Finance Manager II - Payroll Payments & Audits, Payroll

Finance Manager II – Global Payroll Payments & Audits

Job Title

Finance Manager II – Global Payroll Payments & Audits

Location: Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Work Model: Work from Office
Job ID: 10512609
Level: 5
Job Type: Full-Time, Regular
Function: Finance & Accounting
Team: Global Payroll Payments
Department: Payroll – VAR

Role Overview

Amazon's Global Payroll Payments team is hiring a Finance Manager II to lead and scale payroll payment operations across APAC and North America.

The role sits at the intersection of payments, banking, controls/audit, and technology transformation. You will own the end-to-end payroll payment lifecycle, lead a team of 20+ professionals, manage strategic banking and payment-service-provider relationships, strengthen financial controls and audits, and drive automation and payment modernization through APIs and standards such as ISO 20022.

This is a senior leader who operates at both strategic and operational levels — moving comfortably from executive stakeholder management and banking-partner negotiations to payment incident resolution, operational deep dives, and people leadership. Payroll experience is valuable but not required: strong leaders from payments, banking operations, treasury, or financial operations with people-management and controls depth are encouraged to apply.

Key Role Objectives

Lead global payroll payment operations across APAC and North America.
Manage and develop a high-performing team of 20+ professionals.
Manage strategic relationships with banks, payment service providers, fintechs, and vendors.
Ensure payment accuracy, timeliness, security, reliability, and operational resilience.
Own payment controls, audits, reconciliations, risk management, and compliance mechanisms.
Lead payment infrastructure readiness for new countries and entities.
Drive automation, API-based integrations, monitoring, and payment modernization.
Lead resolution of critical payment incidents and recurring defects.
Build scalable mechanisms, standard work, playbooks, and operating rhythms.
Drive continuous improvement using data, metrics, technology, and customer impact.

Key Job Responsibilities

Global Payroll Payment Operations

Own the end-to-end payroll payment lifecycle across APAC and North America, including payment file generation, validation, bank submission, transaction monitoring, exception management, settlement, and reconciliation.
Establish mechanisms to monitor payment health, service levels, control performance, operational risks, and critical dependencies.
Review operational dashboards and payment metrics to identify emerging issues and prioritize corrective actions.
Lead resolution of payment batch failures, rejected transactions, bank exceptions, processing delays, and other payment-related issues.
Ensure payroll payments are processed accurately, securely, and within defined service-level expectations.
Develop mechanisms that improve payment reliability, resilience, scalability, and employee experience.
Identify systemic issues and drive permanent corrective actions rather than recurring manual fixes.

People Leadership & Team Development

Lead and develop a team of 20+ finance and payments professionals.
Build organizational capability across payment operations, audits, banking controls, reconciliations, monitoring, and issue resolution.
Establish clear goals, performance mechanisms, operating rhythms, and development plans.
Create a culture of ownership, accountability, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.
Coach and mentor team members and build a strong leadership pipeline.
Develop technical, analytical, and business capabilities within the organization.
Build a diverse, inclusive, and high-performing team capable of operating at global scale.

Banking & Payment Partnerships

Build and manage strategic relationships with global and regional banking partners.
Manage relationships with payment service providers, fintechs, financial institutions, and third-party vendors.
Partner with banks on service levels, payment requirements, file specifications, connectivity, format changes, testing, and issue resolution.
Manage payment methods including RTP, ACH, wire transfers, and other applicable payment rails.
Coordinate payment-format and connectivity migrations while maintaining business continuity.
Represent Amazon's payroll payment requirements in discussions with external banking and technology partners.
Lead escalations with financial institutions for critical payment failures and service disruptions.

New Country & Entity Launches

Lead payment infrastructure readiness for new Amazon countries, entities, and business expansions.
Coordinate bank-account onboarding and payment infrastructure requirements.
Define payment-file specifications, banking connectivity, testing, UAT, and go-live requirements.
Partner with Payroll, Treasury, Finance, Technology, Compliance, and other stakeholders to identify dependencies and risks.
Develop reusable launch-readiness frameworks, playbooks, standard work, and deployment mechanisms.
Ensure new markets launch efficiently while maintaining strong financial controls and operational resilience.

