SATIC: Employment Law Senior Associate at PwC South Africa

About the job

About SATIC and the role

• SATIC ,the South Africa Technology and Innovation center is supporting PwC UK's Employment Law Team, delivering project‑based assignments, specialist legal advice and ongoing managed legal services.
• The team’s core offerings include client facing work and being responsible for supporting UK lawyers with undertaking workplace investigations, drafting reports and undertaking research.
• It will combine strong technical excellence with commercial judgement, project leadership and a collaborative approach to cross-disciplinary delivery. This is an opportunity to advise high-profile clients on strategically significant matters in a dynamic, non-traditional legal environment.

Qualifications/Certifications

• LLB or equivalent legal qualification
• Admission as an attorney in South Africa or equivalent common law jurisdiction

Experience required

• At least 3 years’ experience with a solid understanding of gained in a reputable employment law.
• Demonstrable experience across some of the following: redundancy and reorganisations; changing terms and conditions; investigations and ER advisory; managing litigation; and cross-border projects, involving detailed technical legal work under supervision:
• Experience of the employment workstream on transactions and large-scale change programmes, including project management of multi-jurisdictional matters.
• Proven client relationship skills and providing clear, outcome-focused advice.
• Evidence of business development capability, including cross-selling and thought leadership.
• Excellent communication, drafting and presentation skills.
• Strong matter management discipline, including scoping, budgeting, profitability and risk management.
• A collaborative, entrepreneurial mindset and enthusiasm for working within a multi-disciplinary, technology-enabled environment.
• Strong organizational skills and experience of taking on significant levels of responsibility on transactions, including the management and coordination of local legal teams and external advisors.
• Strong client service skills and experience of dealing with clients directly.
• Draft a wide range of legal documentation for transactions governed by the laws of England and Wales, as well as reviewing cross-jurisdictional legal documents.
• Collaborate with other PwC teams outside of legal, to support transactions by running the employment workstream on domestic and cross-border deals, collaborating closely with our Tax, Deals and Workforce colleagues.
• Business development, including over time building a network and developing direct client relationships.
• Proven ability to manage high document volumes accurately and at pace, meet tight deadlines, and juggle multiple priorities.
• Proficiency with and understanding of efficient project management tools and legal technology to support the delivery of our work including process improvement.

Responsibilities of the role

• Involved in a broad range of contentious and non-contentious employment work, including high-value and complex mandates and advise (with senior legal oversight) on:
• Be part of workforce change projects, including restructuring and redundancy programmes, transfers, changes to terms and conditions, and intra-group workforce moves, often across multiple jurisdictions.
• Help to project manage high profile non-financial misconduct investigations.
• Help to provide strategic ER advisory support, investigations guidance and risk management advice, partnering with HR, Reward, Compliance and senior leadership stakeholders.
• Provide strategic ER advisory support, investigations guidance and risk management advice, partnering with HR, Reward, Compliance and senior leadership stakeholders.
• Design and deliver client training, thought leadership and horizon scanning on employment law developments and workforce regulatory change.
• Support pitches and proposals, contribute to go-to-market campaigns, and identify and convert new opportunities, both within PwC and externally.
• Manage matters profitably and efficiently, with disciplined scoping, budgeting, resourcing and risk management, and effective use of technology-enabled delivery.
• Coordinate multi-jurisdictional projects, leveraging our international network to deliver consistent, timely and compliant outcomes.
• Prepare plain‑English advice notes identifying material risks, required mitigations, and recommended negotiation positions aligned to playbooks and PwC UK Employment Law Team client risk standards.
• Liaise with clients and internal stakeholders (partners, client teams, engagement teams, risk) to explain service‑specific requirements and PwC UK Employment Law Team transaction positions.
• Support senior lawyers on complex transactions, ad hoc tasks, escalations, and negotiations; triage transaction packs and prioritize risks.
• Maintain and improve playbooks, templates, know‑how, and SharePoint resources; contribute to training and process enhancements.
• Support compliance processes (acceptance/continuance, independence, information security, data protection).
• Meet agreed SLA turnaround times and quality standards; contribute to client satisfaction scores and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Perform related tasks to support the PwC UK Employment Law Team as required.

Desirable skills

• Clear, concise, and confident communicator (written and verbal); able to tailor complex issues for non‑legal and senior audiences.
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills, using transaction standards / playbooks and corporate legal judgment to secure acceptable outcomes.
• Advanced analytical and problem‑solving abilities; able to triage complex document or transaction packs and prioritize material risks.
• Excellent plain‑English drafting with exceptional attention to detail and accuracy.
• Ability to translate legal and transaction risks into practical, business‑oriented advice notes.
• Relationship‑building skills; becomes a trusted advisor to internal clients, and senior lawyers.
• An interest in working in a variety of employment related advisory support.
• Working knowledge of data privacy and information security
• Strong technology proficiency: Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams), document comparison/blacklining, and collaboration tools (e.g., SharePoint/OneDrive).
• Experience with legal technology solutions (e.g., document automation, AI‑assisted review) and openness to innovation.
• Comfortable working with non‑legal advisors in multi‑disciplinary client teams.
• Excellent organization and time management; manages multiple priorities and tight deadlines under pressure.
• Data‑driven and process‑oriented; handles high document volumes with speed and accuracy; leverages checklists/playbooks.
• Continuous improvement mindset; contributes to, playbooks, training, and system/process enhancements.
• Cross‑cultural and time‑zone collaboration skills for example the UK–South Africa virtual teaming.

Requirements added by the job poster

• 3+ years of work experience with Labor and Employment Law
• 3+ years of work experience with Employee Relations