38 jobs in South Africa that pay over R100,000 a month in 2023

Professional recruitment firm Robert Walters has published data from its 2023 South African Salary Survey, showing which top jobs pay some of the highest salaries across various professional sectors in the country.
According to Robert Walters, the landscape for professionals in South Africa shifted in 2022, with both employers and employees looking for different qualities from each other in a post-Covid world.
While employers are looking for highly qualified professionals and specialist skills, employees are looking for companies with good company culture, decent pay and, most importantly, flexible working hours.
This need comes from a significant change in work life in South Africa over the last few years, where the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown heralded a new way of remote working, where many employees now expect to work from home or only come into the office a few times a week.
Bosses have expressed a desire for a more full-time work schedule to return, but analysts have noted that it is unlikely that the working world will return to that way of doing business. Adding to the shift, international companies have embraced remote working, giving more opportunities to dip into limited pools of critical skills worldwide.
As has been widely reported, South African businesses are in dire need of skills across almost every sector – but as the Robert Walters survey shows, this does not mean that qualified professionals are guaranteed a job.
In fact, the survey indicated that there is a general oversupply of skills in the finance, HR and technology sector as a whole, with the group noting only low to medium demand for candidates.
Accounting, finance, banking and financial services professionals showed medium levels of demand, with the firm noting that it is “fairly easy” to hire in those sectors. The Human Resources, legal and technology sectors, meanwhile, are seeing low demand, with it being very easy to hire, Robert Walters said.
Despite an apparent oversupply of professionals in key sectors, those who are lucky enough to land a job will be well-rewarded and remunerated for it.
The survey identified 150 job roles in South Africa, with 81 of these delivering an earning potential of over R1 million a year. 52 of the positions have starting salaries at R1 million, but require at least 4 years of experience to even qualify.
The survey identified 38 jobs in the country with starting salaries at R1.2 million a year, or R100,000 a month. Most of these positions are reserved for those with 8 to 10 years of experience or more, noted the survey.
Job | Sector | From | To |
---|---|---|---|
Chief Financial Officer (JSE Top 200) | Qualified CA (SA) or CIMA or BCom | R2 800 000 | R4 000 000 |
CEO (SME) | Executive/C-Suite | R2 700 000 | R2 700 000 |
COO | Executive/C-Suite | R2 500 000 | R3 000 000 |
General Counsel | In-house – Commerce & Industry | R2 500 000 | R2 500 000 |
General Counsel | In-house – Financial Services | R2 500 000 | R2 500 000 |
Finance Director (Large Firm) | Qualified CA (SA) or CIMA or BCom | R2 000 000 | R3 000 000 |
HR Executive | Human Resources | R2 000 000 | R3 000 000 |
CFO (Qualified CA) | Senior Finance | R2 000 000 | R2 600 000 |
General Manager | Operations | R2 000 000 | R2 500 000 |
Equity Director / Senior Director | Private Practice (Large Firm) | R2 000 000 | R2 000 000 |
Commercial Director | Operations | R1 800 000 | R2 500 000 |
Group Treasury Manager | Taxation/Treasury | R1 800 000 | R2 500 000 |
Group Tax Manager | Taxation/Treasury | R1 800 000 | R2 300 000 |
Actuary | Risk, Data Science & Analytics | R1 700 000 | R1 700 000 |
CFO/FD (SME) | Qualified CA (SA) or CIMA or BCom | R1 600 000 | R2 600 000 |
HR Director | Human Resources | R1 600 000 | R2 500 000 |
CA (SA) | Qualified CA (SA) or CIMA or BCom | R1 600 000 | R2 300 000 |
Head of Legal | In-house – Commerce & Industry | R1 500 000 | R2 500 000 |
Head of Legal | In-house – Financial Services | R1 500 000 | R2 500 000 |
COO | Executive/C-Suite | R1 500 000 | R2 000 000 |
General Manager | Operations | R1 500 000 | R2 000 000 |
Private Equity/Corporate Finance | Banking | R1 500 000 | R2 000 000 |
Finance Director (Large Firm) | Qualified CA (SA) or CIMA or BCom | R1 500 000 | R1 800 000 |
Chief Risk Officer (CRO) | Risk, Data Science & Analytics | R1 400 000 | R3 200 000 |
Head of Internal Audit/ CIA (Chief Internal Auditor) | Internal Audit or IT audit | R1 400 000 | R2 500 000 |
Chief Technical Officer | Technology | R1 400 000 | R1 900 000 |
Head of Finance/ Finance Executive (Qualified CA) | Senior Finance | R1 400 000 | R1 800 000 |
Financial Planning & Analysis | Qualified CA (SA) or CIMA or BCom | R1 350 000 | R1 350 000 |
Relationship Manager/Corporate Banker | Banking | R1 300 000 | R2 000 000 |
Strategy Consultant | Management Consultancy | R1 300 000 | R2 000 000 |
Junior Director/ Salaried Director | Private Practice (Large Firm) | R1 300 000 | R1 900 000 |
Internal Audit Manager | Qualified CA (SA) or CIMA or BCom | R1 300 000 | R1 700 000 |
Qualified CA(SA) Johannesburg | Accounting, Audit, Tax & Treasury | R1 300 000 | R1 700 000 |
Finance Manager | Qualified CA (SA) or CIMA or BCom | R1 300 000 | R1 600 000 |
Group Treasury Manager | Taxation/Treasury | R1 300 000 | R1 600 000 |
CFO/FD (SME) | Qualified CA (SA) or CIMA or BCom | R1 200 000 | R1 550 000 |
Financial Controller | Qualified CA (SA) or CIMA or BCom | R1 200 000 | R1 200 000 |
Equity Director / Senior Director | Private Practice (Boutique Firm) | R1 200 000 | R1 200 000 |
Read: Starting salaries for banking and finance jobs in South Africa in 2023 – including graduates