North America Payroll Manager

Role Summary

The North America Payroll Manager is accountable for the accurate, timely, and compliant delivery of payroll across the United States and Canada. This role leads payroll operations, ensures adherence to statutory and company requirements, drives continuous improvement, and partners closely with Finance, HR, People Operations, Tax, and external vendors. The role requires strong leadership, operational rigor, and the ability to balance execution with transformation.

Key Responsibilities

Payroll Ops & Delivery

• Own end-to-end payroll processing for the U.S. and Canada, ensuring on-time, accurate, and compliant payroll execution across all pay groups.
• Oversee payroll calendars, cut-offs, controls, reconciliations, and sign-off processes. Ensure processing of earnings, deductions, benefits, equity, bonuses, retroactivity, terminations, and off-cycle payments.
• Manage payroll funding, cash requirements, and coordination with Finance/Treasury.

Compliance & Risk Management

• Ensure compliance with all federal, state/provincial, and local payroll laws and regulations, including tax, wage and hour, and reporting requirements.
• Monitor legislative changes and assess operational impacts; implement required updates proactively.
• Support internal and external audits, SOX controls, and payroll risk assessments.

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, coach, and develop the North America payroll team, fostering accountability, consistency, and high performance. Promote standardization while accommodating local statutory requirements.

Vendor & Stakeholder Management

• Manage relationships with payroll service providers, tax vendors, and third-party partners; ensure SLAs, KPIs, and contractual obligations are met.
• Act as a key payroll partner to HR, People Operations, Finance, Tax, Legal, and Employee Experience teams.

Process Improvement & Transformation

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance accuracy, efficiency, controls, and employee experience.
• Contribute to payroll transformation initiatives, including system implementations, automation, and standardization. Maintain and improve payroll documentation, SOPs, and knowledge assets.

Employee Experience

• Ensure timely and professional resolution of payroll inquiries and escalations.
   

Qualifications & Experience

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, HR, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 8–10+ years of progressive payroll experience, with deep expertise in U.S. payroll; Canadian payroll experience strongly preferred.
• Strong knowledge of payroll tax, wage and hour regulations, and compliance frameworks.
• Experience working with outsourced payroll providers and payroll systems (e.g., ADP, Workday, SAP, or similar).

Preferred

• CPP (Certified Payroll Professional) or equivalent certification.
• Exposure to payroll transformation or system implementation projects.

Key Competences

• Strong leadership, judgment, and decision-making skills.
• High attention to detail with the ability to manage competing priorities.

• Structured, risk-aware, and process-driven mindset.