Sr. Payroll Specialist (India Coverage)

Job description

About the Role: Grade Level (for internal use): 09S&P Global Corporate The Role: Senior Payroll Specialist About the Role: The Senior Payroll Specialist is responsible for end-to-end ownership of India payroll operations, ensuring accurate, timely, and fully compliant payroll delivery across assigned India entities. The role operates within S&P Global’s Global Pay Services operating model and provides deep subject-matter expertise, statutory governance support, and control oversight for India payroll. This role acts as a senior escalation point for complex payroll, statutory, and compliance matters, partners closely with People Services, Finance, Tax, Mobility, and external payroll vendors, and plays a key role in payroll governance, risk mitigation, process optimization, and transformation initiatives, without direct people management responsibilities. Key Responsibilities Payroll Operations – India • Own and execute end-to-end monthly India payroll processing across legal entities, including regular payroll, bonuses, off-cycle payrolls, leave encashments, arrears, recoveries, and final settlements. • Perform detailed payroll reviews, variance analysis, exception handling, and sign-off readiness checks prior to approvals. • Ensure payroll activities are completed within defined cut-off timelines, approval controls, and governance frameworks. • Independently resolve complex payroll exceptions and root-cause issues with significant employee, financial, or compliance impact. Statutory Compliance & Governance – India • Own compliance execution for all Indian payroll statutory requirements, including:• Income Tax (TDS on salary, projections, quarterly withholding tax returns, Annual withholding tax forms etc) • Provident Fund (EPFO – UAN lifecycle, ECR filings, exits, contributions) • ESIC, Professional Tax, Labour Welfare Fund (LWF) • Manage annual activities such as investment declaration windows, proof verification, tax recalculations, year-end processing, and true-ups. • Independently handle and support responses to statutory notices, audits, inspections, and regulatory queries from Income Tax, EPFO, and other authorities. • Identify statutory and compliance risks and implement preventive and corrective controls. Payroll Accounting, Controls & Reporting • Partner with Finance to ensure accurate payroll GL postings, reconciliations, accruals, and month-end close support. • Prepare, validate, and review monthly payroll reports, statutory summaries, defect logs, and control evidence in line with Global Pay Services SOPs. • Support internal and external audits, including SOX and compliance reviews, through documentation, data validation, and timely responses. Stakeholder & Vendor Collaboration • Act as a key payroll escalation point for India payroll matters with People Services, HR Business Partners, Finance, Tax, and Mobility teams. • Collaborate with external payroll vendors to resolve discrepancies, drive accuracy improvements, and ensure SLA adherence. • Provide clear, professional communication to address employee-impacting payroll queries and issues through approved ticketing platforms. Systems, Controls & Continuous Improvement • Ensure accuracy, integrity, and confidentiality of payroll data in Workday and payroll vendor systems. • Identify recurring payroll defects and implement root-cause fixes, standardization, and automation opportunities. • Contribute to process optimization, transformation initiatives, labour code readiness, and adoption of new-age technologies (e.g., Power BI, AI-enabled validations). • Support continuous improvement initiatives aligned with Global Payroll governance and control frameworks Qualifications: Required • 7+ years of hands-on India payroll experience with deep operational and statutory expertise. • Strong knowledge of Indian payroll laws, tax regulations, and statutory compliance requirements. • Knowledge of changes proposed in new Labour Code and handling of F&F within 2 working days (as per new Labour Code). • Experience handling payroll for large employee populations in a complex or GCC/shared services environment. • Advanced proficiency in Excel, payroll reconciliations, and reporting, • Amenable to work 8am-5pm India Time Preferred • Experience with Workday HCM / Workday Payroll or similar enterprise HR systems. • Exposure to statutory audits, regulatory interactions, and SOX-controlled environments. • Experience working within a regional or global payroll operating model. • Knowledge of labour codes, payroll automation, analytics, and digital transformation initiatives • Knowledge to use RPA tools like Microsoft Power Automate, Advanced Excel, Basic Python, Power BI etc.  Key Competencies: • Subject-matter expertise in India payroll and statutory compliance • Strong attention to detail with governance and control orientation • Analytical and structured problem-solving capability • Effective stakeholder and vendor collaboration • Ability to independently manage complex payroll scenarios • High standards of data confidentiality, compliance, and integrity • Continuous improvement and transformation mindset