SATIC: Employment Law Senior Associate

PwC South Africa; Wes-Kaap; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

PwC South Africa invites an experienced employment law professional to advise on high‑profile matters within a dynamic, technology‑enabled environment. You will support UK stakeholders, draft reports, and provide strategic ER guidance across jurisdictions.

The role emphasizes cross‑border projects, multi‑disciplinary collaboration, and delivering high‑quality legal work under supervision while contributing to business development and thought leadership.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years’ experience in employment law.
• Experience across redundancy/restructuring, changing terms, investigations.
• Experience on transactions and multi‑jurisdictional matters.
• Strong client advisory, business development and cross‑selling ability.

Responsibilities

• Handle broad employment work, contentious and non‑contentious, with senior oversight.
• Lead workforce change projects across jurisdictions.
• Support strategic ER advisory, investigations guidance and risk management.
• Draft client notes, playbooks and templates for risk control.
• Coordinate with PwC UK Employment Law Team and other PwC units.
• Ensure timely delivery, budgeting and efficient resource use.

Skills

Client relationships

Negotiation

Project management

Drafting skills

Education

Admission as attorney in SA or equivalent

Tools

Microsoft 365

SharePoint/OneDrive

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. It will combine strong technical excellence with commercial judgement, project leadership and a collaborative approach to cross-disciplinary delivery. This is an opportunity to advise high-profile clients on strategically significant matters in a dynamic, non-traditional legal environment.

Qualifications/Certifications

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

Experience required

• At least 3 years’ experience with a solid understanding of gained in a reputable employment law.
• Demonstrable experience across some of the following: redundancy and reorganisations; changing terms and conditions; investigations and ER advisory; managing litigation; and cross-border projects, involving detailed technical legal work under supervision:
• Experience of the employment workstream on transactions and large‑scale change programmes, including project management of multi‑jurisdictional matters.
• Proven client relationship skills and providing clear, outcome‑focused advice.
• Evidence of business development capability, including cross‑selling and thought leadership.
• Excellent communication, drafting and presentation skills.
• Strong matter management discipline, including scoping, budgeting, profitability and risk management.
• A collaborative, entrepreneurial mindset and enthusiasm for working within a multi‑disciplinary, technology‑enabled environment.
• Strong organizational skills and experience of taking on significant levels of responsibility on transactions, including the management and coordination of local legal teams and external advisors.
• Strong client service skills and experience of dealing with clients directly.
• Draft a wide range of legal documentation for transactions governed by the laws of England and Wales, as well as reviewing cross‑jurisdictional legal documents.
• Collaborate with other PwC teams outside of legal, to support transactions by running the employment workstream on domestic and cross‑border deals, collaborating closely with our Tax, Deals and Workforce colleagues.
• Business development, including over time building a network and developing direct client relationships.
• Proven ability to manage high document volumes accurately and at pace, meet tight deadlines, and juggle multiple priorities.
• Proficiency with and understanding of efficient project management tools and legal technology to support the delivery of our work including process improvement.

Responsibilities of the role

• Involved in a broad range of contentious and non‑contentious employment work, including high‑value and complex mandates and advise (with senior legal oversight) on:
• Be part of workforce change projects, including restructuring and redundancy programmes, transfers, changes to terms and conditions, and intra‑group workforce moves, often across multiple jurisdictions.
• Help to project manage high profile non‑financial misconduct investigations.
• Help to provide strategic ER advisory support, investigations guidance and risk management advice, partnering with HR, Reward, Compliance and senior leadership stakeholders.
• Provide strategic ER advisory support, investigations guidance and risk management advice, partnering with HR, Reward, Compliance and senior leadership stakeholders.
• 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 convert new opportunities, both within PwC and externally.
• 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 our international network to deliver consistent, timely and compliant outcomes.
• 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 (partners, client teams, engagement teams, risk) to explain service‑specific requirements and PwC UK Employment Law Team transaction positions.
• Support senior lawyers on complex transactions, ad‑hoc tasks, escalations, and negotiations; triage transaction packs and prioritize risks.
• Maintain and improve playbooks, templates, know‑how, and SharePoint resources; contribute to training and process enhancements.
• Support compliance processes (acceptance/continuance, independence, information security, data protection).
• Meet agreed SLA turnaround times and quality standards; contribute to client satisfaction scores and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Perform related tasks to support the PwC UK Employment Law Team as required.
• Clear, concise, and confident communicator (written and verbal); able to tailor complex issues for non‑legal and senior audiences.
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills, using transaction standards / playbooks and corporate legal judgment to secure acceptable outcomes.
• Advanced analytical and problem‑solving abilities; able to triage complex document or transaction packs and prioritize material risks.
• Excellent plain‑English drafting with exceptional attention to detail and accuracy.
• Ability to translate legal and transaction risks into practical, business‑oriented advice notes.
• Relationship‑building skills; becomes a trusted advisor to internal clients, and senior lawyers.
• An interest in working in a variety of employment related advisory support.
• Working knowledge of data privacy and information security
• Strong technology proficiency: Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams), document comparison/blacklining, and collaboration tools (e.g., SharePoint/OneDrive).
• Experience with legal technology solutions (e.g., document automation, AI‑assisted review) and openness to innovation.
• Comfortable working with non‑legal advisors in multi‑disciplinary client teams.
• Excellent organization and time management; manages multiple priorities and tight deadlines under pressure.
• Data‑driven and process‑oriented; handles high document volumes with speed and accuracy; leverages checklists/playbooks.
• Continuous improvement mindset; contributes to, playbooks, training, and system/process enhancements.
• Cross‑cultural and time‑zone collaboration skills for example the UK–South Africa virtual teaming.