Senior Payroll Specialist – Product Support

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

A. 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.

B. 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.

C. 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.

D. 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.

E. 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.

F. 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.