Senior QA specialist - EMEA

Neara; Chennai District; On-site; INR 800,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Neara is seeking a Senior QA Specialist to join our Payroll team in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. This role involves ensuring payroll accuracy and compliance across multiple regions, including handling pre-payroll checks and validations.

As a Senior Quality Assurance Specialist, you will actively build and implement QA processes, collaborate with teams to achieve near-zero payroll errors, and ensure adherence to compliance standards. Attention to detail, strong analytical skills, and familiarity with payroll systems are essential for this role. Apply now to be part of a world-class Payroll Centre of Excellence!

Qualifications

• Exceptional attention to detail and commitment to accuracy.
• Strong analytical skills with payroll data analysis experience.
• Problem-solving aptitude to address issues and prevent recurrence.

Responsibilities

• Conduct proactive quality assurance checks pre-payroll.
• Perform post-payroll validations and reconciliations.
• Validate statutory filings and monitor compliance.

Skills

Attention to detail

Analytical thinking

Problem-solving

Clear written communication

Process-oriented mindset

Collaboration

Comfort with ambiguity

Tools

Excel

Payroll software

Zendesk

Jira

Notion

Job description

Senior QA specialist - EMEA

Job type: Full Time · Department: Operations - Payroll · Work type: On-Site

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India; Pune, Maharashtra, India; Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

About Job

We are building a world-class Payroll Centre of Excellence at Multiplier, and the Quality Assurance sub-vertical is central to that vision. As a Senior Quality Assurance Specialist, you will be the frontline guardian of payroll accuracy and compliance across our global operations.

This is not a traditional audit role. You will be an active participant in building and running the QA control framework from the ground up – designing proactive checks, conducting variance analysis, governing vendor quality, and driving continuous improvement across multi-country payroll cycles.

You will work closely with the payroll operations team, the functional transformation team, and senior leadership to ensure that every payroll cycle we run meets the highest standards of accuracy, compliance, and timeliness. You will play a direct role in Multiplier's ambition to achieve near-zero payroll errors at scale.

While the Kep responsibilities will primarily involve setting up the foundation for the Quality Assurance vertical, it will also become your responsibility to convert this into an auto-pilot process, where we ensure zero people-driven activities and convert these into a highly efficient process-driven vertical.

Skills & Qualification

• Skills & Competencies

  Exceptional attention to detail – you notice what others miss and you care about getting it right every time.

  Strong analytical thinking – you can look at payroll data, spot patterns, and draw meaningful conclusions quickly.

  Structured problem-solver – when something goes wrong, you go beyond the fix to understand why it happened and prevent recurrence.

  Clear written communication – you can document errors, root causes, and process recommendations in a way that is easy to understand and act on.

  Process-oriented mindset – you believe that good outcomes come from good processes, not individual heroics.

  Collaborative – you work effectively with payroll operations, finance, HR, and vendors to resolve issues and improve quality.

  Comfortable with ambiguity – you can operate in a growing, evolving environment and help define the standards as the function matures.

• Technical Skills

  Proficiency in Excel – including VLOOKUP, SUMIF, pivot tables, and data validation. Ability to work with large payroll datasets and identify anomalies.

  Experience with payroll software – familiarity with one or more global or regional payroll systems is strongly preferred.

  Familiarity with Zendesk, Jira, Notion, or similar ticketing and documentation tools is an advantage.

  Understanding of gross-to-net payroll calculations, statutory deductions, tax withholding mechanisms, and GL reconciliation.

• Nice to Have

  Experience working within a Centre of Excellence, shared services, or a structured QA governance framework.

  Exposure to payroll implementations or in house country go-lives.

  Knowledge of payroll compliance in India, UK, Brazil, or other high-complexity countries.

  Familiarity with QA maturity models or continuous improvement frameworks such as Lean or Six Sigma.

  Experience working in a global employment platform, HR tech, or payroll technology company.

Responsibilities

• Proactive Quality Assurance

  Execute pre-payroll QA checks across assigned countries, including input data validation, variance analysis, and headcount reconciliation before every payroll run.

  Enforce input cut-off compliance – flag missing or late inputs, apply mandatory field validation, and elevate exceptions through the appropriate approval workflow.

  Conduct month-over-month variance analysis and apply defined thresholds – salary changes above 20%, headcount variances above 5%, and large or off-cycle payouts – triggering investigation and dual approval where required.

  Maintain and execute the QA Audit Checklist for every payroll cycle across your assigned countries, ensuring each stage is documented and signed off before payroll proceeds to payment.

  Identify duplicate records, outlier transactions, and data anomalies using systematic checks and early warning logic.

• Reactive Quality Assurance

  Conduct post-payroll output validation – gross-to-net accuracy checks, payslip sampling, payroll register reviews, and bank file reconciliation.

  Perform post-payroll reconciliation including payroll versus bank totals, payroll versus Finance GL reconciliation, and accrual validation within agreed timelines.

  Log every error – including minor ones – in the Error AND Incident Log with full classification, description, and timeline.

  Lead root cause analysis (RCA) for all payroll errors within your remit, completing RCA documentation within 5 business days for High and Critical issues.

  Define and implement corrective actions (CA) and preventive actions (CAPA) – feeding improvements back into the QA checklist, SOP updates, and the broader control framework.

• Compliance & Statutory Quality Control

  Validate statutory filings, tax deductions, social contributions, and country-specific compliance requirements for assigned in-house countries.

  Monitor compliance calendars and ensure all statutory obligations are met within deadlines – flagging risks proactively before cut-off dates.

  Support the Taxes and Filings Operations Team with three-way reconciliation (payroll output, bank payments, statutory reports) and proof of payments documentation.

  Stay current on legislative changes in assigned countries and elevate regulatory updates to the Functional Transformation team for SOP and knowledge repository updates.

• Vendor Quality Governance

  Execute the internal pre-QA layer for all vendor-processed payrolls – conducting mandatory variance analysis, headcount reconciliation, high-value transaction reviews, and payslip sampling before approving vendor output.

  Score and document vendor performance on a quarterly basis using the Vendor Performance Tracker – assessing SLA adherence, accuracy rate, issue resolution speed, and responsiveness.

  Flag underperforming vendors to the QA Lead and SR Manager CoE, providing data-backed scorecards to support formal reviews and escalations.

• KPI Monitoring & Reporting

  Own the monthly QA Scorecard for your assigned countries – tracking Error Rate, On-Time Payroll, Compliance Issues, Input Accuracy, and Rework Volume against defined targets.

  Maintain the country Risk Heatmap by updating monthly risk scores and providing a written summary of key issues and recommended actions for each country in your remit.

  Contribute to the weekly operations update – reporting open issues, exceptions, and SLA status to the QA Lead.

  Prepare country-level QA summaries for the monthly management review and Control Tower, including trend analysis and improvement recommendations.

• Continuous Improvement & SOP Contribution

  Identify gaps in existing QA controls and proactively propose enhancements to the QA checklist, control matrix, and operating procedures.

  Contribute to the development and maintenance of country-specific playbooks in collaboration with the Functional Transformation team.

  Support the shift from reactive to proactive QA – actively working to increase the percentage of errors caught before payroll runs versus after.

  Participate in the onboarding and training of new QA team members, sharing process knowledge and best practices.