Program Manager - Payroll Transformation (MEA)

About the role

The Project Manager will lead the payroll transformation across the Middle East and Africa, overseeing the full lifecycle from development to regional rollout. This role combines hands‑on delivery with disciplined governance, ensuring payroll risk, compliance and employee experience are managed at scale.

Key responsibilities

• Coordinate closure of legal, commercial, SLA, procurement, integration, data, governance and RACI/RASCI requirements before implementation.
• Maintain the integrated programme plan, dependency map, decision log and readiness checklist with clear owners and due dates.
• Lead parallel implementation of Sage Vendor‑Managed Payroll in South Africa and Sage 300 in Mauritius, managing third‑party payroll processing.
• Govern coordination among Sage, third‑party providers, country HR, Finance, IT, Legal, Procurement and other stakeholders through a central governance channel.
• Oversee data readiness, configuration, testing, user acceptance testing, parallel runs, training, cut‑over, go‑live and hyper‑care activities.
• Define and apply common evaluation criteria across pilots, including cost, accuracy, timeliness, compliance, internal workload, governance effectiveness, employee experience and scalability.
• Gather evidence, capture lessons learned and conduct post‑implementation reviews after pilot stabilisation.
• Build effective relationships across a complex, multicultural matrix environment and facilitate resolution of cross‑functional issues.

Required profile

• Strong project and programme management capability, including integrated planning, governance, RAID management, budget tracking and executive reporting.
• Working knowledge of payroll, HR operations, HRIS implementation, data migration, testing, controls and vendor‑managed services.
• Ability to translate contractual, technical and operational requirements into clear plans, deliverables and ownership.
• Excellent vendor, stakeholder and cross‑functional coordination skills within a regional matrix environment.
• High analytical ability, attention to detail, sound judgement and strong written communication.

Required skills

• Proficiency with Microsoft 365 project tools: Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint and project trackers.
• Experience with Sage Vendor‑Managed Payroll and Sage 300 platforms.