Payroll Manager

KBR Careers; Chennai District; On-site; INR 2,500,000 - 4,000,000; Full time

Job summary

KBR is seeking a Payroll Manager in Chennai to lead end‑to‑end payroll for multiple countries, ensuring accurate, timely, and compliant processing of compensation. You will manage a team of payroll specialists and partner with HR, Finance, Treasury, and external providers to ensure payroll accuracy and an exceptional employee experience using Workday HCM and Workday Payroll.

You will oversee validations, audits, reporting, reconciliations, and process improvements while maintaining data

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, HR, or related field.
• 7–10 years of progressive payroll experience; 3+ years leading payroll teams.
• Experience with multinational payroll operations and high-volume processing.
• Proficient with Workday HCM/Payroll; audits, validations, reporting, and reconciliations.

Responsibilities

• Lead end‑to‑end payroll processing for multiple countries, including regular, off‑cycle, bonus, and termination payrolls.
• Review and approve payroll calculations, deductions, and taxes; ensure data integrity.
• Manage payroll reconciliations, variances, and internal controls; coordinate funding with Treasury.
• Lead, coach, and develop payroll specialists; monitor KPIs and throughput.
• Ensure compliance with country payroll laws; support audits and statutory reporting.

Skills

Payroll management

Workday HCM

Workday Payroll

Leadership

Multinational payroll

Payroll compliance

Data analysis

English proficiency

Education

Bachelor's degree in Accounting/Finance/HR/Business Administration

Tools

SAP

Microsoft Dynamics ERP

Power BI

Job description

Title: Payroll Manager

The Payroll Manager will report to the Global Payroll Senior Manager and is responsible for leading Chennai payroll operations to ensure the accurate, timely, and compliant processing of employee compensation across multiple countries. This role provides leadership to a team of payroll specialists while overseeing payroll processing, compliance, controls, reporting, reconciliations, and continuous process improvement initiatives. The Payroll Manager serves as a key partner to Human Resources, HRIS, Finance, Treasury, and external payroll providers to ensure payroll accuracy, data integrity, statutory compliance, and an exceptional employee experience. This position requires extensive experience using Workday HCM and Workday Payroll to manage payroll processing, validations, audits, reporting, testing, and system enhancements.

Payroll Operations

Lead and manage end‑to‑end payroll processing for assigned countries, ensuring payrolls are processed accurately and on schedule. Oversee regular, off‑cycle, bonus, commission, retroactive, and termination payrolls. Review and approve payroll calculations, deductions, earnings, taxes, and adjustments prior to payroll transmission. Validate payroll inputs and Workday payroll data to ensure completeness and accuracy. Perform payroll reconciliations and investigate payroll variances before payroll finalization. Ensure payroll controls are executed and documented throughout each payroll cycle. Coordinate payroll funding requirements with Treasury.

Team Leadership

Lead, coach, mentor, and develop a team of payroll specialists. Conduct performance reviews and establish individual development plans. Monitor team productivity, service levels, and operational KPIs. Allocate workload across the team to balance capacity and ensure timely payroll delivery. Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, customer service, and continuous improvement.

Compliance & Audit

Ensure compliance with country‑specific payroll legislation, tax regulations, statutory reporting requirements, wage and hour laws, and applicable labor laws across supported jurisdictions. Maintain compliance with federal, state, provincial, and local payroll regulations. Ensure payroll controls meet internal control requirements and audit standards. Support internal, external, SOX, and statutory payroll audits. Prepare payroll documentation and supporting schedules for audit requests. Review payroll exceptions and implement corrective actions.

Workday Payroll & Systems

Utilize Workday HCM and Workday Payroll to process payroll transactions, validations, audits, reporting, and payroll administration. Configure and validate payroll inputs within Workday. Review payroll integrations between Workday and downstream systems. Support Workday payroll testing for releases, regulatory updates, and system enhancements. Participate in Workday enhancement projects and continuous optimization initiatives. Partner closely with HRIS teams to improve payroll system functionality and data integrity. Develop and maintain Workday payroll reporting and dashboards.

Employee & Stakeholder Support

Resolve complex payroll inquiries from employees, managers, and HR. Partner with HR, Finance, Treasury, Accounting, Tax, and external payroll providers to resolve payroll issues. Provide payroll guidance on policy interpretation and regulatory requirements. Maintain confidentiality of employee payroll information.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Required Experience

• 7–10 years of progressive payroll experience.
• Minimum 3 years of experience leading payroll teams.
• Experience processing high‑volume payroll.
• Experience supporting multinational payroll operations.
• Experience using Workday HCM and Workday Payroll, including payroll processing, audits, validations, payroll inputs, reporting, testing, and reconciliations.
• Experience managing payroll operations for the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and/or Australia.
• Strong knowledge of payroll legislation, tax regulations, statutory reporting, wage and hour requirements, and labor laws across supported jurisdictions.
• Experience supporting payroll audits and compliance reviews.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem‑solving abilities.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.
• Must be able to speak English.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with SAP and/or Microsoft Dynamics ERP systems.
• Experience working within a Shared Services or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) environment.
• Experience with payroll process automation initiatives.
• Lean, Continuous Improvement, or Six Sigma experience.
• Experience developing reporting and dashboards using Power BI or similar business intelligence tools.
• Professional payroll certification (CPP, FPC, or international equivalent) preferred.

KBR — Delivering Solutions, Changing the World.

KBR brings together the best and brightest to deliver science, technology and engineering solutions that help governments and companies around the world accomplish their most critical missions and objectives.

ONE KBR Values

• We Value Our People – We create diverse, inclusive environments in which each person can feel safe, respected and valued, and where everyone has opportunities to grow and reach their full potential.
• We Deliver – We are uncompromising in our commitment to deliver innovative, high‑quality, technology‑led solutions for our customers and exceptional, sustainable value for all our stakeholders.
• We Are People of Integrity – We value honesty, trust, courage, fairness, prudence and tenacity. We believe doing what’s right for the planet, the communities where we work, and our people is good for business.
• We Empower – We empower our people with a shared purpose, the right tools and the supportive culture they need to be proactive decision‑makers, to be adaptive to change, and to succeed.
• We Are a Team of Teams – We have a will to succeed, but we value the achievements of our team of teams over individual accomplishments.
• Our collective focus makes us a better, stronger, more effective company.
• We have also embedded environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles in every business operation and corporate function. Not only are we committed to operating safely, sustainably and equitably, but we are also committed to using our capabilities and expertise to help our customers accomplish their sustainability goals.

Worldwide, KBR employs a diverse workforce approximately 29,000 people strong, with customers in more than 80 countries and operations in 40 countries. At KBR, We Deliver.