Financial Consulting Manager - Payroll Services

Key Responsibilities

• Managed Payroll Advisory & Assessment
• Lead comprehensive payroll operational assessments spanning governance, compliance, controls, technology, vendor landscape, and service delivery maturity.
• Identify risks, inefficiencies, and cost drivers; develop actionable optimization roadmaps, to include outsource readiness.
• Define future-state payroll operating models, including roles/responsibilities, SLAs, KPIs, and escalation frameworks.
• Present recommendations and business case outcomes to executive stakeholders.
• Process Optimization & Service Delivery Excellence
• Standardize payroll processes, controls, and documentation across managed clients.
• Establish operational metrics, quality assurance frameworks, and continuous improvement routines.
• Drive automation, error reduction, cycle-time improvement, and employee experience enhancements.
• Support remediation of complex payroll issues, audits, and compliance inquiries.
• Engagement & Program Management
• Manage multiple client engagements across scope, budget, timeline, and resource allocation.
• Lead cross-functional coordination among payroll operations, HR, finance, IT, and third-party vendors.
• Maintain governance cadence including status reporting, risk management, and executive steering updates.
• Ensure adherence to PMO, change management, and managed services transition methodologies.
• Practice Development
• Serve as primary relationship lead during assessment, transition, and stabilization phases.
• Build trusted advisor relationships with managed payroll onboarding team.
• Mentor consultants and analysts; review deliverables for quality and consistency.
• Contribute to prospect scoping/proposals, solution design, and thought leadership supporting managed payroll growth.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Accounting, HR, Information Systems, or related field.
• 6+ years of experience in payroll consulting, payroll operations, or payroll managed services.
• Demonstrated experience leading payroll outsourcing transitions or payroll system implementations.
• Strong knowledge of U.S. payroll tax, wage and hour regulations, and compliance controls.
• Proven project and stakeholder management across complex, multi-entity environments.
• Ability to translate operational challenges into scalable solutions.

Preferred Experience

• Experience within a consulting firm or managed services provider.
• Exposure to high-volume, multi-state, or global payroll operations.
• Familiarity with major payroll and HRIS platforms (Workday, ADP, Dayforce, UKG, SAP, Oracle, etc.).
• Professional certifications such as CPP, PMP, or Lean/Six Sigma.
• Experience designing SLAs, KPIs, and governance frameworks for outsourced services.
• Knowledge of Canada or other global payroll tax, wage and hour regulations, and compliance controls.

Benefits

At RSM, we offer a competitive benefits and compensation package for all our people. We offer flexibility in your schedule, empowering you to balance life’s demands, while also maintaining your ability to serve clients. Learn more about our total rewards at https://rsmus.com/careers/working-at-rsm/benefits.