South African Immigration Compliance and Consulting Services - Senior Manager

EY; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the immigration sector seeks a Senior Manager in Immigration Services in Johannesburg. The role involves leading client engagements, managing a team, and ensuring compliance with immigration laws. Candidates should have 9+ years of experience and strong client management skills in global mobility contexts.

Qualifications

• Minimum 9 years of relevant experience in immigration services.
• Knowledge of global immigration legislation in South Africa.
• Experience managing complex client portfolios and teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead high-profile engagements for multinational clients in immigration.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior HR and legal stakeholders.
• Manage a team of immigration managers and consultants.

Skills

Client management

Interpersonal skills

Independent thinking

Report writing

Technology literacy

Presentation skills

Team management

Motivation

Tools

Microsoft applications

Job description

Description of Role

As a Senior Manager in Immigration Services, you will lead complex, high-impact client engagements across global mobility and immigration portfolios. You will be responsible for managing a team of managers and consultants, building and maintaining key client relationships, ensuring compliance with evolving immigration laws, and advising multinational corporations on strategic immigration planning. Your role combines technical expertise, operational oversight, people leadership, and client development.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior HR, mobility, and legal stakeholders on strategic immigration matters.
• Provide guidance on cross-border workforce planning, risk mitigation, and global immigration compliance.
• Lead high-profile engagements for multinational clients, overseeing end-to-end immigration service delivery.
• Manage a team of immigration managers, consultants, and coordinators across multiple jurisdictions.
• Oversee immigration processes including work permits, visa filings, permanent residency, and compliance tracking.
• Ensure adherence to timelines, regulatory changes, and quality standards across all client engagements.
• Monitor global immigration regulatory changes and advise clients proactively.
• Research, read and interpret applicable legislation in order to appropriately draft advice to clients
• Develop internal protocols to ensure client compliance with government requirements and audits.
• Identify new business opportunities and drive proposal development.
• Collaborate with tax, legal, and mobility professionals to cross-sell integrated mobility services.
• Build client pipeline through relationship management and networking.
• Identify and drive opportunities for process improvement including use of AI and other technology.
• Mentor and develop junior staff through structured feedback and on-the-job coaching.
• Foster a culture of high performance, collaboration, and inclusion across the team.
• Financial portfolio management including WIP management, billing and cash collection
• Ensuring compliance with our risk management procedures
• Performance manager to allocated staff

Qualifications & Experience

• Minimum 9 years of relevant experience in immigration services or global mobility, ideally within a professional services firm or multinational corporation.
• Strong knowledge of global immigration legislation and practice in South Africa.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex client portfolios and teams.
• Excellent communication, client-facing, and project management skills.

Skills and Behavioural Attributes

• A high standard of client management skills. Excellent interpersonal skills. Independent thinker. Good report and advice writing ability.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Technologically literate: a good working knowledge of Microsoft applications
• Able to manage and oversee a team, including development of individual team members
• Manage and oversee client deliverables deadlines.
• Presentation skills
• Motivated and driven
• Ability to work on your own, a team player.
• Ideally this candidate will, in addition to deep technical skills in the area of immigration, have energy, enthusiasm and drive to grow their career and become a future leader of our business.

Who we are:

Our immigration practice revolves around helping our clients effectively manage their immigration obligations proactively and responsibly. As part of a global team of 2,000+ tax professionals in over 160 countries, you will advise clients on planning, compliance and reporting on immigration matters wherever the client has a need. Our unwavering commitment to quality service and our technical networks enable you to help clients mitigate risk and identify opportunities within their immigration programme.

Our immigration practice is housed within our People Advisory Services (PAS) function. As a PAS professional, you will have the opportunity to work with global clients to understand and address some of the largest and most complex challenges related to the movement of people, and ultimately improve and drive valuable and sustainable business results.

At EY we support you in achieving your unique potential both personally and professionally. We give you stretching and rewarding experiences that keep you motivated, working in an atmosphere of integrity and teaming with some of the world's most successful companies. And while we encourage you to take personal responsibility for your career, we support you in your professional development in every way we can. You enjoy the flexibility to devote time to what matters to you, in your business and personal lives. At EY you can be who you are and express your point of view, energy and enthusiasm, wherever you are in the world. It's how you make a difference.