Operations Manager: Financial Planning at BDO South Africa

• BDO Wealth Advisers (www.bdowealth.co.za) is recruiting a skilled and experienced Operations Manager to join our Financial Planning division. This role is based in Johannesburg, with national responsibilities supporting our Wealth clusters across regions. This position is full-time and permanent.

What this role offers

• An opportunity to lead the operational backbone of a national Financial Planning business, ensuring a high-performance, compliant, and client-centric environment. Responsibilities include supervision governance, process integrity, and performance enablement that supports our advice teams to deliver exceptional client outcomes.
• You will work closely with the COO, MD, and key Group functions (Compliance, Finance, People & Culture) to ensure alignment to regulatory requirements and BDO’s strategic direction.

You’ll play a critical role in shaping:

• Operational excellence across Wealth systems and processes
• Regulatory and licence oversight, including FAIS/FICA/POPIA coordination
• People development frameworks, including the Wealth 2-year Trainee Programme
• Business reporting & data governance enabling strategic decisions
• This position offers a market-related remuneration package aligned to experience and role seniority.

Job Requirements
Primary Responsibilities

• Operational Systems & Data Governance
• Ensure strong adoption, data integrity, and performance reporting across platforms including Elite Wealth, Commspace, SharePoint and Power BI. Conduct workflow audits and support efficiency improvements through automation and AI tools.
• Compliance Oversight & Risk Coordination
• Maintain supervision structures, licence and register accuracy, and support regulatory audits and investigations. Drive consistent compliance behaviours across clusters.
• People Development & Cluster Support
• Conduct monthly engagements with Planners, Paraplanners, Administrators, and Trainees to track performance, capacity, and progress to competency. Lead the Traineeship programme rollout and reporting.
• Business Reporting & Insights
• Deliver dashboards and operational insights monthly to COO & MD, highlighting risk, capacity, and improvements required. Support Exco and Board reporting.
• Process Integrity & Continuous Improvement
• Maintain SOPs, champion efficient workflows, and lead annual process reviews to embed operational consistency and resilience.
• Cross-functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement
• Partner with Group functions on projects and support engaging external partnerships with universities and industry bodies.

 Minimum Requirements

• A tertiary qualification in Financial Planning or similar
• Certified Financial Planner® Professional
• 5–10 years within Financial Services, ideally in operations, compliance, or practice management for an FSP
• Solid understanding of FAIS, FICA, POPIA, and representative supervision requirements
• Experience with CRM/workflow systems (such as Elite Wealth or similar)
• Strong data-governance and reporting capabilities

 Key Competencies

Technical:

• Operational risk management, SOP & process mapping, data integrity oversight, performance framework administration, automation adoption, regulatory reporting.

Behavioural:

• High attention to detail, critical thinking, leadership presence, clear communication, problem-solving under pressure, strong coaching approach, resilience in a transforming environment.