Payroll Specialist

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Payroll Specialist to take ownership of the accurate, timely and fully compliant delivery of payroll in India, and to act as a second pair of hands across our Asia-Pacific and Middle East payrolls. Reporting to the UK-based Head of Payroll and working day to day alongside the Senior Payroll Specialist in the UK, you will be the resident subject-matter expert on Indian payroll legislation and statutory obligations within a global, follow-the-sun payroll team.

India payroll is delivered through a managed-service provider. Your role is not to key transactions into a system: it is to own the inputs, interrogate the outputs, hold the vendor to account, evidence the controls and stand behind every number that reaches employees, the regulator and the general ledger. This is a regulated financial services environment where confidentiality, accuracy and a demonstrable audit trail are non-negotiable.

Key responsibilities

India payroll delivery

- Own the end-to-end monthly India payroll cycle — calendar, cut-offs, inputs, validation, approval, funding, disbursement and post-payroll reconciliation.
- Prepare, validate and submit payroll inputs covering new hires, leavers, transfers, promotions, salary revisions, variable pay, bonuses, allowances, reimbursements, loans, advances and recoveries.
- Review the vendor’s gross-to-net output in detail; investigate and resolve every variance against prior period before sign-off, rather than relying on vendor assurance.
- Manage full and final settlements for leavers, including notice pay, leave encashment, gratuity, recovery of advances and correct tax treatment.
- Own the annual cycle: investment declarations and proof verification, Form 16 issuance, Form 24Q filings, perquisite valuation, and the transition between the old and new tax regimes.
- Maintain the payroll calendar and ensure all statutory and internal deadlines are met without exception.

India statutory compliance

- You will be expected to operate independently on all of the following, and to be the person the wider team turns to when a question of Indian payroll law arises:
- Provident Fund (EPF/EPS/EDLI): contribution calculation, wage-ceiling application, international worker rules, UAN management, monthly ECR filing,
- National Pension System (NPS): corporate NPS administration, employer and employee contribution handling, PRAN management and the associated tax deductions and exemptions.
- Income tax and state-level taxes: TDS computation and deposit, quarterly eTDS returns, Labour Welfare Fund, and state-specific obligations across every state in which the entity employs staff.
- Professional Tax: registration, slab application and remittance across multiple states, with awareness that rates, slabs and due dates differ by state and change frequently.
- ESI and Gratuity: eligibility assessment, contribution and accrual, and coordination with Finance on provisioning.
- Labour Codes: tracking the phased implementation of the four Labour Codes and associated central and state rules, modelling the impact of the wage-definition changes on statutory costs, and preparing the payroll for each change.

Sickness, maternity and absence

- Administer maternity benefit in line with the Maternity Benefit Act — eligibility, 26-week paid entitlement, adoption and commissioning-mother provisions, ESI interaction and correct payroll treatment throughout the leave period.
- Administer paternity, sickness, casual, earned and other statutory and company leave, including accrual, carry-forward, encashment and unpaid-leave recoveries.
- Process sickness absence and long-term absence cases, including any ESI cash-benefit interaction, and ensure returns to work are reflected accurately and promptly in pay.
- Act as a sensitive and discreet point of contact for employees on leave-related pay queries, working closely with HR Business Partners on complex or confidential cases.

Regional support — Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and the UAE

- Provide preparation, checking and review support for the Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and UAE payrolls, working to the standards set by the Head of Payroll and the UK Senior Payroll Specialist.
- Build working knowledge of the local statutory frameworks in Singapore;  Hong Kong; Japan; and in the UAE.
- Provide holiday, peak-period and absence cover for regional payrolls, offering genuine resilience rather than nominal back-up.
- Support in-country vendors and advisers with input preparation, query resolution and validation of statutory outputs.

Vendor, controls and governance

- Manage the day-to-day relationship with the India payroll provider: service levels, issue escalation, root-cause analysis and continuous improvement.
- Operate and evidence the payroll control framework — maker-checker, reconciliations, approval thresholds, segregation of duties and change control — to a standard that withstands internal audit and regulatory scrutiny.
- Reconcile payroll to the general ledger; prepare journals, accruals and funding requests, and resolve differences with Finance.
- Support internal and external audit, statutory audit and regulatory requests with complete, well-organised evidence.
- Handle all employee and payroll data in strict accordance with data protection obligations and internal confidentiality policy.

Stakeholders, reporting and improvement

- Resolve employee payroll queries professionally and within agreed service levels, escalating judgement calls appropriately.
- Partner with HR, Finance, Reward, Tax and Mobility on compensation changes, cross-border assignments, equity and deferred-compensation payments.
- Produce payroll reporting, cost analysis and statutory returns for management and for the business.
- Identify and deliver process improvements, automation and stronger controls; support payroll system implementations, vendor transitions and entity or country onboarding.
- Maintain accurate, current desktop procedures and process documentation for every payroll you touch.

Skills and personal attributes

- Accuracy and ownership. You treat a payroll error as a serious matter, check your own work before anyone else has to, and are accountable for what you sign off.
- Discretion. You handle salary, bonus and personal circumstances data with complete professionalism.
- Deadline discipline. Payroll dates do not move; you plan backwards from them and flag risk early.
- Investigative mindset. You are not satisfied by a number that looks approximately right — you find out why it changed.
- Clear communication. You can explain a statutory deduction plainly to an employee and technically to an auditor.
- Remote collaboration. You work effectively across time zones with a small, senior, UK-based team and manage your own workload without close supervision.
- Adaptability. Indian payroll legislation is in a period of significant change; you keep current and act on it.

Additional information

This role sits within a small global payroll team and offers exposure to payroll across Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the UK. Some flexibility will be required around payroll cut-off dates and to accommodate overlap with the UK working day.

Work Experience/ Background:

Essential

- A minimum of 5 years’ hands-on experience running end-to-end payroll in India, including full ownership of at least one monthly cycle from inputs to reconciliation.
- Strong, current and demonstrable knowledge of Indian payroll legislation: Provident Fund, NPS, income tax and TDS, Professional Tax and state-level taxes, ESI, gratuity, bonus and Labour Welfare Fund.
- Practical experience administering Professional Tax and other state-level obligations across multiple Indian states.
- Proven experience of sickness, maternity and statutory leave administration and its payroll treatment.
- Experience working with an outsourced payroll provider — reviewing and challenging vendor output rather than accepting it.
- Confident, accurate gross-to-net and variance analysis; the ability to explain any individual payslip line by line.
- Strong Excel skills (lookups, pivots, large-volume reconciliation) and familiarity with payroll and HR systems such as Workday
- Experience operating within a documented control environment with audit evidence requirements.
- Fluent written and spoken English, with the confidence to work directly with UK-based colleagues and senior stakeholders.

Desirable

- Working knowledge of payroll and statutory requirements in one or more of Singapore (CPF, IR8A/IR21), Hong Kong (MPF, IR56 series), Japan (social insurance, resident tax, year-end adjustment) and the UAE (WPS, end-of-service gratuity, GPSSA).

- Prior experience in financial services, professional services or another regulated, confidentiality-sensitive environment.

- Experience supporting expatriate and internationally mobile populations, shadow payroll, tax equalisation or hypothetical tax.

- Experience with equity, carried interest, deferred compensation or bonus-heavy pay structures.

- Involvement in payroll implementations, vendor transitions or process automation projects.

- Professional qualification or part-qualification in accounting, HR or payroll (for example CIPP, CA Inter, CMA, MBA (HR)), or an equivalent Indian payroll certification.