Director of Payroll

Why This Role Matters

HHMI is not looking for someone to keep the current payroll process running as is. The mandate is to take it apart and rebuild it from first principles into a Workday-native, AI-first operation that reflects the best available technology rather than inherited habit.

Payroll also sits at the seam between Finance and People & Culture, so the role only works if that partnership holds, with People & Culture trusting this person to get pay right, explain hard tradeoffs plainly, and bring them along on change rather than spring it on them.

What You Will Actually Do

• Redesigns the payroll process from first principles.
• Maps how payroll works today by finding what is slow, manual, error-prone, or simply unexamined.
• Rebuilds it around best practice.
• Treats the current process as a starting point to question, not a constraint to preserve.
• Owes the payroll function end to end, including compliance and controls.
• Runs accurate, on-time, compliant pay across all HHMI populations, including foreign nationals, and the states and tax jurisdictions in which they work, while leading the payroll team to that standard.
• Keeps payroll compliant across multi-state tax, wage and hour, foreign national withholding, and reporting obligations, and partners with ADP, which prepares W-2s and remits state payroll taxes.
• Buils controls that catch problems early and documents the process, so it does not live in one person's head.
• Makes Workday do the work.
• Drives payroll deeper into Workday, including configuration, automation, controls, and reporting.
• Cuts the workarounds and spreadsheets that sit alongside the system and replaces them with the system itself.
• Puts AI to real use.
• Uses current AI tools to reduce manual effort, catch errors before they reach an employee's paycheck, and free the team for higher-value work.
• Decides where AI genuinely helps, where it does not, and builds accordingly.
• Buils customer service into the design.
• Buils the new process around the people it serves, so employees can get a clear, fast, accurate answer about their pay.
• Treats responsiveness and accuracy as design goals rather than afterthoughts.
• Partners with P&C and Science, and briefs executive leadership.
• Works hand in glove with People & Culture and Science on everything that touches pay, including onboarding, leaves, terminations, comp changes, time keeping, and benefits deductions.
• Also translates payroll strategy, risk, and tradeoffs into clear terms for the President, the COO, and the General Counsel, bringing recommendations rather than status.
• Leads the team.
• Sets direction for the payroll staff, develops their skills toward a more automated operation, and communicates clearly through change, so the team is brought along rather than left behind.

  What We Are Looking For

  • Deep payroll expertise.
  • Knows payroll at a level few people do, including multi-state tax, wage and hour, garnishments, off-cycle and retro pay, year-end, and the full mechanics.
  • Has designed payroll processes, not just operated them.
  • Workday command.
  • Knows Workday payroll well enough to redesign around it, including how to configure it, automate it, and stop fighting it.
  • Can tell the difference between a system limitation and a process the organization never bothered to fix.
  • Fluent in current AI.
  • Uses current AI tools in real work and has opinions about where they help.
  • Can spot the manual steps a model should be doing and is comfortable building toward that.
  • Not bound by the status quo and current on the field.
  • Says so when a step exists only out of habit and is willing to consider and implement change rather than defend the inherited way.
  • Stays current on the best practices, tools, and operating models at the leading edge of payroll, and brings that outside view rather than designing only from what HHMI has done before.
  • Thinks strategically and owns the seam.
  • Sees payroll as a system to be designed, not a task list to be completed, while still getting this Friday's pay run right.
  • When something falls between Finance and P&C, keeps it moving until pay is correct and on time rather than waiting to find out whose job it is.
  • Strong with two audiences and a real partner to P&C and Science.
  • Can go deep with the team on the mechanics and then brief the President, COO, or General Counsel at the right altitude.
  • Treats People & Culture and Science as partners rather than a counterparty, brings them in early, and earns their trust to get pay right.
  • Depth over tenure.
  • HHMI is not counting years for this role.

  Nice to Have

  • Benefits experience.
  • Experience working with and understanding of benefits, gained from working closely with a benefits team.

  What This Role Is Not

  • A role for someone who wants to run the existing process well and leave it there.
  • The job is to redesign it.
  • A role for someone who needs the status quo defended.
  • This is not the seat for someone most comfortable when nothing changes.
  • A back-office role removed from leadership.
  • This role briefs the President, COO, and General Counsel and partners with P&C leadership directly.

  Practical Details

  • This is a full-time, permanent HHMI position based at headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with a hybrid schedule.
  • The Director of Payroll reports to the Chief Financial Officer and partners closely with People & Culture.
  • Please direct inquiries to the Office of People & Culture.
  • We encourage qualified candidates who are eligible to work in the United States to apply.
  • Please note, we are not able to sponsor a visa for this position at this time.

  Compensation And Benefits

  • Our employees are compensated from a total rewards perspective in many ways for their contributions to our mission, including competitive pay, exceptional health benefits, retirement plans, time off, and a range of recognition and wellness programs.
  • Visit our Benefits at HHMI site to learn more.
  • Pay Type: Annual
  • HHMI’s salary structure is developed based on relevant job market data.
  • HHMI considers a candidate's education, previous experiences, knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as internal consistency when making job offers.
  • Typically, a new hire for this position in this location is compensated between the minimum and the midpoint of the salary range.

  Equal Opportunity Employer

  • We use E-Verify to confirm the identity and employment eligibility of all new hires.