Specialist Compliance Governance (Loss Control Officer) at South African Airways (SAA)

Job Purpose    

• This role ensures compliance with applicable laws, regulations (including the PFMA and National Treasury instructions), corporate governance regulations, and internal policies across SAA and its subsidiaries. It supports the Group Compliance Programme by identifying, assessing, monitoring, and reporting compliance risks within an approved governance framework.  
• In addition, the Loss Control Officer provides enterprise-wide leadership in preventing, investigating, and mitigating financial, operational, safety, compliance, and reputational losses. The role delivers forensic investigation, risk intelligence, and control assurance, aligned with aviation safety standards, PFMA requirements, King Code principles, and SAA’s turnaround objectives.  Operating as a second-line assurance and specialist oversight function, it collaborates closely with Risk, Internal Audit, Safety, Legal, Compliance, Security, Finance, and Operations.

Principal Accountabilities    

• Develop and implement an enterprise-wide Loss Control Strategy aligned to SAA’s corporate strategy and turnaround plan
• Establish a comprehensive loss taxonomy covering financial, operational, safety, security, cyber, and reputational losses
• Embed loss control principles across all business units, subsidiaries, and joint ventures
• Align loss control initiatives with Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and combined assurance management systems
• Design and lead fraud risk management frameworks
• Oversee detection, investigation, and resolution of fraud, corruption, financial misconduct, and irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure, including procurement and contract abuse.
• Ensure adherence to PFMA, Treasury Regulations, and SAA internal policies, and support consequence management, recovery and disciplinary processes
• Identify and mitigate operational losses across aviation functions, including aircraft damage, maintenance errors, fuel and inventory losses, and cargo/baggage incidents, in collaboration with Safety, Engineering, and Operations
• Lead forensic investigations into financial, operational, and security-related losses, ensuring legal and regulatory compliance
• Liaise with law enforcement and regulatory bodies where required
• Prepare presentation on the irregular, fruitless and wasteful conduct and criminal conduct and report investigation outcomes and loss trends to EXCO, Board Committees, and regulators
• Provide loss intelligence, dashboards, and analysis to executive management, and drive corrective actions to address control weaknesses
• Promote continuous improvement of internal controls and alignment with King IV, PFMA, Companies Act, and aviation regulations
• Foster a culture of ethics, accountability, and zero tolerance for losses, including support for whistle-blowing mechanisms
• Develop and implement governance policies and provide secretariat support to governance and compliance forums
• Ensure timely reporting to stakeholders and support broader SAA Group strategic and legal requirements

Qualifications & Experience    

• Bachelors degree in Law (BCom Law) or in Auditing or in Accounting or related field at NQF level 7and/or Postgraduate Diploma in Compliance
• At least 3 – 5 years’ experience based with a combined experience in PFMA compliance and in auditing
• Certificate in Compliance Management/CPrac (Compliance Practitioner) will be an added advantage
• Experience in the aviation industry will be an added advantage
• Experience in Policy Governance Training/Governance Communication

Knowledge and Skills    

• Thorough knowledge of PFMA, PPPFA, and other applicable regulations
• Irregular Expenditure Framework
• Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure Framework
• Good knowledge of the SAA Organisation & Policies and Procedures
• Regulatory Compliance knowledge
• Technical knowledge
• Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment
• Understanding of compliance
• Understanding of supply chain governance processes
• MS Office
• Presentation skills
• Report writing
• Analytical skills
• Planning and organising
• Communication skills
• Business acumen
• Negotiation skills
• Problem solving
• Decision making
• Stakeholder management
• Project management