Senior Payroll Specialist (Malaysia & APAC) (1 Year Contract)

About the Role

The SWIFT APAC Payroll Team manages payroll operations across multiple countries in the Asia-Pacific region, working closely with Global HR, regional HR Business Partners, Finance, Treasury and external payroll providers. We are seeking an experienced and detail oriented Senior Payroll Specialist to support Malaysia and regional APAC payroll operations. This role will focus on ensuring accurate and compliant payroll delivery, managing external payroll providers, and supporting payroll projects and process improvements across the region.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Accounting, Finance, Business Administration or a related discipline.
• Minimum 5 years of payroll experience, including at least 3 years of hands-on, end-to-end Malaysia payroll processing.
• Strong knowledge of Malaysia payroll taxation and statutory requirements, including PCB/MTD, EPF, SOCSO, EIS, tax clearance and year-end reporting.
• Experience managing outsourced payroll providers; prior experience working for a payroll outsourcing/service provider supporting corporate clients is highly preferred.
• Plus point if you have experience supporting multi-country APAC payroll, such as China, India and Australia.
• Experience in payroll implementation, migration, onboarding or system integration projects, including data mapping, testing, validation and reconciliation.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills; Power Query experience for automation and data analysis is highly preferred.
• Familiarity with HRIS/payroll platforms such as Workday or SAP would be an advantage.
• Good command of English; Mandarin proficiency would be an advantage for supporting China payroll.

Key Responsibilities

1. Payroll Operations & Compliance

• Independently manage end-to-end Malaysia payroll, ensuring accurate, timely and compliant payroll processing.
• Support payroll operations across assigned APAC countries, particularly China and India.
• Prepare, review and validate payroll inputs and outputs, including new hires, terminations, salary changes, bonuses, allowances, deductions and statutory contributions.
• Ensure compliance with Malaysia payroll tax and statutory requirements, including PCB/MTD, EPF, SOCSO, EIS, taxable benefits and year-end reporting.
• Manage employee tax clearance and related statutory processes, including CP21, CP22, CP22A and CP22B, where applicable.
• Perform payroll reconciliations covering payroll registers, bank files, statutory contributions and payroll accounting reports.
• Investigate and resolve payroll discrepancies and provide guidance to employees and stakeholders on payroll, tax and statutory matters.
• Partner with HR, Finance and Treasury on payroll funding, payments, accounting reconciliation, audits and statutory reporting.

2. Payroll Provider & Stakeholder Management

• Manage outsourced payroll providers across assigned APAC countries and monitor service quality, accuracy, compliance and SLA performance.
• Review provider deliverables, resolve payroll issues and drive improvements in service delivery and payroll controls.
• Assess provider capabilities and performance against market standards and support payroll provider evaluations and RFPs where required.
• Partner with Global HR, regional HRBPs, Finance, Treasury and other stakeholders to ensure smooth regional payroll operations.

3. Payroll Projects, Systems & Process Improvement

• Support or lead payroll provider onboarding, implementation, migration and transition projects across APAC.
• Manage payroll system integration activities, including requirements gathering, data mapping, interface validation, testing, reconciliation and go-live preparation.
• Conduct payroll process and provider health checks to identify operational gaps, risks and improvement opportunities.
• Use Excel, Power Query and other tools to automate payroll processes, improve data accuracy and reduce manual effort.
• Drive payroll standardisation, automation, controls and continuous improvement across the region.
• Maintain payroll SOPs, process documentation and internal controls.

What we offer

We give you the freedom to be yourself. We are creating an environment of unique individuals – like you – with different perspectives on the financial industry and the world. A diverse and inclusive environment in which everyone’s voice counts and where you can reach your full potential.

We are committed to an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation related to accessibility during your application or interview, please contact [email protected] or indicate this in your application.

Please note that this mailbox is not monitored for general recruitment enquiries and should only be used for accessibility or accommodation-related requests (for example related to vision, hearing or neurodiversity).

All requests are confidential and will not affect your candidacy.

Don’t meet every single requirement? At Swift, we are dedicated to building a workplace where people can bring their full selves and ideas to the team, so if you are excited about this role, we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet every single qualification.