Automation & Payment Modernization

Identify opportunities to eliminate manual processes and improve payment scalability, accuracy, control effectiveness, and efficiency.
Partner with Technology and Finance teams to implement automation and scalable payment solutions.
Drive adoption of API-based integrations (REST APIs) and modern payment technologies.
Support adoption of ISO 20022 and other modern payment standards where applicable.
Leverage monitoring frameworks to identify payment issues proactively.
Evaluate and implement AI-enabled solutions for exception management, monitoring, root-cause analysis, and operational productivity.
Reduce operational risk through technology-enabled controls while improving the employee payment experience.

Critical Escalations & Incident Management

Serve as a senior escalation point for critical payroll payment incidents.
Lead resolution of bank-side failures, payment batch rejections, service disruptions, and high-risk exceptions.
Lead structured root-cause analysis for high-impact incidents.
Coordinate cross-functional resolution across Finance, Payroll, Technology, Treasury, Operations, and banking partners.
Establish mechanisms to prevent recurrence and track incident trends to identify systemic payment risks.
Develop and maintain escalation and incident-management playbooks.
Improve payment resilience through lessons learned and continuous improvement.

Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence

Use data and operational metrics to identify improvement opportunities.
Prioritize initiatives based on customer impact, financial risk, operational risk, and business value.
Simplify complex payment processes and eliminate unnecessary manual activities.
Improve payment accuracy, timeliness, reliability, and control effectiveness.
Establish scalable mechanisms that support increasing payment volumes and geographic expansion.
Drive cross-functional transformation initiatives.
Measure and communicate business impact to senior leadership.

Stakeholder Management

The role works closely with:

Global Payroll
Finance & Controllership
Treasury
Technology / Engineering
Banking & Financial Institutions
Payment Service Providers
FinTech Partners
Compliance
Risk Management
Internal Audit
External Audit
Operations
Country and Entity Launch Teams
Senior Finance Leadership
Business and Corporate Stakeholders

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, Economics, or a related field.
8+ years of experience in finance, payments, banking operations, payroll operations, treasury, or financial operations — including work in complex, high-volume, or multi-country environments.
5+ years of people-management experience, including leading teams or managing managers.
Experience managing relationships with banks, payment service providers, fintechs, financial institutions, or external vendors.
Experience designing or operating financial controls, audits, reconciliations, risk, or compliance mechanisms.
Experience using data and metrics to identify operational issues and drive measurable improvements.
Experience working cross-functionally across Finance, Technology, Operations, Payroll, or Treasury.
Experience communicating complex financial, operational, or technical information clearly to senior leadership.
Experience identifying root causes, implementing corrective actions, and building mechanisms to prevent recurrence.
Experience working in a large, multinational, or highly complex organization.

Preferred Qualifications

Global payroll payments or payment operations.
Banking operations or banking infrastructure.
Treasury operations.
Financial technology / FinTech.
RTP, ACH, wire transfers, or other electronic payment rails.
Payment files and banking connectivity.
API-based payment integrations and REST API-based services.
Knowledge of ISO 20022 or modern payment standards.
Payment infrastructure setup for new countries or entities.
Payment-service-provider and third-party vendor management.
Automation, digital transformation, and AI-enabled operational solutions.
Monitoring and exception-management frameworks.
Launch-readiness frameworks and scalable deployment mechanisms.
Large-scale operational transformation in regulated, multinational, or high-volume environments.
MBA, CPA, CA, CMA, or other relevant professional qualification.

Leadership Competencies

Strategic Thinking: Builds long-term payment and operational strategies.
People Leadership: Attracts, develops, motivates, and retains high-performing teams.
Operational Excellence: Owns accuracy, reliability, controls, and execution.
Customer Obsession: Ensures employees are paid accurately and on time.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Uses metrics to identify trends, risks, and opportunities.
Problem Solving: Solves complex, ambiguous, high-impact operational problems.
Stakeholder Management: Influences senior stakeholders without direct authority.
Banking & Commercial Acumen: Manages strategic relationships with financial institutions and payment partners.
Technology Fluency: Partners effectively with technology teams; understands APIs, payment infrastructure, automation, and data.
Change Leadership: Leads transformation across people, processes, and technology.
Executive Communication: Communicates complex issues clearly and concisely to senior leaders.
Ownership & Accountability: Dives deep, challenges existing mechanisms, and drives issues to closure.

