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Oyster is a global employment platform that enables companies to hire, pay, and support talent anywhere in the world. This Payroll Specialist role is based in Germany and offers real ownership over German payroll operations at scale.
You will be a core member of Oyster's in-house payroll team, responsible for accurately processing assigned German payroll cycles each period. Your responsibilities include: processing payroll accurately and compliantly using DATEV systems; managing employee master data (new hires, terminations, salary changes, variable pay, benefits, absences, garnishments); running pre- and post-payroll validations and quality checks; handling all statutory filings including Lohnsteueranmeldung, SV-Meldungen, Jahresmeldung, and U1/U2 reimbursement claims; maintaining government accesses and ELStAM data; supporting payroll system procedures and testing legislative updates; reconciling payroll journals and GL mappings; handling assigned client payroll tickets with a customer-first mindset; preparing statutory and ad-hoc reports including EU Pay Transparency Directive and GDPR compliance documentation; supporting internal and external audits; and helping maintain SOPs and knowledge documentation.
You'll need 1–3 years of hands-on native German payroll experience, DATEV processing expertise, and a Kaufmännische Ausbildung (such as Steuerfachangestellte/r or Lohnbuchhalter qualification). Working knowledge of German wage tax, social insurance, and labor law is essential, with willingness to deepen expertise. German language proficiency at C1/C2 level is required for interactions with local authorities, and fluent English is needed for async collaboration with the global team. You should be detail-oriented, comfortable with ambiguity within your workstream, able to escalate appropriately, and thrive in a remote-first, async-heavy environment.
