Payroll Support Lead, Continental Europe: France, Germany, Italy, Spain

About Job

As Payroll Support Lead, Continental Europe, you are the senior payroll support owner for France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. You handle the most complex queries in these markets, set the quality bar, and guide the wider support team on country-specific issues.

This is a hands-on lead role: you own the hardest cases, you're the escalation point for your markets, and you help shape how we support payroll across the region. You work closely with the Payroll Support Manager, Payroll Operations, and in-country partners to keep service fast, accurate, and compliant.

Skills & Qualification

• 5-7+ years in payroll support, payroll processing, or payroll operations, with hands-on experience in at least two of France, Germany, Italy, and Spain (more a strong advantage).

• Strong, practical knowledge of local payroll rules — French DSN/URSSAF, German Lohnsteuer/Sozialversicherung, Italian INPS/TFR, and Spanish Seguridad Social/IRPF — and the confidence to handle complex cases.

• A track record resolving difficult payroll queries accurately and under time pressure.

• Experience as a senior team member or lead, comfortable being the escalation point and coaching others.

• Hands-on experience with Salesforce and a support platform such as Zendesk.

• Excellent written and verbal communication — clear, calm, and customer-friendly.

• Detail-obsessed and dependable, especially during peak payroll cycles.

• Local-language ability (French, German, Italian, or Spanish) is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

Own payroll support for France, Germany, Italy & Spain

• Be the senior point of contact and subject-matter expert for payroll queries across all four markets.

• Resolve complex, country-specific cases — gross-to-net, social contributions, corrections, and off-cycle scenarios.

• Apply deep local knowledge:

  • France — DSN reporting, URSSAF, cotisations sociales, prélèvement à la source, mutuelle, and conventions collectives.

  • Germany — Lohnsteuer, Sozialversicherung (health, pension, unemployment, long-term care), ELStAM, and SV contributions.

  • Italy — INPS, INAIL, IRPEF, TFR (trattamento di fine rapporto), tredicesima/quattordicesima, and CCNL collective agreements.

  • Spain — Seguridad Social, IRPF, Sistema RED (RNT/RLC), pagas extraordinarias, and finiquito.

Set the quality bar & handle escalations

• Act as the escalation point for your markets, driving complex issues to resolution within SLA.

• Apply the P1–P4 severity model to prioritise and route issues appropriately.

• Review and coach on response quality, ensuring answers are accurate, clear, and empathetic.

Drive resolution & continuous improvement

• Spot recurring issues in your markets and partner with Payroll Operations, Product, and in-country partners to fix root causes.

• Keep the knowledge base current with accurate, market-specific content so the team and customers can self-serve.

• Feed local regulatory changes and process gaps back to the right teams.

Support the team & systems

• Guide and upskill support specialists on French, German, Italian, and Spanish payroll nuance.

• Manage cases cleanly in Salesforce and Zendesk, keeping data and reporting trustworthy.

• Support coverage planning across CET working hours and peak payroll cycles.