Are you a payroll professional who thrives in a fast-paced environment and enjoys balancing precision with people leadership? An exciting opportunity is available for an experienced Assistant Payroll Manager to step into a role where your expertise will help drive payroll excellence, compliance, and process improvement across a large-scale operation. This is not a payroll role in a small or simple environment. You'll support a large, established group with multiple business units and a complex workforce structure. It offers exposure to high-volume payroll operations, leadership responsibility, statutory complexity and broader payroll projects This opportunity is ideal for someone who enjoys leading teams, solving complex payroll challenges, and ensuring payroll processes run smoothly and accurately. You are detail-oriented, highly organised, and thrive in an environment where accuracy matters. You have strong leadership capability, maintain confidentiality, and enjoy creating efficient systems while delivering excellent service. If you are ready to take the next step in your payroll career and join a dynamic environment where your contribution matters, we'd love to hear from you. Duties: Oversee and support the end-to-end payroll process, ensuring accurate and timely payroll delivery Ensure payroll calculations, deductions, taxes, and benefits are processed correctly Collaborate with HR and Finance teams to maintain payroll integrity and data accuracy Prepare payroll reports and costing schedules for business units Manage annual salary increase and bonus worksheets Support internal and external audits and ensure compliance requirements are met Ensure statutory submissions are completed accurately and within deadlines (SARS, UIF, SDL, COID) Maintain compliance with labour legislation and payroll regulations Lead, mentor, and support payroll team members Identify process inefficiencies and drive continuous improvements Assist with payroll projects and broader business initiatives Job Experience & Skills Required: Qualifications: Matric (Grade 12) Degree in Finance, Accounting, HR, or a related field advantageous Payroll certification such as CPP or CPA would be beneficial Experience: Payroll certification such as CPP or CPA would be beneficial Minimum 5 years payroll experience with leadership exposure Strong knowledge of South African payroll legislation and statutory requirements Experience working on payroll systems such as SAP or Sage VIP Advanced Excel skills and the ability to work with large data sets Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills Skills & Competencies: Strong management accounting and financial analysis capability Advanced costing and profitability analysis skills Commercial acumen with the ability to identify margin improvement opportunities Budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning expertise Strong variance analysis and reporting skills Capex evaluation and return on investment (ROI) analysis capability Knowledge of cost control principles and operational efficiencies Strong understanding of financial processes within manufacturing or processing environments SAP systems experience and strong financial systems capability If you have not had any response in two weeks, please consider the vacancy application unsuccessful. Your profile will be kept on our database for any other suitable roles / positions.