Key Success Metrics

Payroll payment accuracy.
On-time payment performance.
Payment failure and rejection rates.
Critical payment incident resolution.
Reduction in recurring payment defects.
Banking-partner service-level performance.
Control effectiveness.
Audit readiness and reduction in repeat findings.
Reconciliation quality and timeliness.
Automation and manual-effort reduction.
Payment-processing scalability.
New-market launch readiness and execution.
Operational risk reduction.
Team performance, engagement, and talent development.
Delivery of strategic transformation initiatives.

What Success Looks Like

Reliable payments. Strong controls. Scalable infrastructure. Fewer recurring defects. Better automation. Strong banking partnerships. Effective audits. And a high-performing team that operates confidently at global scale.

Early on, the leader establishes strong operational visibility, understands the global payment landscape, strengthens critical mechanisms, and builds trusted relationships with key stakeholders and banking partners. Over time, they transform the organization from a primarily operational model into a scalable, technology-enabled, data-driven global payment organization.
A Day in the Life

Reviewing payment-health dashboards, critical exceptions, audit status, and operational metrics.
Investigating recurring payment or banking exceptions with the team.
Working with Technology on API, payment-file, or connectivity changes.
Engaging banking partners to resolve service issues or payment failures.
Reviewing new-country or entity launch readiness.
Challenging existing controls and reviewing audit findings.
Identifying opportunities for automation and process simplification.
Reviewing business and operational metrics with senior leadership.
Coaching team members and reviewing performance and priorities.
Removing organizational blockers and establishing mechanisms for long-term improvement.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The strongest candidate is typically a senior finance, payments, banking operations, treasury, or financial operations leader who has:

Led large teams, ideally 20+ people.
Managed high-volume payment or financial operations.
Worked directly with banks or payment service providers.
Owned operational controls, audits, reconciliations, and risk.
Operated across multiple countries or geographies.
Partnered extensively with Technology and Finance organizations.
Managed critical incidents and complex operational escalations.
Built scalable processes and operating mechanisms.
Delivered automation or digital transformation.
Demonstrated strong executive presence and stakeholder influence.

Payroll experience is highly valuable but is not the only path into the role. Strong leaders from payments, banking operations, treasury, financial operations, or payment infrastructure with relevant people-management and controls experience should also be considered.
Core Search Keywords

Payments · Payment Operations · Banking Operations · Banking Infrastructure · Payroll Payments · Global Payroll · Payment Processing · Payment Infrastructure · Treasury · RTP · ACH · Wire · Payment Service Provider · PSP · FinTech · Financial Institutions · Banking Partner · Payment Connectivity · Payment Files · ISO 20022 · APIs · REST APIs · Automation · AI · Payment Controls · Audit · Reconciliation · Risk · Compliance · People Management · Team Leadership · Operational Excellence · Launch Readiness · Global Operations · Financial Operations
Final Candidate Value Proposition

This is an opportunity to lead a critical financial infrastructure function at Amazon and influence how payroll payments are delivered across multiple countries. The role combines:

Global scale
Large-team leadership
Payments and banking ownership
Finance and controls
Technology transformation
Strategic external partnerships
New-market launches
Operational excellence
Automation and AI
Executive-level visibility

If you are a finance or payments leader who enjoys solving complex problems, working with banks and technology teams, building high-performing organizations, and creating scalable mechanisms, this role offers the opportunity to shape the future of global payroll payments at Amazon.

Key job responsibilities
Key Job Responsibilities

Lead Global Payroll Payment Operations

Own the end-to-end payroll payment lifecycle across APAC and North America, including payment file generation, bank submission, transaction monitoring, exception management, and reconciliation.

Establish operational mechanisms to monitor payment health, service levels, control performance, and critical payment risks.

Review operational dashboards and metrics to identify emerging issues, prioritize actions, and maintain high standards of payment accuracy and timeliness.

Lead resolution of payment batch failures, rejected transactions, bank exceptions, and other payment-related issues.
Build and Develop High-Performing Teams

Lead and develop a team responsible for payroll payment audits, banking controls, reconciliations, operational monitoring, and issue resolution.

Establish clear goals, performance mechanisms, operating rhythms, and development plans for the team.
Create a culture of ownership, continuous improvement, data-driven decision-making, and operational excellence.

Build strong technical and business capabilities within the team to support increasingly complex global payment operations.

Drive Banking & Payment Partnerships
Build and manage strategic relationships with banking institutions, payment service providers, third-party vendors, and internal technology teams.

Partner with banks to manage service levels, payment requirements, file specifications, format changes, connectivity, and issue resolution.

