Senior Manager Payroll Processing

Purpose: The Senior Manager of Payroll is to manage day-to-day hourly and salary payroll processing for a broadly dispersed, high turn-over, dynamic organization with over 30,000 weekly and bi-weekly paid employees. This position ensures that payroll procedures and target dates are executed in an accurate, compliant, and timely manner. 

Essential Functions: 

• Manages the Payroll team in preparation and processing of the hourly and salaried payrolls in the US & Canada, while coordinating the workflow through the department up through preparation and distribution of paychecks, tax filings and payments, deductions, and garnishments 

• Conducts rigorous peer review and quality assurance of all payroll processing work to ensure accuracy and compliance; identifies and corrects errors before final processing  

• Leads and develops a knowledgeable payroll team to work effectively, while ensuring confidentiality, accuracy, effective controls, and timeliness for payroll related documentation 

• Develops internal procedures and controls to ensure compliance with regulatory and corporate audit controls 

• Monitors and evaluates payroll system updates, with particular focus on system testing to ensure accurate and timely processing 

• Maintains payroll data (earnings and deduction codes) and tax data (rates and jurisdictions) in PeopleSoft 

• Serves as the Payroll subject matter expert and in the PeopleSoft HCM, including entering environment change requests and performing timely validation of test results prior to changes being put into production 

• Sets guidelines for Payroll team, determines payroll schedule, timelines/deadlines for HR and managers to provide information to payroll for processing; maintain continuous level of engagement between team, plant HR resources and PeopleSoft HRIS 

• Aids the General Accounting function in reconciliation of payroll bank and general ledger accounts 

• Participate in company’s future transitions of PeopleSoft to SuccessFactors HCM, payroll engine, and time and attendance system 

• Actively participates and lends technical expertise in the selection, establishment, implementation, and transition to a new Payroll Management system 

Reporting Relationship: The Senior Manager of Payroll reports to the Senior Director of Payroll 

Minimum Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills, and Work Environment:  

• Education and Experience: The combination of education and professional experience must exceed 6 years: 

• In a leadership role: Requires 2 years of experience supervising a team of professionals engaged in executing payroll programs 

• In a technical role: Requires 6-8 years of payroll management experience engaged in developing and delivering payroll programs 

• A bachelor’s degree in a program related to the functional area can count for 3 of the 6-year requirement 

• In the industry: 3-5 years of Hospitality, F&B and/or Retail experience 

• FPC or CPP certification strongly desired 

• Specialized Training:  

• Knowledge of US payroll including federal, state, local, and tax regulations required; wage and hour compliance knowledge required 

• Knowledge of Canadian payroll federal and provincial laws and regulations strongly preferred 

• Training that leads to understanding of managing payroll with tipped employee base 

• Specialized Skillset/Competencies/Traits: 

• Demonstrated experience processing automated payrolls, with specific experience processing payroll for a company with over 10,000 employees 

• Exceptional attention to detail with demonstrated ability to conduct thorough quality control reviews, identify discrepancies, and ensure accuracy in high-volume payroll processing environment 

• Strong analytical and audit skills with ability to peer review payroll work, validate calculations, and maintain accuracy standards across all payroll outputs 

• Knowledge of ADP, Dayforce (Ceridian), and SuccessFactors HCM preferred 

• Preferred experience with payroll systems implementation and transformation   

• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel 

• Business acumen and also has the mindset required to understand the long-term implications of payroll planning and to advance the organization’s goals 

• Demonstrated history of understanding the needs of the business, stakeholders, the employee population and individual circumstances 

• Demonstrated history of creating and maintaining positive work environments through coaching, developing, and leading teams to achieve common goals 

• Location: This position is based at the North America Support Center in Bethesda, MD