Payroll Specialist

Working in Global HR at Munich Re for Reinsurance & Specialty Group means being part of a dynamic, globally connected team that plays a critical role in shaping the future of our organization. As an HR professional, you contribute to the success of our business by supporting people strategies that drive transformation, foster collaboration, and enable sustainable growth.

Our Global HR function is evolving to meet the needs of a fast-changing world. We operate in a connected, collaborative, and forward-thinking Global HR matrix community that values empathy, initiative, and a global mindset—where every team member plays a role in delivering effective services and solutions and creating meaningful impact.

Whether your focus is talent, rewards, analytics, business partnering, services, or any other area of HR, you will work across regions and functions to co-create solutions that support our people and business. You will be empowered to collaborate, innovate, and grow—contributing to a culture that values diversity, continuous learning, and shared success.

Join us in building the future of Global HR.

Job Summary

The Payroll Specialist is responsible for the accurate and compliant delivery of payroll operations across the UK and Ireland through the iTrent payroll platform, while co-ordinating payroll processing with external payroll providers across Europe and Latin America (EULA). The role acts as a key interface between our HR Services and Rewards teams, the HR teams, our payroll vendors, and our employees ensuring data integrity between SAP SuccessFactors Time Management, and payroll systems.

The position supports payroll governance, statutory compliance, system integration activities, payroll controls, reporting, and continuous process improvement initiatives.

Your Job

·       Coordinate end-to-end payroll activities across the UK, Ireland, Europe, and Latin America, ensuring accurate and timely payroll delivery through iTrent Payroll (UKI) and outsourced payroll providers (EULA).

·       Serve as a primary point of contact for UKI stakeholders and external payroll providers across EU/LA, ensuring effective communication, issue resolution, and service delivery.

·       Review, validate, and reconcile payroll data interfaced from SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, Time Management, and manual inputs, ensuring accurate and timely processing of employee changes, pay adjustments, benefits, variable pay, and statutory transactions.

·       Investigate and resolve data discrepancies to ensure accuracy and completeness before payroll processing.

·       Process and validate payroll transactions within iTrent for UK and Ireland employees, ensuring compliance with HMRC, Revenue, and company policies.

·       Ensure the timely and accurate submission of payroll data to external payroll providers in line with agreed payroll processing schedules and service level agreements.

·       Manage payroll calendars, critical deadlines, approvals, funding requirements, and pre-payroll query resolution across all countries within scope.

·       Perform detailed validation of payroll calculations, reports, reconciliations, and payment files, ensuring accuracy and compliance before final payroll approval and sign-off.

·       Support month-end and year-end payroll activities, including statutory reporting, reconciliations, audits, and payroll accounting requirements.

·       Ensure compliance with local payroll legislation, labour laws, tax regulations, social security requirements, GDPR, and internal controls across all jurisdictions.

·       Partner with HR Services, Rewards, HRBP’s, Employee Advisory Partners, and key stakeholders to ensure accurate employee data management and payroll outcomes.

·       Serve as a subject matter expert for payroll issues across the UK & Ireland, Europe and Latin America regions.

·       Investigate and resolve escalated payroll discrepancies, employee queries, and complex issues with professionalism and urgency

·       Support continuous improvement initiatives by identifying opportunities to enhance payroll processes, controls, systems, automation, and provider performance.

·       Participate in payroll system testing, upgrades, integrations, and change initiatives relating to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, Time Management, iTrent Payroll, and other vendor platforms.

Audit & Data Integrity

·       Maintain accurate and complete payroll records and support overall data integrity.

·       Support internal and external audits through timely and accurate documentation and responses.

·       Keep up-to-date with relevant tax, wage, and employment regulations affecting payroll.

Reporting & Reconciliation

·       Review recurring payroll reports, variance analyses, and post-payroll reconciliations to ensure accuracy and completeness.

Projects & Team Support

·       Contribute to key payroll projects including system changes, and audits.

·       Support the development, coaching, and mentoring of payroll team members as required.

Your Profile

We're looking for a payroll professional who is passionate about delivering an outstanding payroll service and enjoys working in a fast-paced, international environment.

You'll bring:

·       Payroll experience gained within a large, complex, multi-entity and/or multi-country organisation.

·       Experience supporting UK, Ireland and EULA payrolls, working closely with outsourced payroll providers.

·       A strong understanding of UK payroll legislation, with exposure to international payroll compliance an advantage.

·       Experience using HR and payroll systems, ideally SAP SuccessFactors Time Management and iTrent payroll system.

·       Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with a keen eye for detail and accuracy.

·       A strong focus on compliance, data integrity and payroll controls.

·       The confidence to build effective relationships with colleagues across HR, Reward, Finance and external payroll partners.

·       The ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines across different countries and time zones.

Most importantly, you'll be a proactive team player who takes ownership, embraces continuous improvement, and is committed to delivering an accurate, compliant and customer-focused payroll experience.

About us 

As the world's leading reinsurance company with more than 11,000 employees at over 50 locations, Munich Re introduces a paradigm shift in the way you think about insurance. By turning uncertainty into a manageable risk we enable fundamental change. Join us working on topics today that will concern society tomorrow, whether that be climate change, major construction projects, medical risk assessment or even space travel.   

Together we embrace a culture where multiskilled teams dare to think big. We create the new and the different for our clients and cultivate innovation.  

Does this sound like you? Push boundaries with us and be part of Munich Re.  

Unlock your potential 

·       Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: we embrace the power of differences and are convinced that diversity fosters innovation and resilience and enables us to act braver and better. 

·       Continuous Learning: we believe that continuous learning is a key differentiator and critical for building new skills and accelerating growth. 

·       Career Mobility: we actively support career mobility, and our strong global and regional presence offers a wealth of career growth opportunities for you. 

At Munich Re, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion foster innovation and resilience and enable us to act braver and better. Embracing the power of DEI is at the core of who we are. We recognise diversity can be multi-dimensional, intersectional, and complex, so we want to build a diverse workforce that includes a wide range of racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender identities; economic and geographic backgrounds; physical abilities; ages; life, school, and career experiences; and political, religious, and personal beliefs. Additionally, we are committed to building an equitable and inclusive work environment where this diversity is celebrated, valued, and has equitable opportunities to succeed. 

If you are excited about this role but your experience does not align perfectly with everything outlined, or you don’t meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might just be the candidate we are looking for!

All candidates in consideration for any role can request a reasonable adjustment at any point in our recruitment process. You can request an adjustment by speaking to your Talent Acquisition contact.