Payroll and Compensation Executive

GMG; United Arab Emirates; On-site; AED 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

GMG is seeking a Payroll and Compensation Executive to own compensation delivery across 36 payroll areas in the UAE and across the MENA region. You will manage wage codes, run the annual increment cycle, and validate allowances and incentives while ensuring compliance with local laws and company policy.

You will collaborate with Finance and HR Operations, own EC Payroll design and testing in SAP, and produce payroll cost analytics to support leadership decisions.

Qualifications

• GCC payroll law, end-of-service gratuity, overtime, and pension schemes.
• Experience with payroll and compensation in multi-country/multi-entity settings.
• Ability to design wage codes, pay components, and enable accurate payouts.

Responsibilities

• Own wage code and pay component catalogue across payroll areas.
• Lead annual increment cycle end-to-end, including budgeting and reconciliation.
• Process performance payouts, promotions, and incentive reconciliations.
• Validate allowances and benefits and resolve exceptions in payroll.
• Manage compliance with payroll laws and WPS across MENA and India.
• Provide payroll cost analytics and support ERP data integration.

Skills

GCC payroll knowledge

Analytical thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Regulatory compliance

Tools

SAP SuccessFactors

SAP Payroll

SAP EC Payroll

Power BI

Job description

ROLE SUMMARY

The Payroll and Compensation Executive is the payroll team's owner of compensation and benefits delivered through payroll, for more than 7,500 employees in 36 payroll areas across the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, and India. The role makes sure that every approved pay decision (an increment, a promotion, an allowance, an incentive, or a final settlement) reaches the payslip correctly, on time and in line with policy and local law.

The role owns wage codes and pay components, executes the annual increment cycle and approved performance-linked payouts in payroll, validates allowances, benefits, and monthly sales incentive payouts before release, calculates end-of-service and leave liability accruals with Finance, and produces payroll cost analytics. It is the team's subject-matter owner for payroll and compensation law for expatriates and local country nationals in MENA and leads the design and testing of compensation elements in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll (ECP).

The role reports to the Manager - Payroll, who reviews statutory and high-value outputs, and works with independent judgement within policy as the control point between compensation decisions and accurate pay.

Scope and Dimensions: Employees paid: 7,500+ each month | Payroll areas: 36, across 8 countries | Countries: UAE, KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt and India | Pay cycles supported: Monthly payroll, monthly sales incentives, annual increment and performance payouts, final settlements | Systems: SAP SuccessFactors (HUB), SAP payroll on S/4HANA, SAP EC Payroll (go-live in 2027) | Reports to: Manager - Payroll | Direct reports: None

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

Compensation in payroll

• Own the wage code and pay component catalogue across all payroll areas: simplify, benchmark, and rationalize existing codes; design new ones with clear rules, GL mapping, and controls
• Execute the annual increment cycle in payroll end to end, costing, mass upload, retro pay and reconciliation to the approved increment budget, for sign-off by the Manager - Payroll
• Process approved performance-linked payouts and promotion adjustments after calibration, reconciled to the approved payout file and budget
• Validate allowances and benefits paid through payroll (housing, transport, air tickets, leave salary, education, and other allowances) against policy and grade; flag and resolve exceptions
• Review the monthly Additions and Deductions reports for compensation items before HRBP approval, and close the root cause of recurring retro adjustments

Sales incentives and variable pay

• Validate monthly sales incentive payouts with the Incentive Analyst before release: eligibility, leavers, leave and absences, and approved scheme rules
• Provide the payroll inputs the incentive cycle depends on (employee dump, leave and absence reports, payroll reports) on the agreed calendar dates
• Reconcile approved incentive files to payroll and to Finance-verified totals, including currency conversion for non-AED countries using rates confirmed by Finance

Statutory payroll and compliance

• Own the application of payroll and compensation law for expatriates and local country nationals in MENA: pension and social security contributions for nationals, end-of-service gratuity, overtime, and final settlements, reviewed by the Manager - Payroll
• Maintain the country-by-country statutory reference for gratuity, overtime, working hours and pension contributions, and flag where policy and law diverge
• Ensure compliance with labour law, WPS and social security requirements across MENA and India; prepare evidence for internal audit and external auditors (including the annual payroll test of controls)
• Act as backup for critical monthly payroll steps; support MENA and India payroll within cut-off and statutory deadlines

Finance, settlements and analytics

• Calculate monthly end-of-service, leave liability accruals, and reconcile them with Finance
• Reconcile payroll to Finance for final settlements and employee account (SOA) balances: explain wage types, resolve mismatches, and clear negative or outstanding settlements with HR Operations and Finance
• Produce payroll cost analytics: budget vs actual, cost by entity and country, pay positioning, and increment and payout modelling for leadership

EC Payroll, data, and controls

• Define and test compensation elements in ECP (pay components, eligibility rules, wage type mapping); support data cleansing, parallel runs, cutover, and hyper care
• Monitor compensation data flowing from SuccessFactors (HUB) to payroll; resolve replication rejections that affect pay before the payroll cut-off
• Document processes and controls (maker-checker, reconciliations, approval evidence) and build EC Payroll capability across the team, reducing reliance on the implementation partner after go-live
• Identify manual, person-dependent payroll steps and standardize or automate them, using data and AI tools in line with the North Star operating model

ROLE REQUIREMENTS

• GCC payroll and compensation law: end-of-service gratuity, overtime, leave salary and final settlements, and national pension and social security schemes (GPSSA, GOSI, PIFSS, SIO, Oman SPF, GRSIA, NOSI)
• India payroll statutory basics (PF, ESI, professional tax, gratuity) an advantage
• Wage code and pay component design, increment, promotion, performance payout, and sales incentive processing
• End-of-service and leave accrual calculation; payroll-to-GL reconciliation; payroll cost analytics and modelling in advanced Excel (Power Query, pivots, lookups)
• SAP SuccessFactors and SAP payroll (wage types, retro, payroll reports); hands-on SAP EC Payroll configuration or testing strongly preferred
• WPS and bank file requirements; payroll controls, reconciliations, and audit evidence
• Automation and data literacy builds repeatable reconciliations and reports, and is comfortable using Power BI and AI tools to improve payroll work
• 5-7 years in payroll and compensation in the GCC (UAE and wider MENA required, India payroll an advantage), with hands-on ownership of increment cycles, incentive or variable pay processing, wage code design and end-of-service calculations in a multi-entity, multi-country organization.
• Experience in retail or a high-volume frontline workforce, and exposure to an SAP payroll implementation, are strong advantages.