Director of Payroll
About The Position
R1 is seeking a strategic and transformational Director of Payroll to lead enterprise payroll operations for a large, complex workforce. The role is responsible for payroll strategy, governance, compliance, technology, vendor management, and operational excellence while ensuring a strong employee experience. The Director will serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership and partner across HR, Finance, Tax, Legal, and HR Technology to modernize payroll, mitigate risk, strengthen controls, and build a scalable function that supports long-term business growth. The position oversees accurate, compliant, resilient, and scalable payroll delivery across a large, complex, multi-state workforce, and leads transformation through technology innovation, automation, data governance, process standardization, and optimization of the Workday ecosystem.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree; equivalent experience will be considered in lieu of a degree.
- 12+ years of progressive payroll leadership experience, including significant accountability for complex, high-volume, multi-state payroll operations in a large enterprise environment.
- 5+ years of experience leading managers, senior managers, and high-performing teams, with demonstrated ability to build organizational capability, develop future leaders, and drive results through leaders.
- Strong experience with Workday Payroll and Timekeeping.
- Proven experience developing and executing enterprise payroll strategies, operating models, governance frameworks, and transformation roadmaps.
- Deep expertise in payroll regulations, tax compliance, wage-and-hour laws, SOX controls, audits, and enterprise risk management.
- Demonstrated success leading large-scale payroll transformation, system implementations, automation initiatives, or shared services evolution.
- Experience supporting mergers and acquisitions, organizational restructuring, workforce transformation, or geographic expansion.
- Executive-level communication, influence, and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to advise senior leaders on complex business, compliance, and workforce matters.
- Ability to lead through ambiguity, drive organizational change, and balance strategic priorities with operational excellence.
Nice To Haves
- Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) certification.
Responsibilities
- Establish and execute the enterprise payroll strategy, operating model, governance framework, and multi-year transformation roadmap supporting organizational growth and workforce objectives.
- Lead accurate, compliant, resilient, and scalable payroll delivery across a large, complex, multi-state workforce.
- Provide strategic oversight of payroll governance, regulatory compliance, tax operations, SOX controls, audits, enterprise risk management, and financial stewardship.
- Modernize payroll capabilities through technology innovation, automation, data governance, process standardization, and optimization of the Workday ecosystem.
- Build and develop a high-performing payroll organization, leading through managers and senior professionals and strengthening leadership capability and succession readiness.
- Direct strategic vendor partnerships and governance programs to optimize service delivery, compliance outcomes, operational performance, and business value.
- Advise executive stakeholders on payroll-related risks, workforce impacts, compliance matters, transformation priorities, and investment decisions.
- Lead payroll strategy and integration efforts for enterprise initiatives, including mergers and acquisitions, organizational restructuring, geographic expansion, shared services evolution, and business transformation.
Benefits
- Competitive benefits package
- Eligible to participate in an annual bonus plan at a target of 20.00%
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
