Senior Payroll Specialist - Automated Payroll Process
Job details
The Senior Payroll Specialist is responsible for delivering end to end payroll operations for Thomson Reuters across Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The role ensures payroll is processed accurately, compliantly, and on time through close collaboration with internal stakeholders and external payroll vendors.
In addition to operational excellence, this role plays a key part in driving payroll automation and digital enablement, leveraging AI assisted controls, data analytics, and process automation to reduce manual effort, enhance compliance, and improve payroll quality across the APAC region.
About the role:
Payroll Operations & Processing
- Execute end‑to‑end payroll processing for Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, in line with internal processes and local statutory requirements.
- Review and validate Workday change reports, ensuring accurate and complete data is transmitted to external payroll provider for payroll processing.
- Collate, validate, and submit non‑Workday payroll inputs (allowances, deductions, bonuses, leave adjustments, off‑cycle payments, etc.).
- Review and validate payroll output reports received from payroll vendors to ensure accuracy, completeness, statutory compliance, and alignment with internal process & controls.
Payroll Controls, Reconciliation & Accounting
- Perform payroll controls, reconciliations, and variance analysis using data‑driven and automated validation techniques to enhance accuracy and risk detection.
- Support Finance with payroll accounting activities, including reconciliations, accruals, and variance explanations, leveraging automated reports and analytics where possible.
Statutory Compliance & Reporting
- Ensure full adherence to country‑specific statutory compliance requirements across assigned countries.
- Ensure timely payment of statutory dues and submission of reports/returns, supported by standardized checklists and automated compliance tracking.
- Manage year‑end payroll activities, including tax reconciliations, annual statutory filings and employee tax statements.
Stakeholder & Vendor Management
- Serve as a key point of contact for employees, HR, Finance, payroll vendors, and local authorities across the region.
- Resolve payroll‑related queries efficiently, adopting self‑service tools, knowledge repositories, and automation‑enabled solutions.
- Coordinate and provide support during internal audits, statutory audits, and regulatory inspections, including furnishing digitally‑controlled and auditable payroll evidence.
Continuous Improvement, AI & Automation Focus
- Proactively identify opportunities to automate and standardize payroll processes, reducing manual interventions and operational risk.
- Partner with HRIS, Finance, IT, and Transformation teams to implement payroll automation, AI‑enabled validations, and workflow improvements.
- Support the design and adoption of exception‑based payroll processing, automated reconciliations, and predictive variance analysis.
- Participate in regional payroll initiatives such as process optimization and AI‑driven process enhancements.
- Support the Team Leader / Manager with projects, reporting, dashboards & insights.
About You:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification.
- Minimum 5 years of payroll experience, with hands‑on experience in Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Pakistan, and Bangladesh payroll processing.
- Strong working knowledge of local payroll legislations, statutory compliance & labour laws requirements.
- Strong analytical, problem‑solving, written, and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to manage multiple country payrolls simultaneously in a fast‑paced, deadline‑driven environment.
- High level of ownership, accountability, and ability to work independently.
- Demonstrated ability to build strong stakeholder relationships with a customer‑centric service mindset.
- Strong MS Office skills, with intermediate to advanced Excel proficiency (e.g., pivot tables, complex formulas, macros, or Power Query).
- Hands‑on experience with payroll process automation, such as:
- Automated payroll inputs, validations, reconciliations, or reporting
- Workflow automation and exception‑based payroll processing
- Experience in payroll transitions, standardization, automation, or transformation programs.
- Strong learning agility, adaptability to change, and enthusiasm for adopting emerging payroll technologies and digital tools.
#LI-KP1
What’s in it For You?
Hybrid Work Model: We’ve adopted a flexible hybrid working environment (2-3 days a week in the office depending on the role) for our office-based roles while delivering a seamless experience that is digitally and physically connected.
Flexibility & Work-Life Balance: Flex My Way is a set of supportive workplace policies designed to help manage personal and professional responsibilities, whether caring for family, giving back to the community, or finding time to refresh and reset. This builds upon our flexible work arrangements, including work from anywhere for up to 8 weeks per year, empowering employees to achieve a better work-life balance.
Career Development and Growth: By fostering a culture of continuous learning and skill development, we prepare our talent to tackle tomorrow’s challenges and deliver real-world solutions. Our Grow My Way programming and skills-first approach ensures you have the tools and knowledge to grow, lead, and thrive in an AI-enabled future.
Industry Competitive Benefits: We offer comprehensive benefit plans to include flexible vacation, two company-wide Mental Health Days off, access to the Headspace app, retirement savings, tuition reimbursement, employee incentive programs, and resources for mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.
Culture: Globally recognized, award-winning reputation for inclusion and belonging, flexibility, work-life balance, and more. We live by our values: Obsess over our Customers, Compete to Win, Challenge (Y)our Thinking, Act Fast / Learn Fast, and Stronger Together.
Social Impact: Make an impact in your community with our Social Impact Institute. We offer employees two paid volunteer days off annually and opportunities to get involved with pro-bono consulting projects and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.
Making a Real-World Impact: We are one of the few companies globally that helps its customers pursue justice, truth, and transparency. Together, with the professionals and institutions we serve, we help uphold the rule of law, turn the wheels of commerce, catch bad actors, report the facts, and provide trusted, unbiased information to people all over the world.
About Us
Thomson Reuters informs the way forward by bringing together the trusted content and technology that people and organizations need to make the right decisions. We serve professionals across legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media. Our products combine highly specialized software and insights to empower professionals with the data, intelligence, and solutions needed to make informed decisions, and to help institutions in their pursuit of justice, truth, and transparency. Reuters, part of Thomson Reuters, is a world leading provider of trusted journalism and news.
We are powered by the talents of 26,000 employees across more than 70 countries, where everyone has a chance to contribute and grow professionally in flexible work environments. At a time when objectivity, accuracy, fairness, and transparency are under attack, we consider it our duty to pursue them. Sound exciting? Join us and help shape the industries that move society forward.
As a global business, we rely on the unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of all employees to deliver on our business goals. To ensure we can do that, we seek talented, qualified employees in all our operations around the world regardless of race, color, sex/gender, including pregnancy, gender identity and expression, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, citizen status, veteran status, or any other protected classification under applicable law. Thomson Reuters is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer providing a drug-free workplace.
We also make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law. More information on requesting an accommodation here.
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More information about Thomson Reuters can be found on thomsonreuters.com.
