Payroll Lead

About us HighLevel is an AI-powered business operating system that gives agencies, entrepreneurs and SMBs the infrastructure to build, automate and scale. Today, HighLevel supports SMBs across 150+ countries, fueling community-driven growth rooted in real customer outcomes. To date, businesses operating on HighLevel have generated over $7 billion in ecosystem value, demonstrating the impact of shared infrastructure at scale. By centralizing conversations, automation and intelligence into one system, we help businesses move faster, reduce complexity and execute efficiently. Behind the platform, HighLevel powers more than 4 billion API hits and 2.5 billion message events daily. With 250 terabytes of distributed data, 250+ microservices and over 1 million domain names supported, our architecture is built for performance, resilience and long-term scalability. Our people With over 2,000 team members across 10+ countries, HighLevel operates as a global, remote-first organization built for speed and ownership. We value initiative, clarity and execution, creating space for ambitious people to build systems that support millions of businesses worldwide. Here, innovation thrives, ideas are celebrated and people come first, no matter where they call home. Our impact Every month, HighLevel enables more than 1.5 billion messages, 200 million leads and 20 million conversations for the more than 1 million businesses we support. Behind those numbers are real people building independence, expanding opportunity and creating measurable impact. We’re proud to be a part of that. Learn more about us on our YouTube Channel or Blog Posts Who You Are: You are the Payroll Lead who owns end-to-end payroll operations for India and the UAE, bringing order, precision, and scale to how we pay our people. You will report to the Senior Manager, Global Payroll, who will provide direction and support as you work in close partnership with HR, Finance, and our external payroll service providers to run the function day to day. You are stepping into a role that’s ready to be transformed – stabilizing payroll operations and service-provider relationships so that every employee is paid accurately and on time, while driving real, measurable gains in operational efficiency. You see yourself as the primary champion for payroll and workforce compliance, holding every payroll cycle to the statutory standards of both geographies. This is an individual contributor role currently, with no direct reports. Your impact comes from the depth of your expertise and the ownership you take of the function itself. What You’ll Be Doing: Payroll • Independently lead and govern end-to-end payroll for India and UAE employees, ensuring accuracy and timeliness across all monthly disbursements, including oversight of payroll inputs, processing, and final bank funding. • Validate attendance, leave, variable pay, incentives, reimbursements, and full-and-final settlement inputs against HRIS and finance records before each payroll run. • Perform rigorous reviews of payroll registers, variance reports, CTC, and reconciliation files to validate data integrity and ensure alignment with financial controls and internal audit standards. • Stabilize and optimize relationships with external payroll service providers by setting clear performance benchmarks and conducting regular audits to drive service excellence. • Transform the current payroll ecosystem by identifying process bottlenecks and implementing technology-driven solutions that increase automation and reduce manual intervention. Compliance • Champion workforce compliance across teams by serving as the primary subject matter expert on Indian labour laws, Provident Fund, ESIC, Income Tax regulations, and Payroll SOX requirements. • Mitigate corporate risk by leading statutory filing activities and ensuring monthly, quarterly, and annual payroll-related returns are submitted accurately to government authorities. • Support internal, statutory, and external audits; prepare payroll-related MIS, accruals, and reconciliations for Finance; and maintain audit-ready documentation at all times. • Track changes in Indian and UAE labour law, tax regulations, and social security requirements, and proactively update processes and stakeholders. Employee Support • Act as the first point of contact for payroll, tax, and benefits queries; ensure payslips, Form 16 / tax documents, and salary certificates are issued accurately and on time. • Work closely with HR, Finance, Legal, and Total Rewards teams on compensation changes, benefits and equity administration, and new market/entity payroll setup. System Management • Own and administer Darwinbox as the system of record for payroll, ensuring data integrity and seamless flow between the HR and payroll modules. • Manage payroll-related configuration, user access, and integrations between Darwinbox and downstream finance/banking systems. • Troubleshoot system issues and liaise with the Darwinbox support/People Tech team on fixes, upgrades, and enhancements. • Drive automation of payroll workflows within Darwinbox to reduce manual intervention and improve turnaround time. What You’ll Bring: • 8+ years of hands-on payroll experience, with proven ownership of end-to-end India payroll processing and statutory compliance. • Working knowledge of UAE/India payroll practices. • Bachelor’s degree in Commerce, Finance, HR, or a related field; a payroll or labour law certification (e.g., CPP or an India payroll compliance certification) is a plus. • Hands-on experience with payroll/HRIS platforms such as GreytHR, Keka, ADP, or SAP SuccessFactors. • Prior expertise with Darwinbox is an added advantage. • Strong Excel/data-reconciliation skills and comfort working with large employee datasets. • High attention to detail, strong ownership, and the ability to handle sensitive compensation data with discretion. • Excellent communication skills and the ability to manage multiple stakeholders and deadlines across time zones (India and UAE). • Prior experience in a fast-paced, multi-entity, or global SaaS/tech environment is a plus. EEO Statement: The company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. As an employer subject to affirmative action regulations, we invite you to voluntarily provide the following demographic information. This information is used solely for compliance with government recordkeeping, reporting, and other legal requirements. Providing this information is voluntary and refusal to do so will not affect your application status. This data will be kept separate from your application and will not be used in the hiring decision. We encourage you to review our Privacy Policy before submitting your application