Senior Manager Payroll

Who we are:

GMG is a global well-being company retailing distributing and manufacturing a portfolio of leading international and home-grown brands across sport everyday goods health and beauty properties and logistics sectors. Under the ownership and management of the Baker family for over 45 years GMG is a valued partner of choice for the worlds most successful and respected brands in the well-being sector. Working across the Middle East North Africa and Asia GMG has introduced more than 120 brands across 12 countries. These include notable home-grown brands such as Sun & Sand Sports Dropkick Supercare Pharmacy Farm Fresh Klassic and international brands like Nike Columbia Converse Timberland Vans Mama Sitas and McCain.

What youll be doing:

You will lead the end-to-end oversight of payroll operations and employee services ensuring the timely accurate and compliant execution of payroll processing across all business units. This role is critical in managing payroll governance statutory compliance payroll tax reconciliation employee benefits processing and audit readiness while upholding the highest standards of data confidentiality and accuracy. This position requires deep functional expertise in payroll systems and operations with a strong command of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll and SAP HCM. The incumbent will oversee monthly and off-cycle payroll runs ensuring seamless integration with time and attendance systems benefits platforms and financial accounting modules. They will be responsible for managing payroll inputs and validations reconciliations general ledger postings and end-of-service benefit calculations.

Job Description:

Accuracy and Integrity of Payroll Data
- Proactive validation of payroll inputs outputs and systems data to ensure 100% accuracy in salary disbursements.
Detect and rectify discrepancies between attendance leave and payroll systems.

Regulatory and Policy Compliance
- Ensure end-to-end payroll activities are fully aligned with internal policies and external regulatory requirements across all jurisdictions.
Maintain audit-ready documentation and ensure traceability for all payroll-related changes.

Efficient Process Governance
- Enforce a standardized payroll compliance checklist and calendar to ensure timely reviews and signoffs.
Lead improvements to automate manual tasks and reduce errors.

Data Consistency and Record Accuracy
- Ensure real-time accurate updates to employee records with valid documentation.
Maintain secure and reliable record management practices including historic data consolidation and system migration accuracy.

Operational Risk Management
-Identify risks in payroll processing (e.g. unexplained variations system mismatches) and resolve proactively.
Monitor and address issues related to WPS compliance disbursements and payroll variances.

Accountabilities and Responsibilities:

Payroll Compliance Monitoring
Review and validate all payroll components including headcounts new joiners leavers and variances in attendance vs payroll data. Ensure correct classification and processing of leave types as per policy. Verify supporting documentation for all payroll additions and deductions. Validate incentive and bonus computations against predefined metrics.

1. Review Payroll data components for all regions
- Attendance records matching with actual head counts and detect variations
- Review and validate leave types applied in systems verify against attendance records and the policy to ensure the leaves are considered while computing the salaries
- Review and validate active head counts leavers and new joiners
- Review and validate all types of additions and deductions with supporting
- Ensure the DATA accuracy in systems vs physical
- Review and validate Incentive calculations

2. Record Management
- Review and validate to ensure all types of modifications to employee payroll data updated in payroll system prior beginning of the payroll cycle with valid supporting
- Ensure all transactional changes are reviewed and verified before updating in the system

3. Payroll Review
- Keep the payroll compliance check list up to date during the payroll cycle to ensure the process is followed as per the define criteria
- Review the draft data files prepared/consolidated/composed by payroll team for each legal entity
- Perform analysis on trending reports to detect any unusual trend review supporting for any type of variations
- Review and validate wps file for each legal entity
- Review and validate the bank upload files values disbursement matching with accurate figures
- Reconciliations

4. Payroll Projects
- Ensure All systems are maintained with accurate employee records and the cleansing should take place in regular intervals
- Legacy data records to be migrated to latest systems to ensure smooth processing
- Policy compliance to be established
- Minimize the manual data preparation by using available systems and features within GMG

Functional/Technical Competencies:

The role demands a robust blend of technical and functional competencies to effectively manage and enhance payroll and employee
service delivery in a complex multi-entity environment. On the technical side the incumbent must possess deep expertise in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll and SAP HCM including configuration data integration payroll schema management and troubleshooting of system errors and payroll processing issues. Proficiency in system testing functional upgrades reporting tools (such as SAP Ad Hoc Reports and Advanced Excel) and system-user access governance is essential to ensure seamless operations and data security. Functional competencies include comprehensive knowledge of end-to-end payroll processing statutory compliance with labor laws tax regulations and pension/social security schemes as well as the ability to manage multi-country payroll cycles reconciliations payroll accounting and year-end processing. The role also requires a strong understanding of employee data management including master data accuracy changes related to compensation benefits terminations and organizational structure updates. Competency in benefits administration is critical including insurance enrollment claim settlements and coordination with external vendors. In addition the incumbent must have the ability to interpret audit and risk management requirements implement internal controls and manage documentation for regulatory and internal reviews. Strong project management and process optimization skills are required to drive automation standardize workflows and implement best practices that increase efficiency and reduce errors. The role also demands high levels of stakeholder management effective communication and team leadership capabilities to coach and manage a team of specialists build cross-functional relationships with Finance and IT and ensure alignment with broader organizational goals. An analytical mindset with the ability to produce and interpret payroll dashboards variance analyses and KPIs is vital for data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement initiatives.

Educational Qualifications:

Bachelors degree in human resources Finance Accounting or Business Administration. A masters degree or MBA is preferred.

Experience:

10 years of progressive experience in HR operations and payroll management with at least 5 years in a supervisory or managerial role handling payroll systems compliance and employee services in a large-scale organization.

Language Skills:

Fluency in English is required. Proficiency in Arabic is an advantage.

Certifications:

Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) SAP SuccessFactors certification or equivalent HRIS/payroll system certifications preferred.

Why Join GMG

At GMG were dedicated to nurturing a vibrant inclusive and engaging work environment that promotes growth innovation and well-being. Join us in our mission to inspire victories that make the world better for our team our consumers and our communities.

If youre seeking a challenging role where you can make a significant impact wed love to hear from you. Apply today to become a part of our journey.

What we offer: