Payroll Manager - APAC

Job Location (Short): Brisbane, Australia | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | Melbourne, Australia | Perth, Australia | Singapore, Singapore | North Sydney, Australia

Workplace Type: Hybrid

Req Id: 2985

Job Overview

Keep payroll moving. Build trust with every pay run.

Our Octave Finance team is looking for an experienced payroll leader to oversee payroll operations across APAC and support our sales commission processes. This is a hands-on role where you'll combine deep payroll expertise with people leadership, process improvement, and strong financial controls.

As the Payroll Manager APAC, you'll lead a small team of two and work closely with Finance, HR, Sales Operations, and external payroll providers to ensure payroll and commissions are delivered accurately, compliantly, and on time.

If you enjoy staying close to the detail, solving problems, improving processes, and making a visible impact, we'd like to hear from you. You can be based in Australia, Singapore, or Malaysia.

Responsibilities

What you’ll do

Payroll operations

• Oversee end-to-end payroll across multiple APAC countries
• Partner with external payroll providers to ensure accurate and timely payroll delivery
• Ensure compliance with local legislation, tax requirements, superannuation, social security obligations, and other statutory regulations
• Review payroll outputs, investigate variances, and resolve issues before payroll sign-off
• Oversee payroll journals, reconciliations, accruals, leave provisions, and statutory balances
• Coordinate payroll-related filings and reporting requirements across the region
• Maintain strong controls and ensure payroll processes remain audit-ready

Sales commission Support

• Oversee sales commission administration and payment processes across APAC
• Partner with the US Commission Team to ensure commission plans are correctly applied
• Review commission calculations, approvals, and exception requests
• Ensure commission accruals and reconciliations are accurate and completed on time
• Support audits and reporting relating to commission expenses and controls
• Provide insights into commission trends and costs when required

Finance & Reporting

• Support month-end reporting activities relating to payroll and commissions
• Review payroll and commission expenses, accruals, and balance sheet reconciliations
• Contribute to budgeting, forecasting, and workforce cost analysis
• Support internal and external audits
• Provide reporting and analysis that helps the business make informed decisions

Process Improvement

• Identify opportunities to simplify and improve payroll and commission processes
• Strengthen controls, documentation, and ways of working
• Support system enhancements, automation initiatives, and payroll-related projects
• Help create consistent processes across the APAC region

Education / Qualifications

What you’ll bring

• Proven experience managing end-to-end payroll
• Experience working across multiple countries or complex payroll environments
• Strong understanding of payroll compliance, statutory obligations, and payroll controls
• Experience leading or mentoring payroll, finance, or accounting team members
• Sound accounting knowledge, including accruals, reconciliations, and month-end processes
• Advanced Excel skills
• A track record of delivering accurate outcomes while managing competing priorities and deadlines

Nice to have

• Experience with sales commissions or incentive compensation programs
• Experience with ERP systems and OneStream

This is a great opportunity for a payroll professional who wants to own a broad APAC remit, lead a small team, stay close to the work, and make a meaningful impact across the business.

About Octave

Octave provides mission-critical software that empowers organizations to make informed decisions across every stage of the asset lifecycle - Design, Build, Operate and Protect - where performance, safety, and reliability are non-negotiable and failure is not an option.

Turning complex operational data into actionable intelligence, Octave connects expertise, real-world conditions and enterprise-scale insight to improve performance, resilience and incident response where it matters most.

Octave has more than 7,000 employees in 45 countries. Learn more at octave.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Why work for Octave?

All in. Always forward. That's the way we do things around here. We put trust in our people because we believe it's the best way to unleash potential, bring ideas to life, and keep moving ahead. And it's why we're committed to creating an environment that's truly supportive, providing you with the resources you need to support your ambitions, no matter who you are or where you are in the world.

Everyone is welcome

At Octave, we believe that diverse and inclusive teams are critical to the success of our people and our business. Here, everyone is welcome. As an inclusive workplace, we don't discriminate. In fact, we embrace differences and are fully committed to creating equal opportunities, an inclusive environment, and fairness for all.

Respect is the cornerstone of how we operate, so speak up and be yourself. You're valued here.