Payroll Governance, Audit & Compliance Specialist

Job description

**This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Payroll Governance, Audit & Compliance Specialist based in India.** This role offers the opportunity to strengthen governance, compliance, and operational excellence across a global payroll organization. You will help build a standardized, well-controlled payroll environment spanning multiple countries and stakeholders. Working closely with Payroll, HR, Finance, IT, Compliance, and external providers, you will drive meaningful improvements to processes and controls. You will monitor risks, performance indicators, audit findings, and vendor service levels while ensuring strong governance practices. Your reporting and analytics will turn payroll data into actionable insights that support better business decisions. You will also contribute to a broader payroll transformation journey, helping shape future processes, controls, and service delivery models. This is a highly collaborative international environment where analytical thinking, continuous improvement, and proactive problem-solving are valued. ### Accountabilities: - Drive payroll governance, compliance, and internal control initiatives across multiple countries, helping establish consistent and effective practices across the global payroll organization. - Monitor payroll risks, controls, audit findings, and remediation activities, ensuring issues are tracked appropriately and corrective actions are followed through. - Define, track, analyze, and report global payroll KPIs and operational performance metrics to provide clear visibility into performance and areas for improvement. - Support process standardization, continuous improvement, and operational excellence initiatives aimed at creating a more efficient, controlled, and consistent payroll environment. - Contribute to internal and external audit activities while helping ensure payroll operations remain aligned with corporate standards and compliance expectations. - Monitor payroll vendor performance, service levels, and governance frameworks, identifying potential gaps and supporting appropriate improvements. - Develop dashboards, reports, and analytical insights that enable stakeholders to understand performance, risks, trends, and opportunities. - Build strong working relationships with stakeholders across Payroll, HR, Finance, IT, Compliance, and external partners to coordinate governance and improvement initiatives. - Support strategic projects and contribute to the ongoing global payroll transformation program, helping shape future processes, controls, and service delivery models. ### Requirements - Hold a Master's degree in Business Administration, Finance, Human Resources, Accounting, or a related discipline, with relevant professional experience in governance, internal controls, process management, audit, compliance, shared services, or a comparable function. - Bring strong experience in process governance, internal controls, risk management, and performance monitoring, with payroll experience considered highly desirable. - Demonstrate advanced Excel capabilities and experience working with reporting, analytics, and Business Intelligence tools such as Power BI. - Possess strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex information and translate data into meaningful business insights. - Have excellent organizational and planning skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively within a dynamic international environment. - Demonstrate strong stakeholder management and collaboration capabilities, including the ability to build trusted relationships across functions, regions, and external partners. - Be fluent in English and comfortable working in an international, cross-functional environment. - Work in a structured, highly organized, and detail-oriented manner while maintaining a broader global perspective. - Bring a continuous improvement mindset, a proactive attitude, and the confidence to challenge existing practices constructively. - Experience within an industrial or manufacturing environment is considered an advantage. - Availability for an immediate start is preferred. ### Benefits - Permanent employment contract with a competitive compensation package, including a bonus. - Dedicated career development path and ongoing learning opportunities through structured training and development resources. - Access to professional learning platforms, mentoring opportunities, and continuous development programs. - Opportunities for domestic and international business travel based on organizational needs and role requirements. - Social and insurance benefits, including group medical, group personal accident, and group term insurance. - Mobile handset and mobile bill reimbursement. - Opportunity to contribute to international payroll transformation initiatives and gain broad cross-functional exposure. - Inclusive and collaborative working environment that values diverse perspectives, ideas, backgrounds, and experiences.