Payroll Compliance Lead

PwC Portugal; Porto; On-site; EUR 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

PwC Portugal is seeking a Payroll Compliance Lead to act as the central compliance authority for multi-country payroll operations. This technical supervisor and individual contributor role has no direct people-management responsibility and focuses on monitoring regulatory requirements, investigations and remediation, audits, and governance across payroll processes.

The role partners with Country Leads and stakeholders to implement regulatory changes, maintain control frameworks, and provide

Qualifications

• Strong experience in global or multi-country payroll operations and payroll compliance.
• Solid knowledge of statutory payroll, tax, social security, labor requirements and payroll governance.
• Experience with incident investigation, root cause analysis, audits, control frameworks and risk monitoring.
• Strong stakeholder management, investigative and written communication skills.
• Experience with ECP/SAP payroll environments is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Monitor payroll processes, outputs and controls across countries to identify compliance risks, exceptions, trends and control failures.
• Maintain compliance risk and issue logs, remediation tracking and clear governance reporting.
• Recommend improvements to controls, monitoring and governance to reduce recurring risk.
• Lead investigations into compliance incidents, payroll errors, audit findings and statutory concerns.
• Perform structured root cause analysis covering process, system, operational and governance factors.
• Coordinate corrective and preventive actions, track delivery to completion and escalate material or unresolved risks.
• Maintain clear records of findings, decisions, risks and actions.
• Monitor relevant payroll, tax, social security, labor changes and assess operational impacts.
• Partner with Country Leads, SMEs and Compliance stakeholders to implement changes and confirm readiness before go-live.
• Support internal, external, client and statutory audits, including evidence coordination and remediation of findings.
• Monitor adherence to payroll controls and recommend enhancements to the control framework.

Skills

Global payroll experience

Payroll compliance

Stakeholder management

Investigative skills

Written communication

SAP ECP

Tools

SAP ECP

Job description

The Payroll Compliance Lead is the central compliance authority for multi-country payroll operations. This technical supervisor and individual contributor role has no direct people-management responsibility. It monitors statutory, client, internal-control and governance requirements; investigates issues; coordinates remediation; supports audits and regulatory change; and provides risk-based guidance to operational and client stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Monitor payroll processes, outputs and controls across countries to identify compliance risks, exceptions, trends and control failures;
• Maintain compliance risk and issue logs, remediation tracking and clear governance reporting;
• Recommend improvements to controls, monitoring and governance to reduce recurring risk.

Issue investigation and remediation

• Lead investigations into compliance incidents, payroll errors, audit findings and statutory concerns;
• Perform structured root cause analysis covering process, system, operational and governance factors;
• Coordinate corrective and preventive actions, track delivery to completion and escalate material or unresolved risks;
• Maintain clear records of findings, decisions, risks and actions.

Regulatory change, audit and controls

• Monitor relevant payroll, tax, social security, labor and statutory changes and assess operational impacts;
• Partner with Country Leads, SMEs and Compliance stakeholders to implement changes and confirm readiness before go-live;
• Support internal, external, client and statutory audits, including evidence coordination and remediation of findings.
• Monitor adherence to payroll controls and recommend enhancements to the control framework.

Stakeholder collaboration and continuous improvement

• Provide technical guidance to Country Leads, Team Leads, SMEs, Payroll Processors, Compliance, HR, Tax and client stakeholders;
• Facilitate alignment on compliance priorities and remediation plans while minimizing disruption to payroll delivery;
• Promote knowledge sharing, standardized practices, preventive controls, automation and improved compliance reporting;
• Provide leadership with concise updates and data-driven insights on risks, remediation and emerging concerns.

Preferred Experience And Capabilities

• Strong experience in global or multi-country payroll operations and payroll compliance;
• Solid knowledge of statutory payroll, tax, social security, labor requirements and payroll governance;
• Experience with incident investigation, root cause analysis, audits, control frameworks and risk monitoring;
• Strong stakeholder management, investigative and written communication skills;
• Experience with ECP/SAP payroll environments is preferred.

Success Measures

• Timely identification, escalation and mitigation of payroll compliance risks;
• Effective resolution of incidents, audit findings and corrective actions, with fewer recurring errors;
• Successful implementation of regulatory changes without compliance breaches;
• Improved adherence to payroll controls, reporting quality and compliance maturity;
• Effective collaboration across payroll, compliance, tax, HR and client stakeholders.

We believe that success lies in people and in your willingness to push boundaries. If this resonates with you, you've found your place. It's time to bring your expertise to the 'Team PwC' and drive impactful change.

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