Manager, Payroll Data Implementation

Restaurant365•Austin, TX

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Manager, Payroll Data Implementation leads the team responsible for end-to-end payroll data implementation across current and future payroll products sold and supported by Restaurant365. The role oversees Payroll Data Implementation Specialists and is accountable for data quality, predictable implementations, operational controls, scalable processes, team performance, capacity planning, operational KPIs, and continuous improvement throughout the payroll data implementation lifecycle. The manager partners with Payroll Operations, Tax/Compliance, Implementation, Sales, Customer Success, Support, ACH/Payments, Finance, Product, Engineering, Billing, and other teams to reduce defects, improve first-payroll outcomes, and establish clear ownership from intake through steady-state operations. The role owns data implementation outcomes and standards while partnering with Tax/Compliance, which retains responsibility for technical tax determinations, filings, notices, amendments, and jurisdiction-specific requirements. The manager sets the function’s strategy and roadmap; develops the team; oversees data gathering, due diligence, extraction, translation, mapping, transformation, validation, parallel payroll reviews, first-payroll readiness, stabilization, and handoff; and establishes data-quality frameworks, lifecycle standards, readiness gates, controls, and escalation paths. The role also drives process improvement, automation, documentation, knowledge management, and approved AI workflows, while communicating progress, risks, capacity, dependencies, and outcomes to leadership and cross-functional partners.

Requirements

Proven leadership experience managing implementation, payroll operations, data, or similarly specialized teams, with a track record of measurable business outcomes.
Strong hands-on experience with payroll systems, payroll data migration, implementation controls, and data validation, ideally in a SaaS, multi-tenant, or multi-product environment.
Working knowledge of payroll tax concepts, such as work versus resident state, SUTA, local taxes, and historical tax balances, and how onboarding data affects payroll calculations, tax setup, reporting, filing readiness, and corrections.
Understanding of the boundary between data implementation responsibilities and technical tax filing execution.
Demonstrated ability to define and manage KPIs and service levels, analyze performance and capacity data, and drive continuous improvement initiatives.
Advanced project, change, and operating-model management skills, including prioritization, capacity planning, risk management, control design, and communication across multiple stakeholders.
Experience with automation tools such as Power Automate, VBA, macros, workflow platforms, rules-based checks, AI-enabled tools such as Glean, or other automation and knowledge-management tools.
Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate across operational, technical, customer-facing, and executive audiences.
High degree of ownership, judgment, and problem-solving ability, especially in ambiguous or fast-changing environments with complex handoffs and competing priorities.
Eagerness to use AI in daily work and bring a team along, supported by hands-on experience, an understanding of generative AI’s capabilities and limitations, and judgment to verify outputs.
Track record of building AI skills in others and incorporating AI into how a team works.

Responsibilities

Define and own the vision, strategy, and roadmap for Payroll Data Implementation across payroll products, aligned with Payroll Operations and company objectives.
Translate implementation goals into actionable plans, metrics, and processes, including time-to-first-payroll, data accuracy, on-time delivery, defect and rework reduction, stabilization, and tax-impacting data quality.
Establish and refine KPIs and service-level measures; use reporting to guide demand forecasting, capacity planning, staffing recommendations, prioritization, and work allocation.
Represent Payroll Data Implementation in cross-functional forums and coordinate with operational, customer-facing, finance, product, engineering, and other partner teams.
Hire, lead, coach, and develop Payroll Data Implementation Specialists; plan succession, cross-training, and backup coverage; conduct performance reviews and maintain career and development plans.
Build a team culture emphasizing quality, accountability, control awareness, continuous improvement, clear ownership, and appropriate risk escalation.
Oversee end-to-end payroll data implementation, including data gathering, due diligence, extraction, translation, mapping, transformation, validation, internal parallel payroll reviews, first-payroll readiness, stabilization, and handoff.
Ensure completeness, accuracy, validation, documentation, and disposition of payroll data and configuration within implementation scope, including manually entered or configured elements affecting payroll calculations, tax setup, reporting, and filing readiness.
Define and maintain lifecycle RACI, readiness gates, definitions of done, approval boundaries, and escalation paths across partner teams.
Review and improve standard operating procedures, playbooks, and checklists for data entry, validation, parallel payroll, first-payroll readiness, and handoff.
Serve as the functional escalation point for complex data, configuration, or implementation issues, partnering with the accountable technical owner when issues exceed the team’s authority.
Design and enforce data-quality and validation frameworks, including checks, exception reporting, sampling, evidence requirements, and disposition standards.
Partner with Tax/Compliance so onboarding supports accurate tax setup, payroll reporting, and filing readiness; technical tax determinations and filing execution remain with Tax/Compliance.
Lead root-cause analysis for recurring data, configuration, payroll, or tax-impacting issues and implement systemic fixes across process, training, tooling, or product design.
Ensure parallel payroll and first-payroll readiness reviews include appropriate documentation, remediation plans, approvals, and sign-offs before go-live.
Monitor post-go-live defects and data fixes and incorporate lessons into implementation standards.
Identify opportunities to streamline and automate onboarding workflows using reusable templates, macros, workflow automation, rules-based checks, and other appropriate tools.
Partner with Product, Engineering, Payroll Operations, and stakeholders to advocate for product and tooling enhancements that improve data quality, controls, visibility, and scalability while reducing manual work.
Lead or sponsor projects to improve onboarding throughput, accuracy, reporting, visibility, capacity, and operational resilience.
Maintain auditable, version-controlled sources of truth for workflows, templates, validation frameworks, controls, and reporting; use automation and knowledge-management tools to improve documentation and workflow efficiency.
Leverage approved AI tools and internal platforms to enhance documentation, knowledge discovery, and workflow efficiency; build repeatable AI workflows and automations, coach team members on tool selection and prompt refinement, review outputs for quality, share effective practices, and hold the team accountable for quality standards and use.
Align implementation practices with downstream payroll processing, tax setup and reporting, filing readiness, ACH and funding workflows, finance and billing processes, support handoff, and ongoing operational ownership.
Communicate progress, risks, capacity, dependencies, and outcomes to leadership through regular updates and reporting, highlighting trends, control gaps, and improvement opportunities.
Collaborate with Payroll Operations leadership and cross-functional partners to support the client journey from sales and intake through due diligence, implementation, first payroll, stabilization, ongoing operations, and relevant lifecycle transitions.
Own and refine implementation playbooks, data templates, validation frameworks, readiness criteria, lifecycle maps, RACI documentation, and SOPs.
Capture and share knowledge from escalations, defects, tax-impacting data issues, and post-go-live lessons; champion consistent documentation and version-control practices.