Coordinate payment format migrations and changes while ensuring business continuity and operational readiness.
Represent Amazon's payroll payment requirements in discussions with external banking and technology partners.

Enable New Market & Entity Launches
Lead payment infrastructure readiness for new Amazon entities, countries, and market expansions.
Coordinate bank account onboarding, payment file specifications, connectivity requirements, testing, user acceptance testing, and go-live readiness.

Partner with Payroll, Treasury, Finance, Technology, Compliance, and other stakeholders to identify dependencies and manage launch risks.

Establish scalable mechanisms that enable new markets to onboard efficiently while maintaining strong financial controls.

Strengthen Controls, Audit & Compliance
Own mechanisms supporting audit readiness across multiple markets and regulatory environments.
Lead reviews of banking audits, account changes, payment controls, reconciliations, and operational exceptions.
Analyze audit findings and recurring defects to identify root causes and drive permanent corrective actions.

Eliminate redundant or manual audit activities by addressing issues upstream and strengthening preventive controls.
Maintain appropriate documentation, evidence, and control mechanisms to support internal and external audit requirements.

Drive Automation & Payment Modernization
Identify opportunities to eliminate manual activities and improve the scalability, accuracy, and efficiency of payment operations.

Partner with technology teams to implement automation, API-based integrations, modern payment capabilities, and data-driven operational mechanisms.

Drive adoption of modern payment standards, including ISO 20022, where applicable.
Explore and implement AI-enabled solutions to improve exception management, operational monitoring, root-cause analysis, and process efficiency.

Develop scalable solutions that reduce operational risk while improving the overall employee payment experience.

Own Critical Escalations & Continuous Improvement

Serve as a senior escalation point for critical payroll payment incidents, bank-side failures, batch rejections, and service disruptions.

Lead structured root-cause analysis and coordinate cross-functional resolution of high-impact issues.

Build mechanisms to prevent recurrence and improve payment resilience.

Use data, operational metrics, and customer impact to prioritize improvement opportunities.

Drive continuous improvement initiatives that simplify processes, strengthen controls, and improve service quality across markets.

A day in the life
A Day in the Life

Your day may start with a review of payment health, critical exceptions, audit status, and operational metrics across the APAC and North America region.

You may then work with your team to investigate a recurring banking exception, partner with a technology team on an API or payment-file change, or engage a banking partner to resolve a service issue.

You could also spend time reviewing the readiness of a new market launch, challenging an existing control, reviewing audit findings, or identifying opportunities to automate a manual process.

As a people leader, you will also invest time in coaching your team, reviewing performance and priorities, removing blockers, and creating mechanisms that help the organization operate more effectively at scale.

The role combines strategic thinking with operational execution—you will need to move comfortably between executive-level discussions, banking-partner negotiations, technology conversations, operational deep dives, and team leadership.

Basic qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in accounting or related field, or Bachelor's degree
- 8+ years of people management experience
- 8+ years of operational experience
- Experience building and growing relationships with internal and external partners
- Experience using data and metrics to determine and drive improvements
- 8+ years of working cross functionally across several teams experience, or a CPA and 6+ years of working cross functionally with tech and non-tech teams experience
- Experience communicating results to senior leadership, or experience in identifying incomplete or inaccurate data, identifying the root cause and creating/implementing an escalation plan
- Experience in written and verbal communication with the ability to present complex technical information in a clear and concise manner to executives and non-technical leaders
- 7+ years of experience in finance, payments, banking operations, payroll operations, treasury, or related financial operations

Preferred qualifications

- Experience designing and implementing controls or experience performing audits over financial reporting environment
- MBA, or Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting or related field
- Experience in payroll operations
- Experience building launch readiness frameworks, standard work, playbooks, and scalable deployment mechanisms across multiple concurrent sites, or experience working with and managing third party vendors
- Experience working with REST API based services, or experience in deploying identity and access management systems and experience that includes strong analytical skills, attention to detail, and effective communication abilities
- Experience in automation or monitoring frameworks, deployment or development
- Experience making strategic business decisions and managing internal relationships, or experience or equivalent experience in finance roles
- Experience working in large teams or at a national/multinational organization, or experience in multiple finance and accounting roles
- Experience building cross-functional partnerships and influencing stakeholders across the organization to act without having a direct reporting relationship
- Experience in reliability/maintenance environments, or experience building launch readiness frameworks, standard work, playbooks, and scalable deployment mechanisms across multiple concurrent sites

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.