Payroll & Time and Labor Practice Leader

ExtensisHR•Iselin, NJ

About The Position

The Payroll & Time and Labor Practice Leader owns the structure, optimization, documentation, and long-term scalability of Payroll and Time & Labor as foundational PEO service offerings. This role is responsible for building consistent service standards, improving workflows, strengthening documentation, supporting system and process review, and partnering cross-functionally to improve accuracy, efficiency, and the client and employee experience. This role partners closely with Payroll, Time & Labor, Implementation, Client Solutions, School Services, Product/Technology, Finance, Tax, Benefits, and Compliance teams to ensure workflows, handoffs, policies, configuration dependencies, and service expectations are clear, scalable, and aligned across the organization.

Requirements

5+ years of progressive payroll, time and labor, workforce management, HR technology, service operations, or related leadership experience; PEO, payroll service bureau, HR services, or large multi-state employer experience strongly preferred.
Deep knowledge of multi-state payroll, payroll tax, garnishments, wage and hour considerations, timekeeping workflows, accruals, time-off policies, and integrations with benefits, GL, payroll, and workforce management systems.
Demonstrated success leading process review, workflow improvement, SOP development, documentation governance, standardization, enablement, or automation initiatives at scale.
Strong systems-thinking and process-design skills, with the ability to evaluate current-state workflows, identify root causes, and translate findings into clear standards, tools, documentation, and training.
Ability to partner effectively with Finance, Tax, Benefits, Product/Technology, Compliance, Implementation, Client Solutions, School Services, Payroll, Time & Labor, and operational leaders.
Experience influencing without direct authority and driving adoption of standards, processes, and documentation in a matrixed environment.
CPP certification strongly preferred; timekeeping, workforce management, or HR technology experience strongly valued.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex payroll, timekeeping, system, and compliance concepts for operational, executive, and client-facing audiences.

Nice To Haves

Process-oriented, practical, and able to balance standardization with client-specific complexity.
Comfortable moving between detail-level workflow review and broader service model design.
Collaborative approach with strong follow-through, sound judgment, and a continuous improvement mindset.
Ability to create structure in ambiguous environments and bring teams together around common standards.

Responsibilities

Define, maintain, and continuously improve the service model across Payroll and Time & Labor, ensuring consistent support across multi-state, multi-client, and complex service environments.
Review Payroll and Time & Labor workflows to identify inefficiencies, recurring issues, manual workarounds, duplicate steps, and opportunities to streamline processes, reduce rework, and improve service delivery.
Build, maintain, and govern SOPs, playbooks, checklists, and service standards for Payroll and Time & Labor processes, including clear exception-handling for client-specific, state-specific, industry-specific, and system-specific scenarios.
Support structured review of systems, forms, configuration inputs, case routing, workflow documentation, knowledge articles, templates, and reports to ensure teams have accurate, current, and usable guidance.
Create and maintain a consistent discovery and readiness framework for Time & Labor, including attendance practices, clocks, approvals, calendars, employee groups, pay rules, accruals, time-off policies, compliance requirements, reporting needs, and client decision points required before configuration begins.
Partner with operational and technology teams to support clear qualification, documentation, and handoff expectations for Time & Labor platforms and related workforce management processes.
Partner with internal teams to ensure time-off, leave, holiday, accrual, classification, and pay practice policies are reviewed early enough to support accurate payroll and timekeeping setup.
Define readiness checkpoints and handoff expectations between Sales, Implementation, Client Solutions, School Services, Payroll, and Time & Labor so client requirements, employee data, policy decisions, open items, and configuration dependencies are visible and actionable.
Identify and lead automation and technology enablement opportunities across Payroll and Time & Labor, partnering with Product/Technology on tooling, AI enablement, routing logic, reporting, integrations, forms, and system improvements that reduce manual effort and improve accuracy.
Serve as a domain partner to Finance, Tax, Benefits, Implementation, Client Solutions, School Services, Compliance, Product/Technology, and operational leaders to support alignment across wage changes, pay rules, multi-state compliance, GL integrations, timekeeping setup, accruals, tax filings, and related dependencies.
Maintain awareness of payroll and timekeeping compliance considerations, including wage notices, classification impacts, meal and rest period considerations, sick leave rules, time-off and accrual implications, and documentation needed to support compliant execution.
Build training, reference materials, and just-in-time guidance that elevate Payroll and Time & Labor proficiency across service teams and partner functions. Translate complex payroll, timekeeping, system, and compliance concepts into clear internal guidance.
Partner with operational leaders to evaluate process health, recurring issue themes, readiness gaps, manual touchpoints, escalation patterns, turnaround constraints, and opportunities to measure efficiency gains through workflow improvement or automation.
Serve as a senior domain escalation partner for complex Payroll and Time & Labor issues, helping resolve the immediate concern while identifying the root cause, documentation gap, training need, or process improvement that will help prevent recurrence.
Coordinate with Customer Experience, Benefits, Compliance, Implementation, and other practice or functional leaders to ensure Payroll and Time & Labor integrate cleanly with the broader client and employee service experience.
A key function of this role includes the effective use and understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and technologies to enhance productivity, decision-making, and overall performance. This position is expected to maintain awareness of emerging AI applications relevant to their responsibilities, apply AI tools ethically and effectively, and continuously develop their AI proficiency.