Payroll Project Lead

About the role

You will lead payroll-related projects and process improvement initiatives across the U.S. and Canada payroll functions, ensuring deliverables are completed on time, accurately, and in alignment with regulatory, operational, and business requirements. This role partners closely with Payroll leadership, HR, Finance, Technology, vendors, and key Centers of Excellence to assess current-state processes, identify risks and opportunities, drive execution, and support sustainable solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead payroll projects from planning through execution, including scope, timelines, milestones, risks, issue resolution, stakeholder updates, and post-implementation follow-up
• Analyze current payroll processes, systems, and controls to identify improvement opportunities, reduce manual work, strengthen compliance, and improve the associate experience
• Partner with Payroll, HR, Finance, Technology, Legal/Compliance, vendors, and COE teams to align project requirements, validate data, resolve issues, and drive decisions
• Cover testing, validation, communication, training, and change management activities for payroll system, vendor, policy, and process changes
• Serve as a subject matter resource and escalation partner for project-related payroll questions, risks, dependencies, and operational impacts

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, Business Administration, Human Resources, Project Management, or related field required
• 4+ years of payroll experience, including payroll processing, balancing, internal controls, payroll taxes, issue resolution, or payroll operations support
• 2+ years of experience leading or coordinating projects, process improvements, system changes, implementations, or cross-functional initiatives
• 2 or more years’ experience with Workday Payroll or comparable payroll/HCM systems

Qualifications

• Workday experience
• CPP certification
• PHR, SPHR, GPHR certification