EMEA Payroll Practitioner

Houlihan Lokey, Inc.; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 48,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Houlihan Lokey, Inc. is seeking an experienced Payroll Practitioner to ensure flawless execution of our multi-country payroll within the EMEA region. This hybrid role reports to the EMEA Payroll Manager and collaborates with Workday, HRIS, and external vendors.

The position requires 2–3 days in either our UK or Paris offices, handling data, compliance, and timely payments in a fast-paced financial services environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, HR, or related field.
• 3+ years of multi-jurisdictional EMEA payroll administration.
• Experience with Workday and in-house payroll systems.
• Understanding of European payroll tax and employment laws.
• Knowledge of French and Italian payroll requirements.
• Strong Excel skills (VLOOKUP, pivot tables).
• Excellent written and verbal English communication.
• Highly organized and able to work under pressure.
• Analytical and critical thinking skills.

Responsibilities

• Oversee monthly payrolls for EMEA countries including France, Sweden, Switzerland, and Netherlands.
• Ensure data accuracy in Workday for hires, salary changes, and terminations.
• Coordinate with PwC and Papaya for payroll processing.
• Audit employee details, deductions, and gross-to-net calculations.
• Process non-cash benefits and termination payments.
• Distribute funds and meet local payment deadlines.
• Prepare monthly ledgers and payroll reconciliations.
• Serve as first point of contact for payroll queries in EMEA.

Skills

Excel proficiency

English communication

Attention to detail

Analytical thinking

Independent work

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, HR, or related field

Tools

Workday

Payslips

Strada Global Payroll

ServiceNow

Job description

Business Unit: Human Capital Group Industry: No Industry Overview Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) is a leading global investment bank recognized for delivering independent strategic and financial advice to corporations, financial sponsors, and governments. With uniquely deep industry expertise, broad international reach, and a partnership approach rooted in trust, the firm provides innovative, integrated solutions across mergers and acquisitions, capital solutions, financial restructuring, and financial and valuation advisory. Our unmatched transaction volumes provide differentiated, data-driven perspectives that help our clients achieve their most critical goals. To learn more about Houlihan Lokey, please visit HL.com.

Scope We are seeking an experienced, detail-oriented and highly organized Payroll Practitioner to ensure Houlihan Lokey’s payroll process is executed flawlessly and will scale with the growth of our business. This is an amazing opportunity to be a key contributor to the payroll team. This role reports into the EMEA Payroll Manager. The Payroll Practitioner will work closely with our Workday HRIS, Compensation, Human Resources Operations, Benefits, and International Payroll Vendor/Platform teams. This is a hybrid working position which requires a minimum of 2-3 days working in one of our UK or Paris offices.

Responsibilities

• Payroll Administration & Operations
  • Process monthly payrolls for assigned EMEA countries, such as France, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, ensuring strict adherence to unique country-specific cutoffs
  • Ensure accuracy of data in the Workday system for hew hires, job changes, salary changes and terminations
  • Coordinate, review, and administer monthly payrolls in collaboration with our outsourced vendor partners, PwC and Papaya
  • Input and audit employee details, salary changes, overtime, leaves, bonuses, pension adjustments, and deductions into applicable payroll systems, including auditing gross to net calculations
  • Process all non-cash benefits received from the accounting team such as overtime meals and late-night taxi income monthly
  • Process all terminated employee prorated calculations and additional termination payments and holiday payouts
  • Coordinate funds distribution, process payments, and ensure timely wire transmissions to meet local payment deadlines
  • Prepare monthly general ledgers and payroll account reconciliation for select countries
• Employee & Firm Support
  • Be the first point of contact for assigned EMEA countries payroll related queries and correspondence
  • Respond to all employee queries submitted via the Company’s ServiceNow system daily
  • Review and resolve any individual queries within Service Level Agreement timeframe, escalating as needed
  • Process country specific on-boarding and employment documents from employees, insuring accurate coding in Workday, payroll deductions, and reporting
  • Collaborate and review employment certificate requests
  • Confidently explain unique salary proration, time off accruals, and maternity calculations
• Compliance, Controls & Audit
  • Consult with payroll bureaus, payroll providers, and firm HR legal to ensure payrolls are processed in accordance with current payroll legislation and collective bargaining agreements
  • Maintain an up-to-date understanding of country-specific payroll legislation, income tax, social security, statutory reporting, tax withholding, and benefit-in-kind requirements across assigned EMEA jurisdictions, Apply country-specific payroll tax legislation and statutory requirements, for example including but not limited to French Impôt sur le Revenu, cotisations sociales and DSN (Déclaration Sociale Nominative) requirements, and Italian IRPEF (Imposta sul Reddito des Persone Fisiche), INPS and INAIL requirements
  • Maintain a working knowledge of local payroll tax withholding, social security, statutory deductions, taxable benefits and year-end reporting requirements, and assess the impact of legislative changes on payroll processing
  • Collaborate with Workday IT and HRIS on configuration updates to support changes in regulation or CBAs
  • Maintain complete payroll confidentiality and comply with all GDPR regulations.

Other duties as assigned

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Human Resources, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience)
• 3+ years of advanced multi-jurisdictional EMEA payroll administration, such as France, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherland
• Experience with Workday, in-house payroll systems and local in-country partners
• Demonstrated understanding of European payroll tax and employment legislation, including income tax withholding, social security, taxable benefits/benefits in kind, statutory deductions and employer reporting requirements
• Practical knowledge of French payroll legislation, including Impôt sur le Revenu, cotisations sociales, DSN (Déclaration Sociale Nominative) reporting and applicable collective bargaining agreement (CBA) requirements
• Working knowledge of Italian payroll legislation, including IRPEF (Imposta sul Reddito des Persone Fisiche), INPS and INAIL contributions, taxable benefits and statutory payroll reporting requirement
• Strong knowledge of shadow payrolls
• Intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Excel (e.g., VLOOKUPs, pivot tables, data comparisons, and audit reconciliations)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, with a track record of articulating payroll concepts clearly to diverse stakeholder groups
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to work independently under pressure in a fast-paced environment
• Proven analytical and critical thinking skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Workday, Payslips, and Strada Global Payroll systems
• Working knowledge of ServiceNow ticketing system
• Professional experience in financial services or a similarly complex, highly regulated global corporate environment
• Additional European language skills (such as Italian, Spanish, or French) are highly desirable
• We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) is a leading global investment bank recognized for delivering independent strategic and financial advice to corporations, financial sponsors, and governments. With uniquely deep industry expertise, broad international reach, and a partnership approach rooted in trust, the firm provides innovative, integrated solutions across mergers and acquisitions, capital solutions, financial restructuring, and financial and valuation advisory. Our unmatched transaction volumes provide differentiated, data-driven perspectives that help our clients achieve their most critical goals. To learn more about Houlihan Lokey, please visit HL.com.