Assistant General Manager Payroll

Placement Partners; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 5,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Placement Partners invites a seasoned payroll leader to own India payroll delivery, including downstream activities and statutory compliance. The role emphasizes payroll modernisation from Excel/macros to RPA and AI-enabled solutions, while ensuring data integrity and smooth vendor transitions.

You will partner with HR, Finance, Tax and Legal to maintain accuracy, confidentiality and on-time payroll across multiple entities.

Qualifications

• Experience managing multi-entity payroll cycles in India.
• Knowledge of Indian payroll fundamentals, taxation and compliance.
• Hands-on with labour-code, PF/ESI, and related regulations.

Responsibilities

• Own monthly payroll calendar, inputs, processing and closure for all employees.
• Handle salary changes, attendance, joiners/exits, deductions and settlements.
• Perform payroll controls, reconciliations and variance analysis.
• Oversee payroll journals, tax documents and statutory payments.
• Resolve payroll queries within SLAs and maintain SOPs and audit trails.
• Ensure compliance with EPF/PF, ESI, PT and other statutory registers.
• Collaborate with Treasury/Finance on funding, disbursement and reconciliations.
• Manage payroll partners and conduct performance/risk reviews.
• Lead automation roadmap from Excel/macros to workflow, RPA and AI.
• Own payroll-system configurations and master-data quality.

Skills

Advanced Excel

Power Query

Macros (VBA)

RPA

AI-enabled automation

Payroll governance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Commerce, Finance, or HR

Postgraduate or professional payroll/labour taxation certification

Tools

Darwinbox HRMS

Excel/Power Query tooling

Job description

The AGM Payroll will own the accurate, timely and compliant delivery of India payroll and its downstream activities. The role combines strong payroll fundamentals with hands-on execution, statutory expertise, disciplined controls and service orientation, while partnering closely with HR, Finance, Treasury, Tax, Legal, Internal Audit and business teams.

The incumbent will also lead payroll modernisationfrom advanced Excel and macros to workflow automation, RPA and responsible AIstrengthen data and vendor governance, and support payroll-system or vendor transitions without disrupting employee experience or compliance .

Role & responsibilities:

• Own the monthly payroll calendar, inputs, validations, processing, approvals and closure for all employees and applicable entities, ensuring accuracy, confidentiality and on-time pay.
• Manage salary changes, attendance and leave inputs, joiners and exits, incentives, reimbursements, deductions, loans, arrears, full-and-final settlements, gratuity and leave encashment.
• Execute pre- and post-payroll controls, variance analysis and reconciliations; review payroll registers, exception reports, bank files and payslips before release.
• Oversee downstream activities including payroll journals / JVs, cost-center allocations, provisions, general-ledger reconciliation, tax documents, statutory payments and management reporting.
• Resolve employee payroll queries within defined service levels and maintain clear SOPs, calendars, approval trails, records and business-continuity arrangements.
• Ensure compliance with payroll-related Indian legislation and requirements, including EPF/PF, ESI where applicable, professional tax, labour welfare fund, income-tax/TDS, gratuity, bonus, minimum wages and statutory registers, returns and challans.
• Partner with Treasury and Finance on funding, salary disbursement, payment authorisations, payroll accounting, provisions, reconciliations, cash-flow inputs and closure timelines.
• Govern payroll partners against agreed scope, controls, service levels, issue closure, compliance obligations and commercial terms; conduct periodic performance and risk reviews.
• Create and deliver a payroll automation roadmap progressing from advanced Excel, Power Query and macros to workflows, RPA and appropriate AI-enabled use cases.
• Automate high-volume controls such as input validation, duplicate detection, variance analysis, reconciliations, exception reporting and employee-query triage while retaining human oversight and auditability.
• Own payroll-system configurations and integrations with HRMS, attendance, Finance and banking platforms; strengthen master-data quality, role-based access and change controls.
• Lead, coach and develop the payroll team; define roles, service standards, review mechanisms and back-up capability to eliminate single-person dependencies.

Preferred candidate profile:

• 812 years of progressive, hands-on experience in India payroll operations, with experience independently managing complex or multi-entity payroll cycles and downstream activities.
• Thorough knowledge of Indian payroll fundamentals, taxation and statutory compliance, with practical experience implementing labour-code, PF or comparable regulatory changes.
• Advanced Excel capability is mandatory, including complex formulas, XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP, INDEX-MATCH, pivot tables, data validation and Power Query; macro/VBA capability is strongly preferred.
• Experience in payroll automation using macros, workflow tools, RPA or AI; ability to translate control or process gaps into practical, cost-effective solutions.
• Experience transitioning payroll vendors and executing data migration, parallel runs and cutover is preferred; working experience of Darwinbox HRMS is preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Commerce, Finance, Human Resources or a related discipline; postgraduate or professional certification in payroll, labour law, taxation or HR is advantageous.