AVP, Global Head of Payroll

Agilent Technologies•Santa Clara, CA

1d•$181,200 - $339,750•Onsite

About The Position

The Head of Global Payroll is a new position that will report to the Head of Global HR Operations and sit on the HR Operations Leadership Team. The Head of Global Payroll will be based at one of our major U.S. sites. About HR Operations HR Operations is the engine room of the employee experience. We own the systems, processes, and service delivery that make employment work day to day — payroll, time and attendance, employee data, HR service and case management, and the controls and compliance that sit beneath all of it. We serve every employee in every country, and we are measured on accuracy, timeliness, compliance, and the quality of the experience we deliver. We are also central to the broader HR transformation. As HR shifts toward more strategic, consultative work with the business, that shift only holds if the operational foundation is simplified, standardized, digitized, and increasingly automated. Our mandate is to consolidate fragmented systems and processes into a coherent global platform, and replace manual effort with intelligent automation. Payroll is the most visible and least forgiving part of that mandate — and one of the largest opportunities within it. Role summary The Global Head of Payroll owns end-to-end payroll delivery across all regions, ensuring every employee is paid accurately, on time, and in compliance with local law. In parallel, this leader serves as the business owner of our global payroll and time tracking consolidation program, driving the move to a harmonized operating model, technology stack, and control framework. The role is both operator and transformation leader: steady-state excellence today, a simplified and increasingly automated global platform tomorrow. It requires genuine fluency in AI and automation, applied to how payroll actually runs — not as a concept, but as delivered efficiency, accuracy, and control.

Requirements

10+ years in payroll, with 5+ years leading payroll at a global or multi-region scope.
Demonstrated experience leading a global or large regional payroll consolidation, transformation, or vendor transition — as owner, not participant.
Proven management of leaders across multiple countries and time zones.
Deep knowledge of US payroll and tax, plus working command of multi-country compliance requirements.
Experience with major payroll and time tracking platforms.
Demonstrated experience driving AI and automation in payroll or adjacent HR/finance operations, with measurable results in manual touches, accuracy, or cost to serve.
Practical fluency with automation and AI tooling in an operations context, including the ability to evaluate vendor AI claims critically.
Strong controls, audit, and risk orientation; able to explain how automated processes remain auditable and compliant.
Executive presence with HR, Finance, and audit stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
Experience with incentive, commission, and equity payroll at scale.
Experience selecting or implementing AI-enabled payroll or workforce management capabilities at enterprise scale.
M&A payroll integration or divestiture experience.

Responsibilities

Own day-to-day payroll execution across all countries, including off-cycles, terminations, equity and incentive payments, and year-end processing.
Establish and monitor global service standards — accuracy, timeliness, cost per payslip, and issue resolution — with clear regional accountability.
Ensure statutory compliance, tax filings, audit readiness, and SOX-aligned controls in every jurisdiction; serve as escalation point for regulators, auditors, and works councils where applicable.
Manage payroll vendors and managed-service providers, including contracts, SLAs, governance cadence, and commercial performance.
Partner closely with Finance, Tax, Treasury, Legal, Total Rewards, and HR Technology on funding, accounting, reporting, and data integrity.
Lead the consolidation program from design through deployment — country waves, vendor selection and transition, process standardization, and change management.
Define the target operating model and global process taxonomy; reduce local variation while respecting genuine statutory requirements.
Own program governance: scope, budget, risks, dependencies, and executive reporting to HR and Finance leadership.
Drive adoption of consolidated time tracking, including integration to payroll, scheduling, and labor cost reporting.
Set the vision and roadmap for AI and automation in payroll, identifying where intelligent automation, workflow tooling, and AI-assisted review reduce manual effort and error rates.
Deploy automation across high-volume, rules-based work — data validation, reconciliations, off-cycle handling, gross-to-net checks, ticket triage, and case deflection through self-service and AI assistants.
Use AI-enabled anomaly detection and predictive controls to surface errors before pay, shifting the function from detection to prevention.
Embed automation and AI capability into the consolidation design, so the target model is built for it rather than retrofitted.
Establish responsible-use guardrails with Legal, Privacy, and HR Technology — data handling, human-in-the-loop review, auditability, and accuracy monitoring for anything touching pay.
Quantify and report impact: touchless payroll rate, manual intervention volume, cycle time, cost per payslip, and error reduction.
Lead and develop a globally distributed team of regional payroll leaders and the global incentive payroll leader.
Build succession depth and a consistent capability model across regions, including AI and automation fluency within the team.
Set a culture of controls, continuous improvement, and employee-centric service.