Japan Payroll Manager, APAC Payroll Operation

This role is critical to ensuring seamless, accurate, and compliant end-to-end payroll operations for our largest APAC employee base (23,000+). As the owner of Japan payroll, you will drive operational excellence, mitigate risks, and lead strategic initiatives while upholding Amazon’s high standards for compliance and employee trust.

Responsibilities

Ownership in Leading and Developing Teams

Take end-to-end ownership of a high-performing payroll team across Tokyo (5) and Manila (5), fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.

Mentor and develop team members, ensuring they have the skills and knowledge to execute flawlessly in a fast-paced environment.

Deliver Results in Payroll Operations and Stakeholder Management

Reliably deliver accurate and timely payroll for Japan employees, maintaining a zero-defect mindset despite growing complexity.

Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders (HR, Finance, Legal, and external vendors), ensuring seamless collaboration—especially with Japanese-speaking partners.

Own compliance with Japanese labor laws, tax regulations, and social insurance systems, proactively addressing changes to mitigate risk.

Bias for Action in Strategic Projects

Drive rapid execution of the 2025–2027 payroll vendor migration, a high-impact project requiring deep local expertise and cross-functional coordination.

Identify and act on process improvements, automating manual tasks where possible to enhance efficiency and scalability.

Anticipate and resolve payroll challenges swiftly, ensuring minimal disruption to employees and the business.

Business Critical Factors

Growing Complexity and Scale

Japan’s employee base is expanding rapidly, increasing payroll complexity.

Ownership mindset required to ensure scalability without sacrificing accuracy.

Strategic Project Leadership (Vendor Migration 2025–2027)

Deliver results in a high-stakes, multi-year migration—balancing compliance, system integration, and employee impact.

Bias for action in troubleshooting risks early and keeping the project on track.

Risk Mitigation and Compliance

Maintain 100% payroll accuracy—any errors directly impact employee trust and business operations.

Proactively monitor regulatory changes, ensuring Amazon remains fully compliant with Japanese requirements.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

Deep Expertise in Japan Payroll (10+ years), including large-scale payroll management (5+ direct reports).

Native-level Japanese proficiency + fluency in Speaking/Writing English.

Expertise in local labor laws, tax regulations, and cultural nuances.

More than 5 years of proven record of building trust with stakeholders from payroll internally and key partners such as HR, accounting, tax, compliance, project, benefit etc including those who communicate exclusively in Japanese.

Strong bias for action—able to make high-judgment decisions under tight deadlines.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

3+ years of working with senior staff (e.g. c-suite) experience

MBA, or CPA

Experience working with large-scale data mining and reporting tools (i.e. SQL, MSAccess, Essbase or Cognos) and providing recommendations based on results of ad hoc analyses to management for strategic decision-making

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