Kering Assistant Payroll Manager

About Kering

Kering is a global luxury group renowned for nurturing some of the world’s most influential Houses in fashion, leather goods, jewelry, and eyewear, including Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, and Boucheron. As an employer, Kering offers a distinctive environment where creative excellence, entrepreneurial spirit, and long-term sustainability converge. The Group empowers its talents to shape the future of luxury through innovation, craftsmanship, and responsible business practices. With an international culture grounded in diversity, inclusion, and shared ambition, Kering provides meaningful career opportunities for professionals seeking to contribute to exceptional brands while advancing a more sustainable and imaginative luxury industry.

Role & Responsibilities

• Ensure timely and accurate processing of payroll transactions, including salaries, benefits, garnishments, taxes, deductions, month-end closing reports, statutory and tax reporting, and audit-related matters.
• Communicate payroll matters to stakeholders, including the operational impact of payroll, regulatory, and process changes.
• Ensure year-end tax settlements and tax return filings are completed in accordance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements.
• Verify the correct processing of absences and employee lifecycle events, including sickness, maternity leave, hires, departures, and job changes.
• Process final settlements and end-of-contract payments accurately and on time.
• Ensure providers complete statutory filings and payments correctly.
• Advise and inform local HR teams on payroll regulations and procedures.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement and standardization of payroll procedures and controls.
• Ensure payroll operations comply with Hong Kong and Macau employment, tax, and statutory requirements, including wages, leave and absence payments, MPF or social security contributions, employer tax reporting, final payments, and statutory filings.
• Monitor regulatory updates and support translating changes into payroll procedures, controls, system configurations, and stakeholder communications, in coordination with local HR, Legal, Tax, and payroll providers.
• Coordinate daily team payroll activities, including workload allocation, progress monitoring, and issue follow-up, to ensure timely and accurate delivery.
• Guide and support team members, review critical payroll outputs, and support capability development and knowledge sharing.
• Back up the Payroll Manager as required, supporting stakeholder communication, issue escalation, provider governance, and payroll-related decision-making.
• Collect and validate variable payroll data from local HR teams and employees, ensuring its reliability.
• Transmit input data to payroll providers in line with payroll calendars.
• Review provider-produced payroll statements, perform consistency checks, and resolve anomalies.
• Manage day-to-day operational follow-up with local payroll providers.
• Monitor production quality and deadlines, and escalate discrepancies.
• Participate in service-level agreement (SLA) reviews and help monitor provider performance and service quality.
• Report on activities and update dashboards.
• Provide post-payroll reports to Finance and management accounting teams.
• Track requests in the dedicated tool in accordance with SLAs.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of payroll experience, ideally in an international environment and/or working with payroll providers.
• Experience coordinating payroll activities, guiding junior team members, or leading payroll projects in a shared service or outsourced payroll environment.
• Demonstrated leadership potential, with the ability to prioritize workloads, review team deliverables, manage escalations, and collaborate effectively with senior stakeholders.
• A good understanding of an outsourced payroll model is preferred.
• Experience in payroll controls and data validation.
• Proficiency in Workday or an equivalent HRIS, and Excel.
• An analytical mindset and strong attention to detail.
• Versatility and the ability to provide backup coverage within a small team.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a customer-service mindset.
• A collaborative approach in a multi-stakeholder, multicultural environment.
• Good working knowledge of Hong Kong and Macau payroll-related legislation and statutory requirements, with the ability to apply local requirements to payroll calculations, employee lifecycle processing, statutory filings, and compliance controls.
• Fluency in English and Mandarin Chinese is required; Cantonese is a plus.

Skills

Experience

5–8 years of payroll experience; experience coordinating payroll activities, guiding junior team members, or leading payroll projects in a shared service or outsourced payroll environment.

Culture

Kering fosters a dynamic, purpose-driven culture where creativity, entrepreneurship, and collaboration support the distinct identities of its luxury Houses. As an employer, the Group places strong emphasis on sustainability, diversity, and talent development, encouraging people to innovate responsibly while contributing to the future of modern luxury.

About Cerulean

Cerulean is the definitive career portal for the global luxury industry. We match exceptional professionals with exclusive opportunities at the world's most prestigious brands. From haute couture and fine watchmaking to prestige beauty, hospitality, and boutique retail, Cerulean centralises luxury employment to help you find the career for which you were destined.