Senior Payroll Consultant (Dubai)

Darwinbox; Dubai; On-site; AED 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Darwinbox, based in DIFC, Dubai, is a mobile-first, AI-enabled cloud HR platform serving 800+ enterprises across 143 countries. It accelerates HR processes from recruitment to analytics and engagement.

The Senior Payroll Consultant will anchor end-to-end payroll delivery for GCC clients across UAE, KSA, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Egypt, driving discovery, blueprint, UAT, parallel runs and product feedback.

Job description

Darwinbox- one ofAsia’s fastest Unicorns based out of DIFC, Dubai - is a mobile-first,AI-enabled cloud-based HR platform that partners with enterprises to unlocktheir HR potential. They automate an organization’s HR needs across the entirehire-to-retire employee lifecycle from Recruitment, Onboarding, Coretransactions (Leave, attendance & Payroll) to engagement, PerformanceManagement and People Analytics.

They support 800+global enterprises covering 2+million employees across 143 countries (e.g., Nivea,Starbucks, Sephora, Zara, and AXA, along with Ghassan Aboud, Al Zayani,Property Finder, EFS Facilities Services, Jashanmal, Alinco, Lulu Group in theregion). With marquee investors including the likes of Microsoft, Salesforce,Sequoia, TCV- they are the only Asian origin vendor on Gartner’s Magic Quadrantand are rated the highest globally at 4.8/5 Gartner’s customer review platform-Peer Insights.

ROLE PURPOSE

Act as Senior Payroll Consultant and functional SME forMENA - anchoring end-to-end payroll solutioning for GCC clients across UAE,KSA, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Egypt. Frontend clients throughdiscovery, own the Blueprint, drive UAT and parallel runs, and act as thepractitioner voice into Product on statutory and functional gaps across theregion.

This is a Senior Consultant role scoped as a pureindividual contributor. The person is expected to lead engagements and driveoutcomes through influence across the Central Delivery Team, product, andtechnical teams - not through direct people management.

PRODUCT SME MANDATE

This role is not onlyabout running MENA delivery - it is about building product depth fast andusing it to shape what gets built for the region.

• Deep product depth within 3-6 months - sustained thereafter through hands-on validation,not delegation.
• Practitioner voice into Product & Engineering on MENA statutorychanges and functional gaps.
• Input on MENA localization roadmap - statutory gaps,country enhancements, and recurring client requirements.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Frontend clientsthrough discovery, requirement-gathering workshops, and solution design; runthe room with senior Payroll, HR, and Finance stakeholders.
• Own the Blueprintdocument end-to-end - capture requirements, map them to product capability,document workarounds where the product doesn't natively support, and secureclient sign-off before configuration begins.
• Set clientexpectations clearly on what is doable, what is doable with effort, and what is not doable - with reasoning, not deflection.
• Walk the clientthrough registers, outputs, and statutory reports at each validation checkpointsso they can meaningfully review before approval - the user must be able tovalidate, not just rubber-stamp.

Configuration, Testing & Payroll Cycles

• Partner with theCentral Delivery Team on configuration; review and validate before it reachesthe client.
• Run internal testcycles, drive UAT, and lead parallel payroll - troubleshoot calculation deltas,own root-cause analysis, and coordinate resolution across configuration,product, and engineering.
• Own cutover, YTDloads, and go-live for each engagement; deliver payroll functional training toclient power users.

Product SME & Roadmap Contribution

• Build deep workingknowledge of the payroll product in the first 3-6 months; sustain that depththereafter through hands-on validation, not delegation.
• Act as thepractitioner voice into Product & Engineering on MENA payroll - statutorychanges, localization gaps, and recurring client requirements - with enoughspecificity to drive product decisions.
• Provide input onMENA feature prioritization and, over time, validate new country featuresbefore they reach live clients.

Engagement Ownership

• Drive engagements to closure. Escalate early, coordinate across teams, and stay with the ball until the client is live and stable.
• Waiting to bechased, or dropping threads at handoff boundaries, is not the bar.

Looking for candidates who can fluently speak Arabic