Payroll & HR Operations Intern

Job Title: Payroll & HR Operations Intern Location: Remote, Portugal Type: Full-Time (IEFP Internship to Work Contract) Level: Entry Level / Recent Graduate Payroll sounds operational. At BRIDGE IN, it is strategic. We process payroll for some of the most ambitious companies in the world, from unicorns to publicly listed US firms. We are now looking for someone early in their career who wants to do more than execute tasks. We want someone who will help us standardize, optimize, and build the payroll practice that scales with us into Spain, Italy, and beyond. Why BRIDGE IN? We are a bootstrapped, profitable, remote-first company ranked among the 15 fastest-growing startups in Southern Europe. We help international organizations cut through the bureaucracy of expanding into new markets, specifically Portugal, Spain, and Italy. We do this through a platform we are actively building, combining compliance expertise with automation and AI. This role sits at the core of that mission. Every payroll run you own is a promise kept to a customer who trusted us to handle what they could not do alone. You will get real ownership early, work directly alongside our Payroll Manager, and grow into a full-time contract as you prove your impact. What You'll Be Building Own end-to-end payroll processing for a portfolio of international clients, covering new hires, exits, and contractual changes with precision and consistency Help standardize payroll workflows and contribute to the adoption of unified processes that hold up as we scale into new markets Use and help shape the internal tools we are building, including automation features and AI-assisted workflows, to run payroll faster and with fewer errors Respond to employee and client payroll queries with clarity and speed, becoming the person people trust to get it right Support compliance with Portuguese labor law, tax obligations, and social security requirements, and flag what does not look right Contribute to reconciliation reports and internal audit processes, building the habits of accuracy that this work demands Who You Are Based in Portugal, under 35, with a university degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field You communicate clearly in both English and Portuguese, in writing and in conversation You are the kind of person who double-checks their own work before anyone else has to You are comfortable with spreadsheets and pick up new software fast, which matters here because we are actively building our own You manage your own time and priorities without needing someone to structure your day You are genuinely curious about how payroll, compliance, and labor law actually work, not just how to fill in the fields International exposure, whether through study, travel, or work, is a plus, but not a dealbreaker What We Offer A structured internship with a clear path to a full-time work contract based on your performance Remote-first and flexible schedule, we care about outcomes, not hours logged Variable bonus aligned with business results Direct access to a world-class team and a customer base that includes unicorns and publicly traded companies Recognition based on merit, no politics, no waiting in line Career growth that moves as fast as you do What Happens Next We don't do corporate black holes. This is a real, open role, and not a ghost job to harvest resumes. Here is the general roadmap: start with a quick application form. If we're aligned, we'll send over a self-evaluation survey, followed by human-to-human interviews and a hands-on challenge so you can show, not just tell, what you can do. We're a startup, so the exact steps might iterate, but we guarantee three things: we (try to) move fast, we are radically transparent, and we will never waste your time.