Associate Manager - HR Operations

Associate Manager – HR Operations (People & Culture)

Location: Ahmedabad [On-site]

Experience: 3–5 years

About The Role

You will own the people operations backbone of Smytten: payroll, statutory compliance, HR data and compensation processes for all employees. You'll make sure people are paid accurately and on time and that we stay audit-ready. You'll also work with the People & Culture team and business leaders on compensation, org structure changes and HR analytics.

What You'll Do

Payroll & compliance (core of the role)

• Run monthly payroll end to end in Keka: inputs, attendance/LOP, reimbursements, variable pay, F&F settlements, and validation before disbursal.
• Manage statutory compliance: PF, ESI, Professional Tax (Karnataka), LWF, TDS on salary, Form 16, gratuity and bonus, plus returns and filings, in coordination with our consultants/CA.
• Keep us compliant with the Shops & Establishment Act, POSH (ICC and annual reporting) and the new Labour Codes.
• Support statutory and internal audits and maintain clean employee records.
  
  

Compensation & Structure

• Maintain salary structures, job levels and CTC breakups; support increment, promotion and appraisal cycles.
• Advise managers on compensation, structure changes and career transitions, and explain policies clearly to employees.
  
  

HR analytics & systems

• Build and share regular reports on headcount, attrition, compensation, job levels and cost, and turn them into recommendations for leadership.
• Own HRIS hygiene and process improvements, and look for chances to automate manual work.
  
  

People programs

• Contribute to benefits, engagement and culture initiatives alongside the wider HR team, and support performance review and calibration cycles.
  
  

What We're Looking For

• 3–5 years in HR operations, with hands-on, end-to-end payroll ownership (not just data entry).
• Working knowledge of Indian statutory compliance (PF, ESI, PT, TDS, gratuity, LWF).
• Strong Excel skills (VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, pivots, reconciliations); comfort with HR dashboards is a plus.
• Experience with an HRMS; Keka HR is a strong plus.
• Clear communicator who can explain compensation and policy to employees and managers, and push back constructively when needed.
• Discretion with confidential employee data.
  
  

Good to have

• Experience in a startup or scale-up environment of 300 employees.
• Exposure to multi-state compliance or contract/gig workforce.
  
  

Skills: operations,compliance,analytics,compensation,data,payroll,hr operations