Payroll Specialist – Hungarian Payroll

Work Schedule

Standard (Mon-Fri)

Environmental Conditions

Office

Job Description

As part of the Thermo Fisher Scientific team, you’ll discover meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale. Join our colleagues in bringing our Mission to life every single day to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We provide our global teams with the resources needed to achieve individual career goals while helping to take science a step beyond by developing solutions for some of the world’s toughest challenges, like protecting the environment, making sure our food is safe or helping find cures for cancer.

DESCRIPTION:
We are looking for an experienced Payroll Specialist to join our EMEA Payroll Team in Budapest. In this role, you will help ensure accurate, timely, and compliant payroll delivery for employees in Hungary.

You will support communications with Hungarian regulatory authorities, including the tax office, and work closely with payroll vendors and internal stakeholders. Based in Budapest, you will join a team responsible for end-to-end delivery of several payrolls across the EMEA region.

Key Responsibilities

• Subject Matter Expert - Monitor, interpret, and communicate legislative changes affecting Hungarian payroll, and verify that payroll and social security vendors comply with applicable requirements.
• Collect and submit payroll inputs to vendors.
• Review monthly and off-cycle payroll results, ensuring payroll is delivered on time, and payments are made to employees, statutory authorities, and third parties.
• Manage payroll and administrative tasks related to employee terminations.
• Coordinate with vendors and internal teams to register new hires on time.
• Prepare data reports and communicate with third parties, including pension and health funds.
• Work with vendors to prepare and submit monthly tax and social security declarations, statistical reports, and other recurring statutory filings.
• Review and interpret correspondence from Hungarian tax, social security, and pension authorities.
• Respond to employee payroll inquiries through the company ticketing system.
• Partner with internal support teams, including HR, Finance, and Total Rewards.
• Follow established processes and controls to prevent compliance breaches.
• Prepare and maintain internal process documentation (SOPs) and employee knowledge articles in English.
• Mentor and develop payroll colleagues and encourage knowledge sharing across the team.
• Participate in audits and regulatory inspections.
• Actively support internal projects.

Qualifications and Experience

• 4-5 years of relevant experience managing Hungarian payroll.
• Strong, up-to-date knowledge of Hungarian payroll and tax regulations.
• A payroll specialist qualification is an advantage.
• Excellent customer service skills.
• Vendor management experience is an advantage.
• Strong written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with colleagues at all levels of the organization.
• Experience in a shared services or payroll environment is preferred.
• Experience with ticketing systems, ability to learn and use different vendor and internal platforms.
• Knowledge of SAP payroll, master data and reporting modules is an advantage.
• Strong Microsoft Office skills, particularly advanced Excel skills, including PivotTables and lookup functions.
• An interest in sharing knowledge and creating process documentation.
• An interest in automation and process improvement.
• Strong attention to detail, a high sense of responsibility, and a commitment to technical quality.
• Fluency in Hungarian and at least intermediate English, with the ability to communicate effectively in English.