Senior Payroll Specialist

WISE ASIA-PACIFIC PTE. LTD.; Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

WISE ASIA-PACIFIC PTE. LTD. is seeking a senior payroll leader to oversee regional payroll operations, enforce strict cutoffs, and approve standard pay runs across APAC.

You will serve as the regional lead in the absence of the Payroll Lead, coordinate with Tax, Finance and People Operations, and drive process improvements, system changes, and regional expansions. This role requires deep payroll expertise, strong stakeholder management, and a data-driven approach to ensure accuracy and

Qualifications

• 8+ years APAC payroll processing experience in a high-growth environment
• Experience preparing, processing, correcting, and auditing payroll
• Strong proficiency with Google Docs, Sheets and Microsoft Excel
• Collaborative with ability to build trust-based stakeholder relationships

Responsibilities

• Oversee regional payroll operations and enforce strict cutoff times
• Act as regional lead when Payroll Lead is unavailable
• Coordinate with Tax, Finance and People Operations to manage boundaries and gatekeeping
• Track SLAs with regional payroll partners and monitor partner performance
• Lead audit walkthroughs and proactively manage risk items
• Drive payroll-related projects, system implementations, and process automation

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Detail oriented

Multi-tasking

Adaptable

Curiosity

Teamwork

Tools

Payroll software

Google Docs

Google Sheets

Microsoft Excel

Job description

Team Leadership & Governance

• Operational Oversight: Help manage the regional payroll team, enforce strict payroll cutoffs, and serve as the final approval authority for standard pay runs.
• Leadership Back-up: Serve as the designated regional lead and approval authority when the Payroll Lead is out of office.
• Cross-Functional Gatekeeping: Act as the primary point of contact for Tax, Finance, and People Operations (POps), ensuring clear boundaries and deflecting out-of-scope work to protect team capacity.

Vendor & SLA Management

• Partner Accountability: Track Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and monitor the operational performance of key regional payroll partners (including Deel, CloudPay, RSM, and OSV).
• Compliance & Regulation: Monitor and track regional legislation updates impacting Wise, ensuring all changes are successfully implemented through to production.

Audit, Risk, & Quality Assurance

• Audit Ownership: Lead and manage comprehensive audit walkthroughs with both internal and external audit teams.
• Risk Mitigation: Proactively monitor and manage logged risk items to ensure swift resolution and compliance.
• Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Apply advanced problem-solving skills to identify, analyze, and resolve payroll discrepancies or process bottlenecks at their root.

Stakeholder Management & Projects

• Stakeholder Collaboration: Build strong, trust-based relationships with internal and external stakeholders through clear, transparent, and timely communication.
• Project Work: Contribute to and lead payroll-related projects, such as system implementations, process automation, and regional expansions.

Qualifications

• Prior APAC payroll processing experience of at least 8+ years in a high growth, product or service led company - this assists you to know how to deal with ambiguity and shifting priorities and come up with innovative solutions.
• Payroll skills - you’ll have experience in preparing, processing, correcting, and auditing most aspects of payroll - as well as the ability to learn new payroll processes efficiently. Singapore, Malaysia, Japan,and India payroll experience is a plus!
• Above average tech skills – particularly with Google Docs, Sheets, and Microsoft Excel for use of pivot tables, charts, etc - as well as being proficient in using payroll software.
• Collaborative - you’ll have a passion and skill for building strong relationships based on trust and mutual respect.

• Detail focused - you’ll have an eye for the details and an appreciation of data and analytics, using these two skills to drive your decisions.
• Adaptable - you will be as comfortable working with ambiguity as you are with certainty. We need someone who can be agile enough to respond to changing priorities, but be able to hold clear on the long-term path ahead
• Curiosity to learn, grow - we don’t expect you to be an expert, but we’ll need you to have a positive, can-do attitude - with a willingness to learn new things.
• Ability to multi-task - you must be able to handle multiple tasks - often at the same time. You’ll also have the ability to start, stop, pick-up and complete tasks on a recurring basis.
• Teamwork focused - You excel in a teamwork-oriented setting. This role requires you to partner with your peers and cross-check assigned payrolls.