Pradeep Nair
HR
Chennai,TN
Work Preference
Summary
Versatile Senior Manager specializing in HR and skilled at planning, implementing and overseeing key improvements to drive business growth and efficiency. History of cultivating an open culture with free exchange of information. Pursuing new professional challenges with a growth-oriented company.
Overview
5
5
Languages
2
2
Certifications
19
19
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Manager HR – COE
Cognizant
06.2022 - Current
- HR CoE Lead for Business unit of ~95000 associates driving Performance Management, Total Rewards, Process Improvement, Simplification, Standardization, automation of reporting, change management, People Analytics and worked in Strategic
- Streamlined employee life cycle activities (promotions/Performance tracking) for a business unit with a headcount of 95,000 with reduced manual intervention that helped in prompt and detailed insights to Leadership team to make informed decisions.
- Actively contributed to compensation processes, including salary revisions, promotions, market adjustments, internal modeling, and pay parity analysis, prepared and shared compensation quartile insights with leadership for informed decision-making.
- Managed payroll operations for the Business Unit, ensuring timely processing, accurate reconciliation of payouts, and delivering analytical insights through customized payout slicers.
- Strong network relationships with various stakeholders across HRBP, Business, HR Compliance and Central Corp/HR teams (including other Geos)
- Monitoring org mandated training & people processes
- Driving Bench process across the business unit and ensure lower aging actions, this helps BU cost
Manager HR – India Payroll & Helpdesk (Shared Services)
Cognizant
07.2013 - 06.2022
- Promotion History - [Manager HR – Jan 2021 to 1st June 2025 | Senior Associate HR – Oct 2017 to Dec 2020 | Associate HR - July 2014 to Sept 2017 | Junior Executive HR – Nov 2011 to June 2014]
- Anchored the development, design & implementation of payroll system to validate and calculate monthly, quarterly, one time payouts or recoveries for Pan India associates
- Oversee the payment for Referral Bonus; Joining Bonus & Notice pay Buyout for Indian & Overseas associates
- Spearheaded a task force to transition manual payroll to automated mode by working parallelly on challenges and solutions improve efficiencies
- Responsible for a comprehensive HR policy framework and HR processes
- Create, communicate & train associates / SMEs / Managers / Leadership team on latest company policies & amendments
- Heading a task force to improve team productivity, accuracy & ensuring compliance
- Conduct Hire/Rehire Personal & Compensation Audit for near to five thousand new hires
- Compensation validation for all Cognizant employees up to SVP level (2.3 lacs) monthly
- Head count, Travel, LOP & Eligible days reconciliation for regular payroll for all associates
- Preparing ultimate summary for payroll, dashboards & payroll decks
- Creating Payroll Signoff for Head Count & Earnings drafts for Pan India associates
- Liaising with Internal and External audit team for mock and actual payroll related activities
- Handling payroll related calls and providing end-to-end solution for India and UK regions
- Consulting with the recruitment teams to arrive at the new hires’ salary grid for the various business units
- Supported the Mergers & Acquisition teams with compensation alignment for associates from acquired entities ensuring parity & compliance
- Supervise and upload monthly special payouts & recoveries in portal with 100% accuracy
- Consult, maintain and communicate between multiple departments to establish and ensure a smooth working of payroll systems
Subject Matter Expert – Cash Apps Team (F&A)
Cognizant
04.2010 - 07.2013
- Performing 100% internal quality check for the processes
- Coordination and management of the Unapplied Receipts
- Reconcile the statements between the vendor and store.
- Preparing and maintaining the service delivery documents for internal audit on monthly basis
- Prioritize the daily activities and ensure to meet the TAT
- Preparing Weekly/Monthly Metrics & discuss the same with the management and the Customer
- Queue Management & Handling business unit and offshore team queries
Process Associate – Accounts Receivable Team (Finance & Accounts)
Steria
11.2008 - 03.2010
- Coordination and management of the Unapplied Receipts
- Reconciliation of various General Ledger Codes
- Coordination and reporting on Business objects of Supply Chain Procurement
- Calling customer for the purpose of collections and Payment status
- Raising of invoices and allocating the invoices
- Write off Bad Debts & Customer Refunds
- Daily Receipting of BACS & Cheque Payment
- Handling customer queries with daily targets
- Weekly Report preparation for the Age Debt and Unapplied, Unidentified payments
Quality Analyst / Trainer for Account Maintenance
Intelenet
07.2007 - 11.2008
- Coordinated the Quality team and led both the Account Maintenance and Payments team.
- Coordinated the Maintenance team, managing various banking-related sub-processes and daily invoice checks.
- Coordinated and communicated updates on various sub-processes during the audit.
- Prepared letters, special stationery, and changes of name and address for the team.
- Monitored SLA and handled queries while completing MI tasks.
Education
MBA - Finance
Pondicherry University
Chennai, India01-2010
Skills
Talent Acquisition
Reporting & Analytics
Benefits Administration
Regulatory Compliance
Process Improvement
Talent acquisition
Performance management
People analytics
Payroll operations
Data reconciliation
Reporting automation
Accomplishments
- Lead Robotics team for the Payroll and Benefits team, successfully completed 18 sub-processes
- Implemented new tool to process all allowances from BU’s / TM’s by applying inbuilt validations & calculations to ensure automated allowances processing to 80% from “0”
- Twice received the Best Annual Team award (2021) and Quarterly award (Q1’ 2021)
- Awarded Employee of the Quarter (Q3’ 2020)/ Half yearly (H2’ 2019) following ability to work in harmony with all levels of management inside the company & performance oriented
- Have created excel macro templates for special pay inputs, which increased the quality and reduced the rejection of inputs
Certification
Certified Yellow Belt & Lean
Disclaimer
Date: 2026-11-15 Place: Chennai [Pradeep.P.Nair]
Software
- Workday
- Proficient in Peoplesoft HCM Oracle
- Expert in MS Office
- Claude & Copilot (Ai Models)
Training
Undergone Soft skill Training, Chennai
Work Availability
monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
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Languages
English
Upper intermediate (B2)
Hindi
Upper intermediate (B2)
Malayalam
Elementary (A2)
Tamil
Intermediate (B1)
Marathi
Intermediate (B1)
Timeline
Senior Manager HR – COE
Cognizant
06.2022 - Current
Manager HR – India Payroll & Helpdesk (Shared Services)
Cognizant
07.2013 - 06.2022
Subject Matter Expert – Cash Apps Team (F&A)
Cognizant
04.2010 - 07.2013
Process Associate – Accounts Receivable Team (Finance & Accounts)
Steria
11.2008 - 03.2010
Quality Analyst / Trainer for Account Maintenance
Intelenet
07.2007 - 11.2008
MBA - Finance
Pondicherry University