Sr. Manager Payroll Process Design

As a Sr. Manager Global Payroll Process Designer, you will drive and support the design, standardization, and optimization of end-to-end payroll processes, including payroll tax compliance, benefits integrations, and enterprise program delivery in close partnership with the Global Payroll Product Manager. Your primary responsibility will be to ensure that payroll systems are efficient, compliant, and scalable, delivering timely and accurate compensation for employees around the world. By collaborating closely with cross-functional partners and leveraging process improvement methodologies, you will harmonize payroll workflows, drive automation, and enhance overall employee experience. Your analytical mindset and technical expertise will enable you to identify opportunities for improvement, resolve process challenges, and support a culture of continuous innovation. In this critical role, you will shape the future of global payroll operations and help set new standards of excellence for a science-driven organization.

Your passion in life is for a user to be pulled through a process with little to zero “how to knowledge and/or documentation”.  Therefore, at the forefront of process assessment and implementation is the goal in ‘consumerization’ of employee processes!

• Lead End-to-End Payroll Process Design and Standardization: Analyze current global payroll workflows to identify inefficiencies, gaps, and areas for standardization and harmonization. Ensure payroll processes align with local statutory, tax, and regulatory requirements. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to design streamlined, compliant, and scalable payroll processes that improve both employee experience and operational performance.
• Drive Process Optimization and Automation: Apply process improvement methodologies, such as Lean Six Sigma, to enhance payroll system efficiency. Identify opportunities for automation using the latest HR technologies to reduce manual effort and enhance quality. Support the move toward touchless/exception-based payroll operations.
• Partner with Stakeholders: Work closely with People Services, People Technology & Experience team, Centers of Excellence, and external vendors to implement new payroll solutions and ensure seamless integration of systems across multiple geographies.
• Ensure Compliance and Internal Controls: Develop and embed robust controls and audit readiness within payroll processes to meet internal policies, SOX requirements, and country-specific legal standards, safeguarding data accuracy and confidentiality.
• Support Payroll Process Implementation: Lead and support the rollout of newly designed processes related to global payroll, payroll tax, statutory reporting, benefit deductions, and shadow payroll providing training, documentation, and change management guidance to internal teams and end users.
• Leverage Data and Analytics: Collaborate with analytics teams to collect, monitor, and interpret payroll data, developing KPIs and dashboards to measure process effectiveness and drive data-driven decision making for continuous improvement.
• Champion Continuous Improvement: Foster a culture of innovation by regularly reviewing payroll operations, soliciting feedback, and implementing best practices to elevate the employee experience and maintain payroll excellence worldwide.

• Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering, Business Analytics, Operations Management, or relevant field – Preferred OR relevant 7+ years of relevant work experience.
• Proficient in evaluating existing process flows for Workday/Payroll, mapping against functionality available vs used, developing new process flows and/or implementing new functional capabilities to improve service delivery that yield a higher degree of customer centricity/intuitiveness.
• 5+ years of proven relevant work experience in global payroll process design/redesign, transformation and change management.
• Strong knowledge of payroll tax processes and statutory requirements, benefits integration within payroll. Familiarity with EMEA and/or APAC regions, preferred.
• Solid technical skills and understanding of systems architecture of Workday, ServiceNow, ADP GlobalView/Celergo, other systems/platforms.
• Experience with quality management, process simulations and creating detailed standard operating procedures.
• Proficiency in data analysis, with the ability to leverage HR metrics and analytics tools.
• Excellent problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, with the ability to identify and address process gaps.
• Strong project management abilities, including the capacity to support planning, execution, and monitoring projects within set timelines.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively with various stakeholders within all levels of an organization.
• Detail-oriented with a focus on accuracy and precision in process design and documentation.
• Lean Six Sigma Certification, desired