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 world's 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 Sita’s, and McCain.

The role holder will lead and manage end‑to‑end payroll operations for GMG group employees across multiple geographies, ensuring timely, accurate and compliant processing. This includes overseeing employee lifecycle changes, benefits, deductions, reimbursements and final settlements, while maintaining strong governance and data integrity.

The role will also drive process standardization, automation and robust control frameworks, leveraging systems such as SAP S/4

HANA, Success Factors and Microsoft SharePoint to enhance efficiency, reduce manual dependency and ensure compliance.

The role holder will collaborate closely with HRBP, onboarding/off‑boarding teams, Finance, GR and external partners to ensure seamless payroll operations, enforce timelines and strengthen cross‑functional alignment. In addition, the role will play a key part in driving payroll transformation initiatives, including process optimisation, system enhancements and improved integration across functions. The role will also focus on enhancing reporting and visibility through dashboards, ensuring audit readiness, proactively identifying risks and driving continuous improvement across the payroll function.

• Manages end‑to‑end payroll activities and program components across multiple geographies using SAP S/4
  
  HANA and Success Factors, ensuring effective department functioning, coordination of activities and compliance with established financial, legal and administrative requirements for the GMG group.
• Defines and implements robust controls, procedures, and reconciliation checks in payroll processing and payments to ensure accuracy, consistency, audit readiness and compliance with standard processes.
• Ensures compilation and validation of payroll data from a wide variety of sources (e.g. attendance systems, leave, incentives and statutory inputs) to maintain data integrity and accuracy of payroll outputs.
• Verifies and validates payroll‑related information (e.g. time sheets, leave, overtime, benefits, statutory deductions and final settlements) to ensure accurate and timely payroll processing.
• Oversees payroll runs, simulations, final settlements (FS), banking processes and reconciliations, ensuring timely execution across all payroll cycles and regions.
• Reviews, approves and signs (as per authority matrix) payment requests, payroll outputs and employment‑related documentation for banks and financial institutions, ensuring only authorised transactions are processed.
• Develops and enhances payroll administration policies, procedures and SOPs, driving standardisation, process improvement and automation to improve efficiency and reduce manual dependency.
• Ensures effective implementation and governance of compensation and benefits structures (salary components, allowances, incentives, statutory contributions and end‑of‑service benefits).
• Manages statutory compliance across regions (e.g. WPS, GPSSA, PF, NPS), ensuring timely submissions, validations and adherence to local laws.
• Leads payroll calendar planning, cut‑off management and coordination with HRBP, Finance, GR and banking partners to ensure timely payroll execution and proactive management of regional holidays and deadlines.
• Ensures generation and submission of payroll reports, dashboards and ad‑hoc analysis (e.g. headcount, payroll trends and cost insights) to support business decision‑making and improve visibility.
• Presents…