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Head Of People Operations

Head Of People Operations

BiovacZA
2 days ago
Job description

Job title : Head Of People Operations

Job Location : Western Cape,

Deadline : November 20, 2025

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  • To lead the execution of our human capital operations strategy across Africa. This pivotal role will drive operational excellence across the full employee lifecycle, ensuring a human centric, agile, data-driven people philosophy and infrastructure is in place, that positions Biovac as a biopharmaceutical employer of choice, and that is aligned with our mission to build a sustainable vaccine ecosystem for Africa. The incumbent acts as the strategic operational bridge between Biovacs long-term talent strategy and the everyday experiences that shape engagement, performance, and retention.

QUALIFICATIONS NEEDED :

  • Bachelors degree in human capital / human resources management or a related field.
  • Postgraduate diploma in business management or Leadership preferred.
  • Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) will be considered for extensive practical experience.

    • EXPERIENCE REQUIRED FOR SUCCESS :

  • Minimum 10 years of progressive Human Capital generalist experience, including 4 years in a senior HC leadership role.
  • Proven success in a manufacturing or life sciences environment, preferably pharmaceutical, biotech, or vaccine production.
  • Strong track record in organisational development, people project management, workforce planning, talent mapping, career pathing, and employee engagement.
  • Demonstrated local and continental labour relations and compliance management expertise, including policy development and dispute resolution.
  • Experience in Payroll Management, HR systems scoping and implementation, analytics, and operational process optimisation.

    • KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS NEEDED TO MAKE A MEANINGFUL IMPACT :

  • Deep understanding of South African Labour Legislation and pragmatic IR application.
  • Knowledge of scarce skill attraction and retention strategies, particularly in technical and scientific fields.
  • Advanced capability in HC policy, process design, and people metrics.
  • Skilled in performance management, succession planning, and career development frameworks.
  • Strong change management, stakeholder engagement, and communication capabilities.
  • Digitally savvy with strong experience across established HR information & payroll systems and platforms as well as well-established across the full office 365 suite

    • KEY RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE ROLE :

    Strategic Leadership

  • Assist with developing and lead operationalisation of Biovacs Human Capital Strategy through a forward-looking People Operations plan that ensures smooth execution of workforce and employee experience priorities.
  • Develop Biovacs Employee Value Proposition (EVP) improvements as part of strategic rolling plans and budgets and translate and market the EVP into daily people practices, ensuring that every value- added offering reinforces our mission, values, and brand promise.

    • Workforce Planning & Talent Mapping

  • Lead annual and mid-term workforce planning in collaboration with business leaders, ensuring alignment with Biovacs strategic growth and localisation plans across Africa.
  • Drive ongoing talent mapping to identify current and future capability gaps in both technical and leadership roles.
  • Establish and maintain a critical skills and succession visibility framework to ensure proactive risk management of scarce and mission-critical positions.
  • Partner with Centres of Excellence to ensure talent pipelines are developed, monitored, and continuously replenished.
  • Plan, implement and oversee recruitment campaigns in line with budget and placement timelines, and ensure on time in full and within budget conclusion per campaign

    • Organisational Design & Structuring

  • Execute approved organisational structure changes in alignment with Biovacs strategic workforce plan and annual operating plan, ensuring structural integrity and compliance across all departments and sites.
  • Operationalise workforce design decisions by implementing approved restructures, role realignments, and reporting line adjustments in a timely, controlled, and auditable manner.
  • Maintain accurate organisation charts, reporting lines, and position management data within HRIS and related business systems.
  • Partner with Finance, Business Leaders, and the People Excellence COE to ensure all structural changes are aligned with approved headcount budgets, spans and layers principles, and operational efficiency goals.
  • Manage the end-to-end administrative and governance process for restructures.
  • Conduct regular headcount audits and workforce reconciliations to confirm accuracy between organisational plans, HRIS records, and payroll.
  • Ensure job descriptions and job profiles accurately reflect current responsibilities, reporting lines, and required competencies.
  • Provide operational insight to support organisation efficiency analysis (e.g., duplication, bottlenecks, or structural gaps) and recommend tactical adjustments to optimise business performance.
  • Act as the central liaison between People Operations, People Excellence, and Finance to ensure structure implementation, change governance, and workforce data integrity are synchronised

