Payroll Manager, APAC

The Opportunity

As Flexport continues to grow its footprint across Asia Pacific, we're looking for a Payroll Manager to be the cornerstone of payroll excellence across the region. You'll own the full payroll cycle for our APAC entities — spanning Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Greater China, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, India and other new markets as we expand — and serve as the go-to expert where precision, compliance, and people experience intersect.

Sitting within the APAC People team and reporting to the Senior Director, People APAC, this is a people-manager role leading a team of one, with significant cross-functional visibility. You'll set the regional payroll operating standard, drive payroll strategy, build out your team as scale demands, and work closely with Finance, People Operations, and business partners to ensure every employee across APAC is paid accurately and on time.

What You'll Do

- Own Regional Payroll End to End: Lead monthly payroll processing across 18+ APAC entities, managing vendor relationships and ensuring timely, accurate execution at scale.

- Handle Direct Payroll Execution: Perform hands-on processing and verification for assigned entities, directly coordinating with payroll vendors to calculate and finalize local payroll runs.

- Lead & Develop the Team: Manage and grow a direct report responsible for payroll data preparation — set priorities, review quality, and build a team structure that scales with new-market growth.

- Drive Data Accuracy: Coordinate with Finance on payment funding, GL booking, cost centre allocation, and month-end reconciliations — keeping payroll and finance in lockstep.

- Support the Full Employee Lifecycle: Own off-cycle payments, bonus runs, and statutory pay calculations across all employment events, ensuring compliance with local labour requirements.

- Enable Compliant Growth: Partner with the Expansion team to onboard new APAC entities onto payroll — from vendor setup to first run — as Flexport enters new markets.

- Support on regional bonus scheme: partner with global and regional stakeholders on incentive plan.

- Be the Audit & Compliance Expert: Own external audit requests, maintain payroll documentation standards, and manage compliance notifications as the business evolves.

- Elevate Vendor Performance: Own vendor SLA performance across a large multi-vendor footprint, proactively resolving service issues and driving consistent quality across all markets.

- Own Leave & Statutory Pay Calculations: Calculate maternity, paternity, sick, and other statutory leave pay amounts across all APAC entities, coordinating with People Ops on eligibility determination.

- Manage Overtime Compliance: Ensure accurate, compliant overtime calculations across markets with strict statutory multiplier requirements.

- Administer Post-Employment Payments: Process ongoing non-compete payments and other post-termination obligations, tracking start and stop dates for accuracy.

- Execute Compensation Changes: Process merit increases and promotions once approved, including any required backpay adjustments, accurately and on schedule.

- Lead Annual Compliance Cycles: Own annual individual income tax reconciliation and social insurance/housing fund base adjustments across applicable markets.

- Manage Equity-Related Withholding: Handle tax withholding and reporting obligations triggered by RSU vesting events across jurisdictions.

What We're Looking For

- 8+ years of hands-on APAC payroll experience, including 3+ years managing/leading a team, and demonstrated ownership of 5+ countries' payroll operations at scale (ideally 10+).

- Broad multi-country payroll experience across the region — Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Greater China, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, India — with a track record of standing up new-market payroll from scratch.

- Deep knowledge of statutory compliance, local labour laws, and payroll vendor management across a large, diverse APAC footprint.

- Proven people-management experience — able to coach, delegate, and build capability in a small but scaling team.

- Hands-on experience using modern AI assistants to automate data analysis, reporting, and modelling.

- Proven ability to partner with Finance on reconciliations, GL allocations, and audit deliverables.

- A reputation for precision — you hold yourself and your team to a high bar and catch issues before they reach employees.

- Strong communicator who can work fluidly across Finance, People Operations, and People Business Partners.

- Experience with HRIS platforms, specifically Workday.

- Professional proficiency in English is a MUST.

- Energised by a fast-scaling environment and excited to build payroll infrastructure and a team from the ground up in new markets.

- Comfortable challenging ideas and holding space for other perspectives to be heard.

- Strong logical approach to resolving complex issues and adept at fostering resilience.

- Committed to maintaining a high degree of personal integrity and confidentiality.