Payroll Operations Manager - Anywhere in the U.S.A.

Job Summary

The Payroll Process Operations Manager is responsible for leading payroll process operations and driving discipline around payroll policies, controls, and time management standards. This role serves as a key operational leader, leveraging data analytics to improve payroll performance, reduce risk, and enable informed decision-making. The role will also support mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities, including payroll integration, process harmonization, and compliance alignment across newly acquired entities. The position also serves as a key liaison across HR Technology, Finance, and HR Operations to lead cross-process and system changes, govern pay-impacting rules, and provide operational analytics that strengthen payroll accuracy and service performance.

The role can be based anywhere in the U.S.A.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities (Essential Functions)

• Payroll Process Operations: Lead payroll process operations by ensuring disciplined execution of payroll calendars, cutoffs, and workflow standards. Serve as the primary escalation point for payroll issues and operational risks, driving timely resolution and on-time, accurate pay delivery. Act as the HR Operations expert on wage and hour compliance, payroll policies, and timekeeping processes, overseeing workforce management systems to ensure adherence to federal, state, and local labor laws. Establish and maintain strong internal controls that safeguard payroll accuracy, regulatory compliance, and financial integrity. Drive continuous process improvement through standardization, automation, and audit-ready documentation while supporting payroll transformation, M&A integration activities, and system and policy enhancements that improve scalability and operational effectiveness.
• Project Management & System / Implementation Leadership: Lead payroll workstreams for system implementations, upgrades, and configuration changes. Partner with HR Technology, Finance, and IT to assess cross-process impacts, coordinate testing and readiness activities, and manage timelines, risks, and stakeholder communication.
• Service Delivery, Ticket Governance & Case Management: Oversee payroll inquiry queues, ticket volumes, and escalation pathways even when direct ticket closure is delegated. Establish SLAs, monitor resolution performance, and drive case-deflection strategies through knowledge resources and process clarity.
• Compliance, Controls & Reconciliation: Ensure adherence to payroll tax, statutory, and wage-hour regulations through reconciliations, audits, and validation checks. Maintain documented procedures, segregation of duties, and audit readiness while supporting responses to tax notices or compliance inquiries.
• Foundational Pay-Impacting Process Governance: Govern operational rules and standards for upstream workforce processes that directly affect pay outcomes, including time capture, compensation updates, terminations, leave status, and pay codes. Monitor exception trends and partner with HR/HRIS to reduce downstream payroll errors.
• Analytics, Dashboards & Reporting: Develop and maintain dashboards and scorecards related to payroll accuracy, ticket volumes, overpayments, and time-and-pay exceptions. Analyze trends and provide actionable insights to leadership and cross-functional partners.

Skills and Minimum Experience Required

• Bachelor’s Degree or Equivalent
• 9+ years relevant experience 
• Deep knowledge of payroll processing (cycles, cutoffs, funding, off-cycles, final pay)
• Strong payroll calendar and deadline management discipline
• Experience leading payroll projects, system upgrades, and implementations
• Working knowledge of payroll systems, HRIS, and Time & Attendance platforms/integrations
• Ownership of workforce time rules and standards (pay codes, overtime rules, shift premiums, accrual logic, union/CBA rules where applicable)
• Ability to drive time & attendance change management (policy updates, system rule changes, stakeholder communication, training)
• Troubleshooting expertise for time capture issues (missed punches, scheduling conflicts, accrual errors, integration defects)
• Vendor and SLA management experience
• Ticket queue and case management oversight skills
• Payroll tax, statutory, and wage-hour compliance knowledge
• Reconciliation, audit, and internal controls experience
• Understanding of upstream pay-impacting processes (time capture, comp changes, terminations, pay codes)
• Ability to build and interpret payroll dashboards and metrics
• Strong cross-functional collaboration (Finance, HRIS, IT, Benefits, Vendors)
• Clear executive communication and escalation management
• Risk identification and structured problem-solving ability
• Occassional travel for business

Preferred Experience

• CPP or equivalent certification
• Experience in outsourced model 
• Experience with SF/ECP / Workforce