About this role
Position Summary We are looking for an experienced Senior Payroll Specialist – Product Support with strong hands-on knowledge of Indian Payroll, statutory compliance and payroll processing. The role will provide functional support to customers using a SaaS HRMS & Payroll platform and will act as a senior domain point of contact for complex payroll, compliance and product-related queries. The ideal candidate should combine strong payroll expertise with excellent customer communication, problem-solving, ownership and customer-handling skills. The candidate must be able to understand a customer's business requirement, analyze the issue, explain the solution in simple business language, coordinate internally when required, and drive the case to closure within SLA. Role Objective • Provide accurate, timely and customer-focused functional support for payroll and HRMS-related queries. • Use strong payroll-domain knowledge to identify the root cause of calculation, configuration, compliance and process issues. • Handle complex and high-priority customer cases independently and take ownership until resolution. • Act as a bridge between customers and internal Product, Development, QA and Operations teams. • Improve customer experience through clear communication, proactive updates, effective troubleshooting and knowledge sharing. • Contribute to product quality, UAT, knowledge base and continuous improvement initiatives. Key Responsibilities A. Payroll & Functional Product Support • Provide functional support through calls, emails, chat, remote sessions and ticketing channels. • Understand customer payroll processes, requirements and configurations before recommending a solution. • Support customers during monthly payroll execution, payroll validation, approval and finalization. • Troubleshoot salary calculation discrepancies, payroll processing errors, arrears, deductions, reimbursements and other payroll scenarios. • Analyze payroll inputs, employee master data, salary structures, attendance/leave inputs and statutory deductions to identify the source of an issue. • Guide customers on correct product processes and best practices without making unauthorized manual data corrections. • Differentiate between product configuration issues, payroll-domain issues, user/process errors and potential product defects. • Maintain complete and accurate ticket documentation, including issue summary, analysis, action taken, customer communication and resolution. B. Payroll Domain & Statutory Compliance • Demonstrate strong knowledge of Indian payroll processing and salary structures. Understand CTC, gross salary, earnings, deductions, reimbursements, arrears, bonuses and other payroll components. • Handle functional queries relating to PF, ESI, PT and LWF. • Knowledge of Income Tax, TDS, Form 16 and Form 24Q. C. Customer Communication & Customer Handling • Communicate confidently and professionally with payroll administrators, HR teams, finance teams and senior customer stakeholders. • Listen actively and ask relevant probing questions before concluding the cause of an issue. • Convert complex payroll or product explanations into simple, customer-friendly language. • Set clear expectations on timelines, dependencies and next steps. • Handle dissatisfied or escalated customers calmly, professionally and with empathy. • Take ownership of critical issues and provide proactive status updates until closure. • Avoid unnecessary technical jargon and ensure the customer understands the recommended resolution. • Manage difficult conversations without committing to unsupported timelines or product changes. • Document important customer commitments and follow-ups to maintain accountability. D. Troubleshooting & Root Cause Analysis • Perform structured issue analysis instead of relying only on trial-and-error troubleshooting. • Perform impact analysis for issues affecting multiple employees, payroll runs or statutory outputs. • Identify recurring issues and recommend permanent corrective actions. • Escalate technical defects to Development/QA with clear business impact, reproduction steps, expected result and actual result. E. Escalation & Cross-Functional Coordination • Take ownership of escalated customer cases and coordinate with internal teams until resolution. • Work closely with Product, Development, QA and Operations teams for defects, enhancements and complex functional issues. • Prioritize cases based on business impact, payroll timelines, customer impact and severity. • Provide meaningful internal escalation notes rather than forwarding incomplete customer queries. • Follow the defined escalation matrix and keep stakeholders informed of progress. • Validate fixes before communicating closure to customers wherever applicable. F. Knowledge Management & Process Improvement • Create and maintain knowledge base articles, FAQs, user guides, troubleshooting notes and internal SOPs. • Share product/process learnings with the support team through knowledge-sharing and training sessions. • Identify repeated customer pain points and recommend process or product improvements. • Maintain accurate documentation for new product features, statutory changes and support processes.