Payroll Lead

TL;DR

You will own and shape payroll at Lovable at a point where the model is genuinely open. Today it's outsourced; where it lands, continuing to oversee and approve the work of our service centers, or bringing the whole thing in-house and running it end-to-end, is undecided and yours to figure out. This is a senior, high-ownership role for an AI-pilled, expert Swedish payroll professional who has done this before and wants to build payroll into a tight, automated, reliable machine at one of the fastest-growing AI companies in the world.

Why Lovable?

Lovable is the software creation platform that gives people the power to act on the problems closest to them. For decades, turning an idea into software required so much capital, technical fluency, and time that many ideas never came to life. Lovable is the counterargument: a platform for all people with ideas, ambition, and problems worth solving. From solopreneurs to small business owners to teams at companies like Adidas and Zendesk, people have built over 60 million projects on Lovable since its launch in November 2024. And we’re just getting started.

We’re building a generational company from Stockholm, with growing teams in London, Boston, New York, and San Francisco. Our team is small, talent-dense, and moving quickly, with a culture rooted in extreme ownership, high velocity, and low-ego collaboration. We look for people who care deeply, ship fast, and are eager to make a dent in the world.

Lovable is one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies and has been recognized on the Forbes AI 50 and CNBC Disruptor 50, reflecting our momentum as one of Europe’s fastest-growing AI companies and one of the most ambitious places to build in this next era of software.

What we’re looking for

• We're bringing payroll ownership into Finance, and the model is deliberately open: keep it part-outsourced, bring it fully in-house, or land in between, your call to make.
• As our first dedicated Payroll Lead you'll own that model and the build-versus-buy calls, starting in Sweden and potentially scaling to global.

You should have

• Expert, current, hands-on Swedish payroll knowledge: Skatteverket employer reporting (AGI), employer contributions, expert tax / SINK, pensions and benefits, and working knowledge of LAS and BFL
• Proven track record owning payroll that you can point to
• Senior-manager level, with 8+ years of payroll experience
• Genuine appetite to own payroll end-to-end and shape the operating model, including the build-versus-buy decision on what we run in-house versus outsource
• Strong payroll accounting skills: journals, accruals, reconciliations, month-end close, and correct entity and cost-centre coding
• Exposure to equity / share-based compensation payroll and benefit-in-kind taxation
• Comfort with ambiguity and a greenfield remit, and an audit-ready, controls-minded way of working
• Ability to work independently and make decisions without a team behind you yet
• Excellent English communication skills (Swedish a strong plus given the Swedish payroll focus)

Nice to have

• International or multi-entity payroll exposure (UK, US, EOR) is a strong plus and points to the path to global lead
• A deeply AI-pilled way of working: you reach for AI and automation by default and want to build a modern, automated payroll function rather than a manual one

What you’ll do

• Shape and own how payroll is delivered: whether we oversee and approve outsourced service centers, bring payroll fully in-house end-to-end, or a mix, and lead the transition wherever it lands
• Build payroll into a tight, reliable, highly automated operation, with accuracy and control as the standard
• Own payroll accounting: journals, accruals and reconciliations into the GL, and support month-end close
• Drive automation of payroll so recurring work is systematized, not manual
• Own the payroll and tax treatment of equity events (option exercises, secondaries, clawbacks, benefits in kind), coordinating with Finance and Tax
• Own payroll taxes and compliance: employer contributions, PAYE, social security, year-end reporting and record retention
• Maintain payroll controls and an auditable trail, and support external audit
• Grow into Global Payroll Lead, owning payroll across all entities as the business scales

About your application

Please submit your application in English. It’s our company language, so you’ll be speaking lots of it if you join.

We treat all candidates equally - if you’re interested, please apply through our careers portal.