Payroll Manager

About Terracotta Outsourcing

Terracotta is a leading outsourcing company based in the UAE offering recruitment, manpower, visa outsourcing, Employer of Record (EOR) and Professional Employer Organization (PEO) services, business setup, PRO services, and corporate solutions throughout the region.

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Payroll Team Lead/Manager to oversee our payroll outsourcing operations in Abu Dhabi. This full-time, onsite position involves leading payroll processing, ensuring compliance with legal requirements, and managing client interactions efficiently.

Payroll & Compliance Responsibilities

• Possess comprehensive knowledge of payroll calculations including gross-to-net, accruals, provisions, retroactive pay adjustments, leave salaries, end of service benefits, allowances, and deductions.
• Thorough understanding of UAE Labour Law, employment contracts, the Wages Protection System (WPS), and full compliance requirements related to payroll.
• Experience managing complex payroll systems for both blue-collar and large-scale white-collar employees.

Commercial and Financial Duties

• Interpret payroll as a financial model encompassing cost allocation, provisions, accruals, workforce costing, and ways to enhance profit and loss outcomes.
• Understand payroll implications on client billing, cost allocation, recharge mechanisms, margin sensitivities, and cost versus utilization metrics.
• Identify and mitigate risks related to payroll processing, billing, and revenue leakage.

Analytical and Business Skills

• Ability to analyze client contracts and compensation agreements to ensure accurate payroll and billing accruals.
• Capability to critically evaluate payroll system outputs, going beyond routine transaction processing.
• Proficiency in advanced Microsoft Excel techniques including reconciliations, variance analysis, pivot tables, lookups, and handling large datasets.

Qualifications & Experience

• Between 4 to 8 years of payroll experience within the UAE, ideally in staffing, outsourcing, EOR/PEO, manpower services, workforce solutions or shared service centers.
• At least 2 years of leadership or supervisory experience managing a small team of 2-3 members.
• Proven experience managing both white-collar and blue-collar payroll accounts.
• Expertise handling high-volume payrolls across multiple clients, entities, and workforce categories.
• Experience with HRMS platforms such as SAP, Oracle, or D365 is desirable but secondary to payroll understanding.
• Ability to challenge payroll system results rather than passively processing them.
• Awareness of how payroll decisions influence finance, billing, and legal compliance concurrently.
• Strong collaborative skills to work with Finance, Operations, and Legal departments on payroll processes and controls.