    • Employee Relations & Compliance

  • Maintain a healthy employee relations climate by embedding trust, transparency, and Ubuntu-driven engagement.
  • Source and facilitate team development and team building activities that connects our people to our culture and our purpose.
  • Assist Line management with optimising team engagement and productivity in support of driving a high-performance culture.
  • Oversee industrial relations, ensuring proactive engagement with unions, fair disciplinary processes, and sound dispute management.
  • Represent Biovac in external labour forums such as CCMA, Labour Court, and the Department of Labour.
  • Ensure compliance with all HR-related legislation across Biovacs operating geographies.

    • HR Operations Excellence & Systems

  • Ensure operational processes are standardised, digitised, and continuously improved for efficiency and employee satisfaction.
  • Manage HR administrative activities including employee data, contracts, payroll processing, onboarding, offboarding, and records management.
  • Provide compliance, management and strategic business reporting.
  • Oversee accurate and timely HR reporting to leadership and governance bodies.
  • Track trends across all people analytics and insights and provide recommendations and track ROI of related activities to ensure effectiveness

    • Performance, Career Pathing & Retention

  • Drive execution of the performance management framework, ensuring every employee has clear, measurable goals linked to Biovacs business priorities.
  • Partner with leaders to ensure robust career pathing visibility, particularly for technical, engineering, and scientific roles.
  • Operationalise succession and development plans to enable internal mobility and readiness for future leadership needs.
  • Implement targeted retention interventions for scarce and high-performing talent, ensuring continuity in critical capabilities.
  • Partner with the broader HC team to align performance outcomes with reward, recognition, and career development opportunities.

    • Employee Experience, Engagement & EVP

  • Bring Biovacs Employee Value Proposition to life through consistent, authentic experiences from onboarding to exit.
  • Monitor employee sentiment through engagement surveys, listening channels, and pulse checks; use data to shape interventions.
  • Support line leaders in building team cultures that balance high performance with wellbeing and inclusion.
  • Drive internal communication initiatives that celebrate employee contributions, milestones, and Biovacs social impact.

    • Governance, Budget & Risk Management

  • Manage the People Operations budget effectively, ensuring efficient resource allocation.
  • Identify, mitigate, and escalate HR operational and compliance risks.
  • Maintain governance standards for policies, audits, and reporting to ensure organisational resilience.

    • Leadership & Capability Building

  • Champion a people-first culture where operational excellence, compliance, and engagement intersect.
  • Be the culture ambassador across all business engagements and coach and mentor leaders to ensure Biovacs leadership philosophy and overall culture is promoted and upheld
  • Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing People Operations team with strong generalist capability.
  • Promote accountability, cross-functional collaboration, and service excellence within the HC team.
  • Foster a culture of continuous improvement and operational innovation.

    • CORE COMPETENCIES REQUIRED TO THRIVE

  • Leadership : Discreet, empowers teams, models integrity, and inspires trust.
  • People Centricity : Champions employee experience and wellbeing as levers for performance.
  • Communication : Clear, persuasive, and transparent in all stakeholder interactions.
  • Operational Excellence : Detail-oriented with a strong focus on process reliability, compliance and optimal, agile HC team performance.
  • Analytical Thinking : Uses metrics, insight, and logic to inform business and people experience decisions.
  • Business Acumen : Aligns people strategies with commercial objectives and sustainability.
  • Change Agility : Adapts quickly and leads others confidently through transformation.
  • Innovation : Continuously improves people operations with future-fit ideas and technology and generate efficient people optimisation solutions.
  • Diversity & Inclusion : Values and embeds equity, belonging, and fairness in all people practices.
  • Achievement driven : Drives goals, goal refinement, risk mitigation and proactive, on-time and full achievement across the people operations and overall business deliverables.
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