EMEA Payroll Manager (Shared Service Centre)

Responsibilities

We are seeking an experienced EMEA Payroll Manager to lead and scale a regional payroll function within our Shared Service Centre in Warsaw.

This leadership role will manage payroll delivery for 15+ European countries, serving as the operational and strategic bridge between external payroll providers, local country stakeholders, and internal functions.

The role combines hands-on operational ownership, people leadership, and process transformation, ensuring accurate, timely, and fully compliant payroll delivery across a complex, multi-country environment.

Role Overview

As EMEA Payroll Manager, you will have end-to-end responsibility for outsourced payroll operations across Europe, covering over 1,500 employees.

You will lead a growing payroll team, ensure strong governance and SOX-compliant controls, and drive standardization, automation, and continuous improvement across the region.

This position plays a critical role in stabilizing payroll operations while supporting ongoing transitions of additional countries into the Shared Service Centre model.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and coordinate end-to-end payroll delivery across 15+ EMEA countries through external payroll providers, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with GDPR, SOX, and all relevant local legislation.


• Act as the primary operational liaison between external payroll vendors and internal stakeholders, ensuring clear ownership, governance, and escalation management.


• Review, validate, and control payroll outputs produced by outsourcing providers, including earnings, deductions, statutory contributions, one-time payments, corrections, retro adjustments, and off-cycle runs.


• Build, hire, train, and lead a high-performing payroll team to support ongoing regional growth, ensuring SLAs, quality standards, and issue resolution targets are consistently met.


• Drive process standardization, system optimization, and automation initiatives to improve efficiency, scalability, and control across EMEA payroll operations.


• Lead and execute payroll transitions as additional countries are onboarded to the Shared Service Centre, managing complexity and frequent operational change.


• Own audit coordination, internal and external reviews, and special payroll cycles.


• Serve as the main escalation point for payroll issues, performing deep operational analysis to resolve root causes quickly and prevent business disruption.


• Develop, document, and maintain payroll policies, procedures, and internal controls in line with best practices and audit requirements.

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Education / Qualifications

• 5–10 years of payroll experience, ideally within multi-country EMEA environments; experience covering DACH  is a strong advantage.


• Proven experience managing payroll in an outsourced service delivery model with external vendors.


• Strong knowledge of payroll controls, reconciliations, statutory compliance, tax processes, and SOX requirements.


• Demonstrated people leadership experience, including management of teams of 7+ employees.


• High level of technical aptitude, with the ability to leverage digital tools and automation to drive operational improvements.


• Fluency in English is required; German language skills are a strong plus.


• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to operate effectively across cultures and countries.


• Strong risk awareness, attention to detail, and ownership mindset, with a clear focus on compliance, data privacy, and payroll accuracy.


• Ability to balance day-to-day operational delivery with continuous improvement and future-state design.

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What We Offer

• A senior leadership role with regional EMEA impact in a growing Shared Service Centre.


• The opportunity to shape and scale a payroll organization from Warsaw, influencing long-term operating models.


• Exposure to multi-country payroll environments and strategic transformation initiatives.


• A culture focused on accountability, collaboration, and operational excellence.

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About Octave

Octave provides mission-critical software that empowers organizations to make informed decisions across every stage of the asset lifecycle - Design, Build, Operate and Protect - where performance, safety, and reliability are non-negotiable and failure is not an option.

Turning complex operational data into actionable intelligence, Octave connects expertise, real-world conditions and enterprise-scale insight to improve performance, resilience and incident response where it matters most.

Octave has more than 7,000 employees in 45 countries. Learn more at octave.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Why work for Octave?

All in. Always forward. That's the way we do things around here. We put trust in our people because we believe it's the best way to unleash potential, bring ideas to life, and keep moving ahead. And it's why we're committed to creating an environment that's truly supportive, providing you with the resources you need to support your ambitions, no matter who you are or where you are in the world.

Everyone is welcome

At Octave, we believe that diverse and inclusive teams are critical to the success of our people and our business. Here, everyone is welcome. As an inclusive workplace, we don't discriminate. In fact, we embrace differences and are fully committed to creating equal opportunities, an inclusive environment, and fairness for all. 

Respect is the cornerstone of how we operate, so speak up and be yourself. You're valued here.