Payroll Specialist - Shanghai

As an international architectural firm, UNS is active in the broadest fields of architecture. Our project portfolio covers every aspect of architecture, ranging from small to large-scale projects, research, and theory. The atmosphere within each of our offices is international, multidisciplinary, design-oriented, and ambitious, but also open, non-hierarchical, team-based, and friendly, with attention to personal well-being, knowledge development, and career planning.

We are currently looking for a Payroll Specialist to join our team, responsible for payroll operations across our Shanghai and Hong Kong offices. The ideal candidate should have solid experience in multi-jurisdictional payroll processing with advanced Excel models, a strong understanding of local labour laws and tax regulations in both regions, and a high level of accuracy, confidentiality, and compliance.

Key Responsibilities

• Monthly Payroll Processing: collect, validate, and consolidate all monthly payroll inputs from involved teams using structured Excel templates

• Excel-Based Calculations: maintain complex payroll calculation sheets to compute gross-to-net salaries, final payments, bonuses, and leave pay. Ensure zero-error output for gross-to-net validation and payslip generation

• Social Insurance & Housing Fund: manage monthly declarations and payments for social insurance and housing fund for local employees. Handle enrollment, termination, and annual base adjustment processes related to compensation

• MPF / Cross-Border Schemes (if applicable): coordinate MPF contributions for Hong Kong-based staff, ensuring timely remittance and compliance with respective ordinances

• Individual Income Tax (IIT): calculate monthly IIT for local employees and expatriates, including the handling of special tax schemes (e.g., tax equalization, non-taxable fringe benefits, annual bonus preferential tax policy). Prepare and reconcile annual IIT filing data

• Expatriate Payroll & Tax Scheme: support the administration of expatriate compensation packages; apply tax treaty benefits, split-payroll considerations, and hypothetical tax calculations as directed

• Leave Management: maintain the leave tracking master file in Excel; validate leave balances, monitor accruals, and process paid/unpaid leave deductions accurately in payroll

• External Agency Coordination: act as daily contact for the outsourced providers. Provide complete and clean data files, verify calculations, and obtain the final payroll report

• Payslip Distribution: ensure accurate and timely distribution of electronic payslips and handle all Tier-1 employee questions regarding tax deductions, social insurance, or net pay discrepancies

• Compliance & Filing: maintain meticulous digital records. Support internal and external audits by providing payroll data and reconciliation schedules. Stay updated on changes to local labour, tax, and social insurance laws

• Perform ad hoc duties as assigned to support HR and finance operations across the two offices

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, HR, or related field

• 3-5 years of hands-on payroll experience, ideally within a multinational company environment

• Proven experience processing both Chinese local and expatriate payroll is a strong advantage

• Solid working knowledge of Shanghai social insurance, housing fund, and PRC IIT laws

• Sound knowledge of Hong Kong Employment Ordinance, MPF regulations

• Advanced Excel Mastery (a must): demonstrable expertise in VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX-MATCH, pivot tables, and data validation to manage thousands of records without error

• Zero-error mindset with extreme attention to numerical detail and a commitment to data confidentiality

• High proficiency in payroll software and Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP, etc.)

• Ability to handle sensitive and confidential information with discretion and integrity

• Excellent organizational and time management skills, with the ability to meet strict monthly deadlines

• Good command of English and Chinese, both written and spoken

• Prior experience in a multinational or professional services environment is a plus

Contact
Working conditions are according to local legislation in Shanghai. Benefits are consistent within UNS Shanghai office. Applications consisting of a short motivation letter, C.V., and relevant certificates can be sent digitally (PDF, max. 10MB) to Feely Pan at hr.asia@unstudio.com.

What we offer

• You will work on high-profile, challenging global projects

• You will be part of an innovative, dynamic, professional, and academic work environment

• Your experience is highly valued, but your innovation and proactivity matter most

• You will work in an ambitious, collaborative, and socially responsible international team across all levels

• You will learn through exploration and grow your knowledge continuously