Payroll Specialist (Portugal)

What you'll do:

• Run payroll end-to-end. Own the full native Portuguese payroll cycle in-house; accurate, compliant, and on time.

• Master data accuracy. Process and check employee payroll master data — including new hires, terminations, salary changes, variable pay, payroll-related benefits (including meal vouchers and other employee benefits), absences, and garnishments (penhoras de vencimento), following defined procedures and flagging anything unclear or that looks off.

• Payroll controls & quality. Run pre- and post-payroll validations each cycle; check your own work carefully, and flag anything that doesn't look right before issues reach team members, customers, or Finance.

• Handle all statutory filings & accesses. Monthly IRS withholding declarations, DMR (Declaração Mensal de Remunerações) filings to Segurança Social, and the annual Modelo 10 filing, filing of subsídio de doença and subsídio parental reimbursement claims, owning the retrieval and maintenance of employee IRS withholding codes: you follow established procedures for these activities and flag anything that looks off. You'll support the setup and maintenance of required government accesses as directed.

• Follow the payroll system procedures. Follow defined steps to help maintain the in-house payroll system, test legislative updates before they go live as directed, and flag issues or ideas to your team lead or our Product team.

• Build your subject matter knowledge. Learn and follow Direito Fiscal (IRS), Direito da Segurança Social, Direito do Trabalho, and Contrato Coletivo de Trabalho (CCT) as they apply to your work, and ask questions when something is unclear.

• Check your numbers. Check payroll journals and GL mappings against your outputs, and flag any data integrity issues you notice.

• Handle assigned tickets. Handle assigned client payroll tickets well, and escalate anything that exceeds your frame to senior team members. Pair careful, accurate work with a customer-first mindset.

• Reporting. Help prepare statutory and ad-hoc reports to meet regulatory requirements, including EU Pay Transparency Directive obligations, Comissão de Trabalhadores-facing pay assessment documentation, and RGPD/GDPR compliance across payroll data.

• Audits. Provide structured data and documentation to support internal and external audits.

• Support the team. Follow SOPs closely and flag gaps when you spot them. Share knowledge when asked and support your peers informally, helping keep our living knowledge base — playbooks and SOPs — documented and shared.

What you'll bring

• 1–3 years running native (in-house) payroll processes for Portugal, comfortable independently handling a defined volume of payslips per month.

• Hands-on experience with Portuguese payroll software Cegid (Primavera or PHC) and / or Sendys is essential.

• Completed a recognized accounting/payroll qualification (e.g. Contabilista Certificado) and/or a dedicated payroll processing certification.

• Working knowledge of Portuguese wage tax, social insurance, and labor law, with a willingness to build deeper expertise over time.

• Portuguese at C1/C2 for interaction with local authorities and fluent English for collaborating with our async global team.

• Comfortable handling assigned client queries and escalating anything beyond your scope with clear context; balancing careful, accurate work with a genuine customer-first mindset.

• A careful, detail-oriented mindset. You check your own work thoroughly and flag patterns or issues as you notice them.

• Comfortable navigating ambiguity within your own workstream, and know when to escalate something that falls outside your frame.

• You enjoy sharing knowledge and supporting less experienced colleagues, not just solving problems yourself.

• Comfortable working largely asynchronously in a fast-paced, remote-first environment.

Bonus points

• A broader accounting background or qualification (e.g. Revisor Oficial de Contas); particularly useful for the GL mapping and reconciliation side of the role.

• Proven experience working on and delivering cross-functional HR/Payroll projects.

• Hands-on capability working with AI tools to optimize payroll or operations workflows.

• Strong data transformation skills and practical experience with data analytics platforms.

Practicals

• Reports to: Manager, Global Payroll Operations

• Team: Payroll

• Location: Remote, Portugal (Right to work in Portugal required)

• Start date: As soon as possible