Senior Manager Payroll Services

Location: Hyderabad (Office)

Job Description Summary

#LI-Hybrid

Location: Hyderabad, India

Relocation Support: This role is based in Hyderabad, India. Novartis is unable to offer relocation support: please only apply if accessible.

In this role you will lead and manage People Services & Solutions Services across a complex or multi-country environment or a specific service area/process, providing strategic oversight of Payroll Administration and Process Management within the Payroll Services Competence Center.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and inspire the Payroll team across India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines, ensuring accurate and timely payroll delivery.
• Drive the P&O Services strategy across the region, with a strong focus on continuous improvement and innovation.
• Partner with Finance, Tax, Rewards, People Partners, Legal, IT, and the business to ensure compliant and secure payroll operations.
• Lead the development and implementation of payroll processes for new countries and entities, supporting business growth.
• Manage and resolve escalated operational risks and payroll delivery issues.
• Identify and implement process and service improvements, including change management and stakeholder communication.
• Ensure ongoing regulatory and compliance requirements, while monitoring costs, efficiency, and productivity.
• Lead people, talent, and performance development and drive key People Services & Solutions (PS&S) projects across the cluster.

Essential Requirements

• Strong India payroll expertise, with a very good understanding of the Indian payroll, statutory and compliance landscape.
• Proven people leadership experience, including managing, developing and engaging payroll teams.
• Strong experience managing and influencing senior and challenging stakeholders, including P&O/HR, Finance, Tax and senior business leadership.
• Experience leading payroll operations in a large, complex environment, ideally supporting significant employee populations.
• Strong focus on payroll performance and KPIs, including payroll experience, accuracy, service delivery and client/stakeholder satisfaction.
• Demonstrated process excellence and continuous improvement mindset, with the ability to identify and implement improvement opportunities.