🏢 Company: Visa
📍 Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
💼 Role: Senior People Advisory Manager
🧑‍💼 Department: Global People Advisors / Human Resources
⏳ Employment Type: Full-time

About Visa

Visa is a global payments technology leader, enabling secure and seamless digital transactions across more than 200 countries and territories. The organisation works with consumers, merchants, governments and financial institutions to advance digital commerce and uplift communities worldwide. At Visa, employees are empowered to create meaningful change, drive innovation and support an ecosystem that connects the world.

Role Overview

The Senior People Advisory Manager is a strategic and operational HR leader responsible for supporting People Leaders across Sub-Saharan Africa within a global matrix structure. This role delivers consultative guidance, policy interpretation, performance management support, employee relations oversight and leadership coaching. A central purpose of the position is to enhance consistency, efficiency and employee experience across Visa’s people processes while supporting People Team transformation.

The incumbent works closely with regional People Advisors, People Business Partners, Centres of Excellence (COEs), Diversity & Inclusion teams and ERG leads. The role requires a strong generalist foundation, exceptional consulting abilities and an empathetic leadership style aligned with Visa’s values.

Key Responsibilities

People Leadership Advisory

• Provide coaching, support and guidance to People Leaders on performance management, conflict resolution, talent conversations and annual people processes.

• Facilitate and strengthen people leadership capability aligned with Visa’s Leadership Principles.

• Build trusted relationships with managers across the region to improve decision-making and develop empathetic leadership behaviours.

Employee Relations & Workplace Management

• Advise on workplace conflicts, team dynamics and employee-manager interactions.

• Support and guide low-performance management cases throughout the year.

• Interpret HR policies and ensure consistent application across the region.

• Contribute to regulatory and legislative HR reporting requirements.

Talent, Performance & Compensation

• Support annual compensation cycles, talent management reviews, engagement action planning and promotion cycles.

• Provide data-driven insights to business leaders and COEs to influence workforce decisions.

• Partner with COEs to enhance people programmes and implement best-in-class HR initiatives.

Analytics, Reporting & Operational Excellence

• Produce detailed analytics to support people-related decisions.

• Ensure accuracy in reporting, data management and operational governance.

• Promote process improvements and eliminate systemic bias when updating policies or practices.

Diversity, Inclusion & Culture

• Partner with I&D lead for CEMEA to implement regional I&D initiatives.

• Support ERG campaigns, annual planning processes and ongoing engagement activities.

• Use data to track progress on I&D priorities and support inclusive cultures across sub-regions.

Organisational Change & Development

• Contribute to organisational change initiatives by offering guidance, training and implementation support.

• Work with Learning COEs to address skills gaps and design development programmes.

• Provide consultation on employee growth, future career paths and capability building.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree plus 8+ years of relevant HR experience, or

• Advanced Degree with at least 5 years of experience, or

• PhD with 2 years of relevant experience, or

• 11+ years of professional HR work experience.

Preferred Requirements

• 9+ years of HR experience with a Bachelor’s Degree, or 7+ years with an Advanced Degree.

• Strong HR generalist background with experience in multinational, matrixed organisations.

• Demonstrated consulting capability and fluency in English.

• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

• Strong analytical, relationship-building and influencing skills.

• Proficiency in MS Excel and PowerPoint.

• Experience driving process improvements and leading change.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong emotional intelligence and the ability to incorporate diverse perspectives.

• Highly collaborative, with strong interpersonal and teaming skills.

• Detail-oriented with strong problem-solving capability.

• Strategic thinking combined with operational execution.

• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and support complex HR initiatives.

• Creative mindset with flexibility to adapt to evolving business needs.

CV Application Tips 

• Demonstrate experience working in multinational, matrixed organisations.

• Highlight HR advisory work with measurable impact (e.g., performance improvements, ER case resolution).

• Include specific examples of leadership coaching, talent management, performance cycles and ER interventions.

• Show data analytics capability with clear examples of reporting and business insights.

• Identify achievements related to DEI initiatives or organisational culture improvements.

• Showcase transformation, process improvement or policy modernisation projects.

• Display familiarity with regional labour legislation and compliance processes.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Visa is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants are considered without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. The company also evaluates qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable local laws.