the laws of England and Wales, as well as cross-jurisdictional legal documents
• Collaborate with other PwC teams outside Legal to support transactions by leading the employment workstream on domestic and cross-border matters, working closely with Tax, Deals and Workforce colleagues
• Prepare plain-English advice notes identifying material risks, required mitigations and recommended negotiation positions aligned to playbooks and PwC UK Employment Law Team client risk standards
• Liaise with clients and internal stakeholders, including partners, client teams, engagement teams and risk teams, to explain service-specific requirements and transaction positions
• Lead or support complex transactions, escalations, ad hoc matters and negotiations, including triaging transaction packs and prioritising legal and commercial risks
• Act as the day-to-day escalation point for complex employment law matters, guiding junior lawyers on legal approach, issue resolution and stakeholder handling
• Lead day-to-day team delivery across allocated matters and workstreams, ensuring consistent, high-quality outcomes against agreed SLAs
• Allocate work across junior team members, taking into account capacity, capability, development needs and delivery priorities
• Review team output to ensure quality, consistency and alignment with legal, client and risk standards
• Manage matters profitably and efficiently, with disciplined scoping, budgeting, resourcing and risk management, and effective use of technology-enabled delivery
• Coordinate multi-jurisdictional projects, leveraging the international network to deliver consistent, timely and compliant outcomes
• Supervise, coach and review the work of junior team members, supporting quality, development and performance
• Provide structured coaching, feedback and on-the-job development to junior lawyers and team members
• Support performance management processes, including goal setting, development planning and ongoing feedback
• Monitor team capacity and utilisation across matters, and escalade resource constraints where appropriate
• Design and deliver client training, thought leadership and horizon scanning on employment law developments and workforce regulatory change
• Support pitches and proposals, contribute to go-to-market campaigns, and identify and help convert new opportunities within PwC and externally
• Maintain and improve playbooks, templates, know-how and SharePoint resources, and drive training and process enhancements
• Support compliance processes including acceptance and continuance, independence, information security and data protection
• Meet agreed SLA turnaround times and quality standards, and contribute to client satisfaction and continuous improvement initiatives
• Perform related tasks to support the PwC UK Employment Law Team as required