Human Resources Manager

Ingerop South Africa is an established international consulting engineering and project management firm
, with its primary operations in South Africa and a functional reporting relationship to a European Group headquartered in France
.

The South African business employs approximately 125 staff and operates in a project-based, professional services environment
. The organisation is growing in a measured and controlled manner
, prioritising delivery quality, risk management, and professional standards.

This role is the senior HR Manager role for South Africa
, with end-to-end accountability for the local HR function
. It is not a regional, group, or multi-country HR leadership role.

The successful candidate will:

• Be hands-on and operational
• Be comfortable working in a medium-sized, professional services business
• Personally manage complex employee relations and performance matters
• Operate closely with the CEO on day-to-day people decisions

This role does not suit candidates from highly layered, policy-only, or large corporate HR environments.

The mandate is to:

• Ensure strong HR governance and labour compliance
• Build practical leadership capability within technical teams
• Support growth without creating unnecessary bureaucracy
• Maintain a professional, accountable culture aligned to engineering and project delivery

• Implement and manage the people and culture agenda for the South African business.
• Embed consistent performance, accountability, and professional conduct standards.
• Provide pragmatic people guidance to the CEO, directors, and line managers.
• Support engineers and project managers in their people-leadership responsibilities.

• Own HR policies, procedures, and employment frameworks for South Africa.
• Ensure compliance with South African labour legislation and best practice.
• Act as custodian of employment contracts, disciplinary codes, and HR records.
• Manage people-related risk proactively and practically.

• Manage recruitment, onboarding, and retention of professional and technical staff.
• Support workforce planning aligned to project pipeline and capacity requirements.
• Assist leadership with succession planning for key roles.

• Personally manage disciplinary, performance, and grievance matters.
• Ensure procedural and substantive fairness in all employee relations processes.
• Liaise with external labour advisors only when necessary.

• Manage the performance management framework and annual review process.
• Administer remuneration reviews, benchmarking, and incentive schemes.

• Maintain accurate HR systems, data integrity, and confidentiality (POPIA).
• Provide concise, decision-useful HR reporting to the CEO.
• Improve HR processes incrementally as the business grows.

• 10 years’ + HR experience
  , with clear accountability for a full HR function
  .
• Current or recent role as HR Manager, Senior HR Manager, or equivalent
  .
• Experience in consulting engineering, infrastructure, construction, or professional services
  .
• Strong hands-on experience in labour relations and performance management.

Candidates with backgrounds limited to large listed corporates, group HR, or policy-design roles are unlikely to be suitable.

• Bachelor’s degree in HR, Industrial Psychology, Labour Law, or related field.

• Practical judgment and decisiveness.
• Ability to influence senior technical professionals without hierarchy.
• Comfort operating with limited HR layers or support.
• Strong labour law competence in the South African context.
• Commercial awareness of project-based, billable environments.