Senior Manager - Enterprise Payroll Sales

The opportunity

EY is looking for a senior enterprise sales professional to lead new business development for an end-to-end payroll services platform designed for Africa. This role is focused on building and converting a high-quality pipeline of South African and Africa-headquartered organisations with complex payroll needs.

The successful candidate will target businesses with large monthly payroll volumes, multi-entity structures, African expansion footprints and a clear need for greater automation, control, compliance confidence and payroll operating efficiency.

This is a market-facing commercial role. You will be expected to understand the payroll proposition, identify the right client segments, open senior conversations, qualify opportunities, shape the business case and drive opportunities through to close.

Your key responsibilities

• Build and manage a focused South African enterprise sales pipeline for payroll services.
• Identify and prioritise organisations with large payroll volumes, complex workforce structures or multi-country African payroll requirements.
• Originate new opportunities through direct outreach, executive networks, referrals, events, partner channels and targeted account planning.
• Engage senior decision-makers across HR, Finance, Payroll, Shared Services, Operations, Risk, IT and Procurement.
• Run high-quality discovery conversations to understand payroll pain points, current operating models, compliance risk, manual processing, reporting gaps and transformation priorities.
• Position the value of a modern, automated, Africa-wide payroll services platform in a way that is commercially relevant to each client.
• Develop account plans, opportunity strategies, stakeholder maps, close plans and deal forecasts.
• Lead the sales process from initial conversation through qualification, solution positioning, proposal, commercial negotiation and close.
• Coordinate effectively with payroll, technology, implementation, legal, risk and leadership teams to support credible proposals and client conversations.
• Support the preparation of proposals, RFP responses, pricing inputs and executive presentations.
• Ensure a structured handover of closed opportunities to implementation and delivery teams, including clear documentation of client requirements, commitments and success measures.

Skills and attributes for success

We are looking for a commercially mature enterprise sales professional who can operate with autonomy, pace and discipline in the South African market. The right person will be energised by new business development and will be comfortable being measured by pipeline quality, deal progression and closed revenue.

• A proven enterprise sales hunter with the ability to open doors, create opportunities and convert complex prospects into signed clients.
• Strong executive presence, with the confidence to engage CFOs, CHROs, Heads of Payroll, Shared Services leaders and senior operations executives.
• A practical understanding of payroll, HR technology, HCM, ERP, managed services, outsourcing, BPO, workforce management, finance operations or related enterprise services.
• Ability to sell a high-trust, mission-critical service where accuracy, confidentiality, compliance, continuity and employee experience matter.
• Strong understanding of how South African corporates buy, including relationship-led selling, procurement processes, risk reviews, references, governance and multi-stakeholder decision-making.
• Commercial fluency, including the ability to frame value, quantify opportunity size, discuss pricing and build a compelling business case for change.
• Resilience and self-direction, with the ability to create momentum without waiting for fully developed inbound demand.
• Strong qualification discipline, with the judgement to focus on accounts with the right profile, buying need and commercial potential.
• High integrity and professional judgement, with the ability to represent EY credibly in sensitive client discussions.

To qualify for the role, you must have

• A strong track record in B2B enterprise sales, preferably with 8 or more years of relevant sales or business development experience.
• Experience selling to large South African corporates or upper-mid-market organisations.
• Demonstrated ability to personally originate, qualify, progress and close complex opportunities.
• Experience selling payroll, HR technology, HCM, ERP, SaaS, managed services, outsourcing, BPO, workforce management, finance operations, compliance or other enterprise business services.
• A strong network, or the ability to quickly build one, across senior HR, Finance, Payroll, Shared Services, Operations or Technology stakeholders.
• Experience navigating complex procurement cycles, commercial negotiations and multi-stakeholder decision processes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including proposal contribution, presentation and executive-level storytelling.
• Comfort with a role that has a strong performance-based sales focus and clear revenue accountability.

Ideally, you will also have

• Existing relationships with senior decision-makers in South African enterprise organisations.
• Experience selling solutions with a multi-country African delivery or compliance component.
• Familiarity with payroll operating models, payroll transformation, employee data, payroll compliance and the practical risks associated with payroll delivery.
• Exposure to industries with large and complex workforces, such as mining, retail, financial services, telecoms, logistics, security, manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, construction or outsourced services.
• Experience working with technology-enabled services, implementation teams or managed service delivery teams.

What we look for

We are looking for a focused, senior sales professional who is motivated by outcomes and able to create revenue opportunities in a complex enterprise environment. You should be able to move confidently from market mapping to client outreach, from discovery to business case, and from proposal to close.

This role will suit someone who wants to be in the market with clients, building relationships and winning work. It will not suit someone who is primarily looking for an internal strategy, advisory or thought leadership role.

The successful candidate will bring energy, maturity, commercial discipline and a clear understanding that payroll is a high-trust sale. You will know how to build confidence with clients, avoid overpromising, involve the right specialists at the right time and maintain momentum through a complex sales cycle.

Market and client focus

The role will primarily focus on South African organisations and Africa-headquartered businesses with significant payroll scale or complexity. Priority clients may include organisations with thousands of employees, multiple entities, operations across several African countries, fragmented payroll processes or a strategic need to automate and modernise payroll.

The role requires a strong appreciation of the South African business environment, where trust, references, risk management, procurement discipline and stakeholder alignment are critical to closing enterprise deals.

What working at EY offers

At EY, you will have the opportunity to work with diverse teams, leading technology, established client relationships and a purpose-led organisation focused on building a better working world. You will be part of an environment that values high performance, integrity, collaboration and the confidence to ask better questions that help clients solve meaningful business challenges.

You will have the opportunity to help shape the growth of a payroll services proposition designed for African businesses, while working with senior clients on issues that are operationally critical to their people, risk and growth agendas.