Position Summary
We are looking for an experienced Senior Payroll Specialist – Product Support with strong hands-on knowledge of Indian Payroll, statutory compliance and payroll processing. The role will provide functional support to customers using a SaaS HRMS & Payroll platform and will act as a senior domain point of contact for complex payroll, compliance and product-related queries.
The ideal candidate should combine strong payroll expertise with excellent customer communication, problem-solving, ownership and customer-handling skills. The candidate must be able to understand a customer's business requirement, analyze the issue, explain the solution in simple business language, coordinate internally when required, and drive the case to closure within SLA.
Role Objective
- Provide accurate, timely and customer-focused functional support for payroll and HRMS-related queries.
- Use strong payroll-domain knowledge to identify the root cause of calculation, configuration, compliance and process issues.
- Handle complex and high-priority customer cases independently and take ownership until resolution.
- Act as a bridge between customers and internal Product, Development, QA and Operations teams.
- Improve customer experience through clear communication, proactive updates, effective troubleshooting and knowledge sharing.
- Contribute to product quality, UAT, knowledge base and continuous improvement initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
- Payroll & Functional Product Support
- Provide functional support through calls, emails, chat, remote sessions and ticketing channels.
- Understand customer payroll processes, requirements and configurations before recommending a solution.
- Support customers during monthly payroll execution, payroll validation, approval and finalization.
- Troubleshoot salary calculation discrepancies, payroll processing errors, arrears, deductions, reimbursements and other payroll scenarios.
- Analyze payroll inputs, employee master data, salary structures, attendance/leave inputs and statutory deductions to identify the source of an issue.
- Guide customers on correct product processes and best practices without making unauthorized manual data corrections.
- Differentiate between product configuration issues, payroll-domain issues, user/process errors and potential product defects.
- Maintain complete and accurate ticket documentation, including issue summary, analysis, action taken, customer communication and resolution.
- Payroll Domain & Statutory Compliance
- Demonstrate strong knowledge of Indian payroll processing and salary structures.
Understand CTC, gross salary, earnings, deductions, reimbursements, arrears, bonuses and other payroll components.
- Handle functional queries relating to PF, ESI, PT and LWF.
- Knowledge of Income Tax, TDS, Form 16 and Form 24Q.
- Customer Communication & Customer Handling
- Communicate confidently and professionally with payroll administrators, HR teams, finance teams and senior customer stakeholders.
- Listen actively and ask relevant probing questions before concluding the cause of an issue.
- Convert complex payroll or product explanations into simple, customer-friendly language.
- Set clear expectations on timelines, dependencies and next steps.
- Handle dissatisfied or escalated customers calmly, professionally and with empathy.
- Take ownership of critical issues and provide proactive status updates until closure.
- Avoid unnecessary technical jargon and ensure the customer understands the recommended resolution.
- Manage difficult conversations without committing to unsupported timelines or product changes.
- Document important customer commitments and follow-ups to maintain accountability.
- Troubleshooting & Root Cause Analysis
- Perform structured issue analysis instead of relying only on trial-and-error troubleshooting.
- Perform impact analysis for issues affecting multiple employees, payroll runs or statutory outputs.
- Identify recurring issues and recommend permanent corrective actions.
- Escalate technical defects to Development/QA with clear business impact, reproduction steps, expected result and actual result.
- Escalation & Cross-Functional Coordination
- Take ownership of escalated customer cases and coordinate with internal teams until resolution.
- Work closely with Product, Development, QA and Operations teams for defects, enhancements and complex functional issues.
- Prioritize cases based on business impact, payroll timelines, customer impact and severity.
- Provide meaningful internal escalation notes rather than forwarding incomplete customer queries.
- Follow the defined escalation matrix and keep stakeholders informed of progress.
- Validate fixes before communicating closure to customers wherever applicable.
- Knowledge Management & Process Improvement
- Create and maintain knowledge base articles, FAQs, user guides, troubleshooting notes and internal SOPs.
- Share product/process learnings with the support team through knowledge-sharing and training sessions.
- Identify repeated customer pain points and recommend process or product improvements.
- Maintain accurate documentation for new product features, statutory changes and support processes.
Payroll Knowledge
- Indian Payroll processing knowledge
- Salary structure, CTC, gross/net salary and payroll components
- Payroll calculations, deductions, arrears, reimbursements and adjustments
- Income Tax, TDS, Form 16 and Form 24Q
- PF, ESI, Professional Tax (PT) and Labour Welfare Fund (LWF)
- Payroll reports, validation and reconciliation
- Practical understanding of payroll compliance and statutory processes Product / Technical Skills
- Hands-on experience with HRMS / Payroll software, preferably SaaS payroll products
- Strong MS Excel skills, including formulas, lookups, filters, pivots and data validation
- Ability to analyze payroll reports and employee-level data
- Basic understanding of ticketing, incident management and support workflows
- Ability to understand product configurations, workflows and system-generated reports
Customer Handling & Behavioral Competencies
- Excellent verbal and written communication
- Strong active listening and questioning skills
- Customer empathy and professional customer handling
- Ownership and accountability
- Logical thinking and structured problem solving
- Root-cause analysis mindset
- Calm handling of escalations and high-pressure payroll situations
- Time management and prioritization
- Attention to detail and accuracy
- Ability to work independently and collaborate across teams
- Ability to explain complex payroll concepts in simple language
Experience & Qualification
- Recommended experience: 2–5 years in Payroll Operations, Payroll Product Support, HRMS Support or a similar payroll-domain role.
- Strong practical knowledge of Indian payroll and statutory compliance.
- Experience supporting enterprise or high-headcount customers is preferred.
- Experience with SaaS-based HRMS/payroll products is preferred.
- Graduate degree in Commerce, Business Administration, HR, Finance or a related discipline preferred.
Ideal Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate is not only a payroll expert but also a strong customer-facing problem solver. They should be comfortable discussing payroll with HR, Finance and senior customer stakeholders, analyzing product behavior, managing escalations and coordinating with internal teams. The candidate should demonstrate a balance of domain expertise, product understanding, communication, ownership and customer empathy.
