SF EC Payroll Lead

Job Title: SF EC Payroll Lead Company: Accenture in South Africa Job Category: SAP HCM Roles & Responsibilities: About Accenture Accenture helps the world’s leading enterprises reinvent by building their digital core and unleashing the power of AI to create value at speed for organizations across industries. Our strategy is to be the reinvention partner of choice for our clients and lead in the safe, widespread adoption of AI, and to be the most client\-focused, AI\-enabled, great place to work in the world. We bring together the talent of our approximately 786,000 people with proprietary assets and platforms, deep process and industry expertise, and leading ecosystem relationships to deliver end\-to\-end solutions and measurable outcomes at scale. Through our Reinvention Services, we offer broad expertise across Cybersecurity, Digital Core, Finance, Industry and Enterprise, Song, Supply Chain and Engineering, and Talent, with advanced capabilities in AI and Data, Industry and Process, and Technology. We serve approximately 9,000 clients and generated approximately $70 billion in FY25 revenue. Visit us at accenture.com. Role Overview We are seeking an experienced SAP SuccessFactors EC Payroll Lead to join our Reinvention Services team at Manager level. In this role, you will serve as the principal Functional Subject Matter Expert across SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll and SAP HCM Payroll, leading end\-to\-end delivery or defined components of complex payroll transformation engagements. Key Responsibilities Functional SME Leadership \& Delivery Accountability - Act as the primary Subject Matter Expert for SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll and SAP HCM Payroll, ensuring functional correctness and alignment with real operational payroll business needs throughout all project phases. - Lead end\-to\-end delivery or a defined component of a contract, meeting all operational, contractual, and financial commitments with accountability and rigour. - Create clear and comprehensive functional and technical specifications to guide development, configuration, and integration teams. - Develop and support proof of concepts, solution estimates, and conceptual designs to validate approaches and build stakeholder confidence. - Lead the analysis and refinement of payroll business processes, aligning them with SAP SuccessFactors and HCM system capabilities and project objectives. Stakeholder Engagement \& Strategic Advisory - Engage directly with client business leads, HR Directors, Finance, and project sponsors to align delivery objectives with business goals and ensure high\-quality service standards throughout. - Communicate effectively with stakeholders to manage expectations, provide transparent progress updates, and ensure alignment at every stage of the project lifecycle. - Support change management efforts to facilitate smooth adoption of new payroll processes, configurations, and technologies across client organisations. Team Leadership \& Practice Contribution - Take accountability for team decisions within the payroll workstream, providing clear direction and resolving cross\-team challenges with confidence and commercial awareness. - Contribute to the growth and market positioning of Accenture's SAP SuccessFactors Payroll practice through knowledge sharing and methodology development. - Proven track record of leading or co\-leading full\-cycle SAP Payroll implementations — from blueprint through go\-live and hypercare. - Experience operating at Manager level or equivalent — comfortable with delivery accountability, team leadership, and senior stakeholder management. Why Accenture - Lead landmark SAP payroll transformation programmes for marquee South African and global clients across Banking, Mining, Retail, Public Sector, and more. - Thrive in a high\-performance culture that values deep expertise, commercial acumen, and collaborative leadership. - Join a diverse, inclusive, and purpose\-driven South Africa team that is reinventing how Africa's leading organisations pay and support their people. - Proven track record of leading or co\-leading full\-cycle SAP Payroll implementations — from blueprint through go\-live and hypercare. - Experience operating at Manager level or equivalent — comfortable with delivery accountability, team leadership, and senior stakeholder management. Work Location: Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa Availability: Full time

- Apply deep knowledge of payroll business processes and expected system behaviour to validate requirements, configurations, and workflows with client stakeholders. Skills \& Expertise Core Technical Skills - Expert proficiency in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll — configuration, payroll control centre, off\-cycle processing, and integration with Employee Central. - Expert proficiency in SAP HCM Payroll — payroll schemas, rules, wage types, off\-cycle payroll, and statutory compliance (including South African payroll legislation: PAYE, UIF, SDL). - Strong capability in requirements gathering, functional and technical specification writing, and solution documentation. - Experience with HR Payroll processes and best practices across multiple industries and regulatory environments. - Intermediate proficiency in Stakeholder Engagement — ability to communicate technical payroll concepts clearly and influence at senior business and executive level. - Foundational proficiency in Data Analytics — an emerging capability to leverage payroll data insights for operational reporting and continuous improvement. Qualifications \& Experience 1-2 years of hands\-on experience in HR Payroll, SAP HCM Payroll, and/or SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll. - Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Finance, Information Technology, Business Administration, or a related field; postgraduate qualification advantageous. - SAP SuccessFactors certification in Employee Central Payroll and/or SAP HCM Payroll (required); additional module certifications advantageous. - Knowledge of South African statutory payroll requirements (PAYE, UIF, SDL, ETI) and broader SADC compliance landscape strongly advantageous. - Experience with payroll migration from on\-premise SAP HCM to cloud\-based EC Payroll advantageous. - Minimum 8 years of hands\-on experience in HR Payroll, SAP HCM Payroll, and/or SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll. - Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Finance, Information Technology, Business Administration, or a related field; postgraduate qualification advantageous. - SAP SuccessFactors certification in Employee Central Payroll and/or SAP HCM Payroll (required); additional module certifications advantageous. - Knowledge of South African statutory payroll requirements (PAYE, UIF, SDL, ETI) and broader SADC compliance landscape strongly advantageous. - Experience with payroll migration from on\-premise SAP HCM to cloud\-based EC Payroll advantageous. Key Skills: SAP HCM, Payroll Salary: $70