Payroll and Compensation Executive

ROLE SUMMARYThe Payroll and Compensation Executive is the payroll team's owner of compensation and benefits delivered through payroll, for more than 7,500 employees in 36 payroll areas across the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, and India. The role makes sure that every approved pay decision (an increment, a promotion, an allowance, an incentive, or a final settlement) reaches the payslip correctly, on time and in line with policy and local law.The role owns wage codes and pay components, executes the annual increment cycle and approved performance-linked payouts in payroll, validates allowances, benefits, and monthly sales incentive payouts before release, calculates end-of-service and leave liability accruals with Finance, and produces payroll cost analytics. It is the team's subject-matter owner for payroll and compensation law for expatriates and local country nationals in MENA and leads the design and testing of compensation elements in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll (ECP).The role reports to the Manager - Payroll, who reviews statutory and high-value outputs, and works with independent judgement within policy as the control point between compensation decisions and accurate pay.Scope and Dimensions: Employees paid: 7,500+ each month | Payroll areas: 36, across 8 countries | Countries: UAE, KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt and India | Pay cycles supported: Monthly payroll, monthly sales incentives, annual increment and performance payouts, final settlements | Systems: SAP SuccessFactors (HUB), SAP payroll on S/4HANA, SAP EC Payroll (go-live in 2027) | Reports to: Manager - Payroll | Direct reports: NoneROLE RESPONSIBILITIESCompensation in payrollOwn the wage code and pay component catalogue across all payroll areas: simplify, benchmark, and rationalize existing codes; design new ones with clear rules, GL mapping, and controlsExecute the annual increment cycle in payroll end to end, costing, mass upload, retro pay and reconciliation to the approved increment budget, for sign-off by the Manager - PayrollProcess approved performance-linked payouts and promotion adjustments after calibration, reconciled to the approved payout file and budgetValidate allowances and benefits paid through payroll (housing, transport, air tickets, leave salary, education, and other allowances) against policy and grade; flag and resolve exceptionsReview the monthly Additions and Deductions reports for compensation items before HRBP approval, and close the root cause of recurring retro adjustmentsSales incentives and variable payValidate monthly sales incentive payouts with the Incentive Analyst before release: eligibility, leavers, leave and absences, and approved scheme rulesProvide the payroll inputs the incentive cycle depends on (employee dump, leave and absence reports, payroll reports) on the agreed calendar datesReconcile approved incentive files to payroll and to Finance-verified totals, including currency conversion for non-AED countries using rates confirmed by FinanceStatutory payroll and complianceOwn the application of payroll and compensation law for expatriates and local country nationals in MENA: pension and social security contributions for nationals, end-of-service gratuity, overtime, and final settlements, reviewed by the Manager - PayrollMaintain the country-by-country statutory reference for gratuity, overtime, working hours and pension contributions, and flag where policy and law divergeEnsure compliance with labour law, WPS and social security requirements across MENA and India; prepare evidence for internal audit and external auditors (including the annual payroll test of controls)Act as backup for critical monthly payroll steps; support MENA and India payroll within cut-off and statutory deadlinesFinance, settlements and analyticsCalculate monthly end-of-service, leave liability accruals, and reconcile them with FinanceReconcile payroll to Finance for final settlements and employee account (SOA) balances: explain wage types, resolve mismatches, and clear negative or outstanding settlements with HR Operations and FinanceProduce payroll cost analytics: budget vs actual, cost by entity and country, pay positioning, and increment and payout modelling for leadershipEC Payroll, data, and controlsDefine and test compensation elements in ECP (pay components, eligibility rules, wage type mapping); support data cleansing, parallel runs, cutover, and hyper careMonitor compensation data flowing from SuccessFactors (HUB) to payroll; resolve replication rejections that affect pay before the payroll cut-offDocument processes and controls (maker-checker, reconciliations, approval evidence) and build EC Payroll capability across the team, reducing reliance on the implementation partner after go-liveIdentify manual, person-dependent payroll steps and standardize or automate them, using data and AI tools in line with the North Star operating modelROLE REQUIREMENTSGCC payroll and compensation law: end-of-service gratuity, overtime, leave salary and final settlements, and national pension and social security schemes (GPSSA, GOSI, PIFSS, SIO, Oman SPF, GRSIA, NOSI)India payroll statutory basics (PF, ESI, professional tax, gratuity) an advantageWage code and pay component design, increment, promotion, performance payout, and sales incentive processingEnd-of-service and leave accrual calculation; payroll-to-GL reconciliation; payroll cost analytics and modelling in advanced Excel (Power Query, pivots, lookups)SAP SuccessFactors and SAP payroll (wage types, retro, payroll reports); hands-on SAP EC Payroll configuration or testing strongly preferredWPS and bank file requirements; payroll controls, reconciliations, and audit evidenceAutomation and data literacy builds repeatable reconciliations and reports, and is comfortable using Power BI and AI tools to improve payroll work5-7 years in payroll and compensation in the GCC (UAE and wider MENA required, India payroll an advantage), with hands-on ownership of increment cycles, incentive or variable pay processing, wage code design and end-of-service calculations in a multi-entity, multi-country organization. Experience in retail or a high-volume frontline workforce, and exposure to an SAP payroll implementation, are strong advantages.