Payroll Manager

Title:

The Payroll Manager will report to the Global Payroll Senior Manager and is responsible for leading Chennai payroll operations to ensure the accurate, timely, and compliant processing of employee compensation across multiple countries.  This role provides leadership to a team of payroll specialists while overseeing payroll processing, compliance, controls, reporting, reconciliations, and continuous process improvement initiatives.

The Payroll Manager serves as a key partner to Human Resources, HRIS, Finance, Treasury, and external payroll providers to ensure payroll accuracy, data integrity, statutory compliance, and an exceptional employee experience. This position requires extensive experience using Workday HCM and Workday Payroll to manage payroll processing, validations, audits, reporting, testing, and system enhancements.

Payroll Operations

• Lead and manage end-to-end payroll processing for assigned countries, ensuring payrolls are processed accurately and on schedule.

• Oversee regular, off-cycle, bonus, commission, retroactive, and termination payrolls.

• Review and approve payroll calculations, deductions, earnings, taxes, and adjustments prior to payroll transmission.

• Validate payroll inputs and Workday payroll data to ensure completeness and accuracy.

• Perform payroll reconciliations and investigate payroll variances before payroll finalization.

• Ensure payroll controls are executed and documented throughout each payroll cycle.

• Coordinate payroll funding requirements with Treasury.

Team Leadership

• Lead, coach, mentor, and develop a team of payroll specialists.

• Conduct performance reviews and establish individual development plans.

• Monitor team productivity, service levels, and operational KPIs.

• Allocate workload across the team to balance capacity and ensure timely payroll delivery.

• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, customer service, and continuous improvement.

Compliance & Audit

• Ensure compliance with country-specific payroll legislation, tax regulations, statutory reporting requirements, wage and hour laws, and applicable labor laws across supported jurisdictions.

• Maintain compliance with federal, state, provincial, and local payroll regulations.

• Ensure payroll controls meet internal control requirements and audit standards.

• Support internal, external, SOX, and statutory payroll audits.

• Prepare payroll documentation and supporting schedules for audit requests.

• Review payroll exceptions and implement corrective actions.

Workday Payroll & Systems

• Utilize Workday HCM and Workday Payroll to process payroll transactions, validations, audits, reporting, and payroll administration.

• Configure and validate payroll inputs within Workday.

• Review payroll integrations between Workday and downstream systems.

• Support Workday payroll testing for releases, regulatory updates, and system enhancements.

• Participate in Workday enhancement projects and continuous optimization initiatives.

• Partner closely with HRIS teams to improve payroll system functionality and data integrity.

• Develop and maintain Workday payroll reporting and dashboards.

Employee & Stakeholder Support

• Resolve complex payroll inquiries from employees, managers, and HR.

• Partner with HR, Finance, Treasury, Accounting, Tax, and external payroll providers to resolve payroll issues.

• Provide payroll guidance on policy interpretation and regulatory requirements.

• Maintain confidentiality of employee payroll information.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Required Experience

• 7–10 years of progressive payroll experience.

• Minimum 3 years of experience leading payroll teams.

• Experience processing high-volume payroll.

• Experience supporting multinational payroll operations.

• Experience using Workday HCM and Workday Payroll, including payroll processing, audits, validations, payroll inputs, reporting, testing, and reconciliations.

• Experience managing payroll operations for the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and/or Australia.

• Strong knowledge of payroll legislation, tax regulations, statutory reporting, wage and hour requirements, and labor laws across supported jurisdictions.

• Experience supporting payroll audits and compliance reviews.

• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving abilities.

• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.  Must be able to speak English.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with SAP and/or Microsoft Dynamics ERP systems.

• Experience working within a Shared Services or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) environment.

• Experience with payroll process automation initiatives.

• Lean, Continuous Improvement, or Six Sigma experience.

• Experience developing reporting and dashboards using Power BI or similar business intelligence tools.

• Professional payroll certification (CPP, FPC, or international equivalent) preferred.