About the position
Senior SAP ABAP Developer – Payroll / SAP HCM
Location: Cape Town
Employment Type: Contract
Environment: Large-Scale Retail / Enterprise SAP
Specialisation: SAP ABAP | SAP HCM | Payroll
We are seeking an experienced SAP ABAP Developer with strong SAP HCM and Payroll development experience to join a large-scale SAP environment.
The successful candidate will be responsible for the design, development, enhancement, integration and support of SAP solutions, with a particular focus on HR and Payroll-related functionality.
This role requires a technically strong ABAP Developer who understands the complexities of payroll processing and can work closely with SAP HCM functional consultants, payroll teams, business stakeholders and other technical specialists to deliver stable, scalable and compliant solutions.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, develop, test and maintain SAP ABAP solutions, with a strong focus on SAP HCM and Payroll.
- Develop and enhance custom programs, reports, interfaces, conversions, enhancements and forms.
- Support technical development associated with SAP Payroll processes and integrations.
- Develop and maintain ABAP solutions interacting with HR master data and payroll-related information.
- Work with relevant SAP HCM infotypes, payroll structures, clusters and logical databases.
- Develop and enhance Payroll reports, interfaces and data extraction solutions.
- Support integrations between SAP HCM/Payroll and internal or external systems.
- Develop and maintain BAPIs, BADIs, User Exits, Enhancement Framework solutions and RFCs.
- Develop and support IDoc and interface-based integrations where required.
- Perform debugging and root-cause analysis of complex ABAP and Payroll-related issues.
- Analyse existing programs and identify opportunities for optimisation and performance improvement.
- Support payroll-critical production issues within agreed service levels and business timelines.
- Produce technical specifications based on functional requirements.
- Conduct unit testing and support system, integration, regression and user acceptance testing.
- Participate in code reviews and ensure development adheres to SAP and organisational development standards.
- Manage transports through the SAP landscape in accordance with change and release management processes.
- Collaborate closely with SAP HCM/Payroll Functional Consultants, Business Analysts, Payroll specialists and integration teams.
- Provide technical support during payroll processing cycles, upgrades, enhancements and implementations.
Required Experience
- 5+ years' SAP ABAP development experience within complex enterprise environments.
- Strong hands-on development experience in SAP HCM / HR and Payroll environments.
- Proven experience developing and supporting Payroll-related ABAP solutions.
- Strong understanding of SAP HCM data structures and HR master data.
- Experience working with SAP HR infotypes.
- Experience accessing and processing SAP Payroll results / payroll clusters.
- Strong experience with:
- ABAP / ABAP Objects
- Reports and ALV
- Interfaces
- Enhancements
- BAPIs and BADIs
- User Exits
- RFCs
- IDocs
- Forms / Adobe Forms / Smart Forms
- Data conversions and migration programs
- Debugging and performance optimisation
- Strong understanding of SAP integration principles.
- Experience working within structured SAP development, testing, transport and release processes.
Payroll Experience – Essential
Candidates must have demonstrable technical development experience within an SAP Payroll environment.
Experience should ideally include several of the following:
- SAP HCM Payroll development
- Payroll result processing
- Payroll clusters
- HR infotypes
- Payroll reports and extracts
- Payroll interfaces
- Employee master data
- Time and attendance integration
- Payroll posting / Finance integration
- Third-party payroll integrations
- Statutory or regulatory payroll changes
- Payroll troubleshooting and production support
Experience specifically supporting South African Payroll and associated statutory requirements would be highly advantageous.
Advantageous Experience
- SAP S/4HANA
- SAP HCM / HCM for S/4HANA
- SAP SuccessFactors integration
- SAP Fiori / OData services
- ABAP CDS Views
- SAP Workflow
- SAP PI/PO or SAP Integration Suite
- Large-scale retail or FMCG environments
- High-volume employee/payroll environments
- Experience supporting business-critical payroll processing cycles
Qualifications
- Relevant tertiary qualification in Information Technology, Computer Science, Software Development or a related discipline.
- SAP ABAP certification would be advantageous.
- SAP HCM or Payroll-related certification/exposure would be beneficial.
Key Competencies
- Strong technical ABAP development capability
- Good understanding of SAP Payroll processes
- Excellent debugging and problem-solving ability
- Strong analytical skills
- Attention to detail, particularly when working with payroll-sensitive data
- Ability to work effectively under pressure and within payroll deadlines
- Strong stakeholder and communication skills
- Ability to translate functional specifications into robust technical solutions
- Collaborative approach when working across functional and technical SAP teams
- Commitment to quality, security and development standards
Desired Skills:
