Payroll Lead

Job Description Summary

Sandoz continues to go through an exciting and transformative period as a global leader and pioneering provider of sustainable Biosimilar and Generic medicines. As we continue down this new and ambitious path, unique opportunities will present themselves, both professionally and personally. Join us, the future is ours to shape!

To lead and manage end to end payroll operations for India, ensuring accurate, timely, and compliant payroll delivery in line with statutory requirements, internal controls, and organisational policies. The role will drive payroll governance, continuous improvement, and strong collaboration across HR, Finance, and external vendors.

Job Description

Your responsibilities include, but not limited to:

Payroll Operations & Governance

• Lead end‑to‑end payroll processing for India across monthly, quarterly, and annual cycles.

• Validate and approve payroll inputs including attendance, leave, benefits, variable pay, overtime, recoveries, and statutory deductions.

• Review and sign off on payroll outputs, reconciliations, control reports, and variance analysis.

Payroll Statutory & Compliance Management

• Ensure full compliance with Indian statutory requirements including Income Tax, PF, ESI, Professional Tax etc

• Manage year‑end processes including Form 16, tax reconciliation, and statutory returns.

• Maintain strong payroll controls in line with internal compliance and ensuring payroll audit readiness).

Stakeholder & Vendor Management

• Act as the primary SPOC for payroll‑related matters for India.

• Partner closely with HR, Finance, Legal, and Compliance teams to ensure accurate payroll accounting, GL postings, and cost controls.

• Work closely with payroll vendor ensuring service delivery, issue resolution, and SLA adherence.

Systems, Processes & Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to payroll process enhancements aligned with business needs, regulatory changes, and digital enablement.

• Support implementation and stabilisation of payroll‑related system changes across platforms (e.g., Workday, HR Core, ADP).

• Implement and maintain standardised processes, documentation, and automation initiatives as directed, to improve efficiency and reduce risk.

People & Service Management

• Guide and support the payroll operations team ensuring clear ownership and knowledge continuity.

• Oversee payroll service requests and escalations.

• Ensure high service quality, timeliness, and employee experience.

Minimum Requirements:

• Master’s degree in HR, Finance, Business, or related field (preferred).

• 10+ years of progressive payroll experience for India, preferably in a mid‑size or large organisation.

• Minimum 4+ years of experience leading payroll operations or managing payroll teams.

• Strong hands‑on expertise in Indian payroll legislation, taxation, PF/ESI, and statutory filings.

• Experience working with payroll vendors and ADP GV and ERP/HRIS platforms (e.g., Workday).

• Solid understanding of payroll accounting, reconciliations, audits, and GL posting (advantage).

• Strong analytical, stakeholder management, and problem‑solving skills.

Why Sandoz?

Generic and Biosimilar medicines are the backbone of the global medicines industry. Sandoz, a leader in this sector, provided more than 900 million patient treatments across 100+ countries in 2024 and while we are proud of this achievement, we have an ambition to do more!

With investments in new development capabilities, production sites, new acquisitions, and partnerships, we have the opportunity to shape the future of Sandoz and help more patients gain access to low-cost, high-quality medicines, sustainably.

Our momentum is powered by an open, collaborative culture driven by our talented and ambitious colleagues, who, in return for applying their skills experience an agile and collegiate environment with impactful, flexible-hybrid careers, where diversity is welcomed and where personal growth is supported! 

Join us!

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:

We are committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams representative of the patients and communities we serve.

Skills Desired

Change Management, Curiosity, Data Privacy, Employee Experience, HRIS (Human Resource Management System), Hr Operations (Hr Ops), HR Service Delivery, Human Resource Management System, Human Resources (HR), Human Resources Management, Labour Law, Payroll, Sdm, Service-Level Agreements (Sla), Talent Development

Global leader in generic and biosimilar medicines, operating as an independent company spun off from Novartis. Based in Basel.

sandoz.com