International Payroll Operations Consultant

First Soft Solutions; Chennai; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 3,000,000; Full time

Job summary

First Soft Solutions is seeking an experienced International Payroll Operations Consultant to lead payroll across multiple countries and regions. You will ensure accurate, on-time payments while maintaining compliance with country-specific regulations and collaborating with HR, Finance, Tax, Treasury, Legal, and external payroll providers.

The ideal candidate brings hands-on international payroll experience, payroll transformation expertise, vendor management, system implementations, and strong

Qualifications

• 7-10+ years of payroll experience, including international or multi-country payroll management.
• Experience with global payroll providers and payroll technology platforms.

Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end payroll processing across multiple countries and regions.
• Ensure accurate and timely salaries, bonuses, commissions, benefits, deductions, and other payroll components.
• Manage global payroll calendars, cut-off dates, and processing schedules.
• Validate payroll inputs and outputs before final submission.
• Perform payroll reconciliations and resolve discrepancies.
• Coordinate payroll funding and payment activities with Finance and Treasury.
• Maintain payroll controls for accuracy and data integrity.
• Manage payroll exceptions and escalations.
• Ensure compliance with country-specific payroll, labor, tax, social insurance, and regulatory requirements.
• Monitor regulatory changes and implement required payroll process modifications.
• Support audits and maintain SOPs and governance across global payroll operations.
• Establish SLAs with payroll vendors and monitor performance.
• Lead payroll transformation projects and automation initiatives.
• Develop dashboards and analytics for payroll reporting.
• Lead and mentor regional payroll teams and ensure accountability and continuous improvement.

Skills

International payroll

Vendor management

Process improvement

Regulatory compliance

Project management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Accounting

Bachelor's degree in Finance

Bachelor's degree in Business Admin.

Bachelor's degree in Human Resources

Tools

ADP

Workday

UKG

Safeguard Global

Neeyamo

CloudPay

Job description

International Payroll Operations Consultant

Position: International Payroll Operations Consultant

Experience: 7-10+ Years

Employment Type: Contract / Consulting

Function: Global Payroll Operations

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced International Payroll Operations Consultant to lead and oversee payroll operations across multiple countries and regions.

The consultant will be responsible for ensuring employees are paid accurately and on time while maintaining compliance with country-specific labor, tax, social insurance, and regulatory requirements.

This role will work closely with HR, Finance, Tax, Treasury, Legal, country leadership, and external payroll providers to establish and maintain a standardized, efficient, scalable, and compliant global payroll environment.

The ideal candidate will bring strong hands‑on international payroll experience along with expertise in payroll transformation, vendor management, system implementations, compliance, reporting, and process improvement.

Key Responsibilities

Payroll Operations

• Manage end-to-end payroll processing across multiple countries and regions.
• Ensure accurate and timely processing of salaries, bonuses, commissions, benefits, statutory deductions, and other payroll components.
• Manage global payroll calendars, cut-off dates, and processing schedules.
• Validate payroll inputs and outputs before final submission.
• Perform payroll reconciliations and resolve discrepancies.
• Coordinate payroll funding and payment activities with Finance and Treasury.
• Maintain strong payroll controls to ensure accuracy and data integrity.
• Manage payroll exceptions and employee payroll‑related escalations.

Compliance & Governance

• Ensure compliance with country‑specific payroll, labor, tax, social insurance, employment, and statutory requirements.
• Monitor legislative and regulatory changes affecting payroll operations.
• Assess the impact of regulatory changes and implement required payroll process modifications.
• Support internal, external, statutory, and payroll‑related audits.
• Maintain payroll controls, policies, procedures, and documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Ensure appropriate governance and approval processes are followed across global payroll operations.

Vendor & Stakeholder Management

• Manage relationships with global payroll providers and local payroll vendors.
• Serve as a primary payroll point of contact for:

• Human Resources
• Finance
• Tax
• Treasury
• Legal
• Country leadership
• External payroll providers

• Establish and manage Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and payroll vendor performance.
• Monitor vendor accuracy, timeliness, compliance, and service quality.
• Coordinate issue resolution between internal business teams and external payroll providers.
• Support regional and country leadership with payroll reporting and issue resolution.

Global Payroll Strategy & Transformation

• Lead payroll process improvement and standardization initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to simplify and harmonize payroll processes across countries.
• Support payroll system implementations, upgrades, migrations, and integrations.
• Lead or participate in payroll transformation projects.
• Identify automation opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce manual processing, and minimize payroll risk.
• Support global business expansion, including setup and implementation of payroll operations in new countries.
• Participate in payroll vendor assessments, selections, and transition initiatives.
• Develop scalable global payroll processes capable of supporting organizational growth.

Reporting & Analytics

• Develop and maintain payroll metrics, KPIs, dashboards, and management reporting.
• Analyze payroll trends, controls, discrepancies, and operational performance.
• Monitor payroll accuracy, timeliness, service levels, and exception rates.
• Support workforce budget planning and labor-cost reporting.
• Ensure payroll data integrity across payroll, HRIS, Finance, and related systems.
• Provide payroll-related analysis to leadership and business stakeholders.

Team Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop payroll specialists and regional payroll teams.
• Establish team performance objectives and development plans.
• Provide operational guidance and subject‑matter expertise to payroll teams.
• Foster a culture of accountability, customer service, compliance, and continuous improvement.
• Coordinate activities across regional payroll resources and external service providers.

Required Qualifications

Education

• Bachelors degree in:

• Accounting
• Finance
• Business Administration
• Human Resources
• or a related discipline.

Experience

• 7-10+ years of payroll experience, including significant international or multi-country payroll management experience.
• Strong experience managing end-to-end payroll operations across multiple countries.
• Experience working with global payroll providers and payroll technology platforms such as:

• ADP
• Workday
• UKG
• Safeguard Global
• Neeyamo
• CloudPay
• or comparable global payroll solutions.

• Experience leading payroll projects, implementations, migrations, or transformation programs.
• Experience with payroll reconciliation, controls, statutory deductions, taxation, and compliance.
• Experience managing third‑party payroll vendors and SLAs.
• Previous people‑management or payroll‑team leadership experience is preferred.

Technical Skills

• Strong knowledge of international payroll regulations and compliance requirements.
• Understanding of country‑specific payroll taxation, statutory deductions, social insurance, and labor regulations.
• Experience with payroll systems, HRIS platforms, ERP systems, and payroll integrations.
• Strong understanding of payroll controls, reconciliation, and audit requirements.
• Experience with payroll reporting, analytics, dashboards, and KPI management.
• Strong Microsoft Excel skills, including payroll reconciliation and data analysis.
• Familiarity with payroll automation and process‑improvement technologies is highly desirable.

Preferred Skills

• Global payroll transformation experience.
• New‑country payroll implementation experience.
• Payroll vendor transition or consolidation experience.
• Experience integrating payroll platforms with HRIS and ERP systems.
• Familiarity with Workday HCM and global payroll interfaces.
• Experience working in a multinational or geographically distributed organization.
• CPP, FPC, CIPP, or similar payroll certification is a plus.

Key Competencies

The successful candidate should demonstrate strong:

• Global payroll expertise
• Analytical and problem‑solving skills
• Attention to detail
• Compliance awareness
• Vendor‑management capabilities
• Project‑management skills
• Stakeholder‑management skills
• Leadership and communication skills
• Process‑improvement mindset
• Ability to manage multiple countries and payroll deadlines simultaneously