The Director, Enterprise Payroll provides enterprise leadership, design, and coordination for payroll across the organization and its affiliated entities. While payroll is executed within individual operating businesses, this role establishes the enterprise framework for payroll governance, compliance practices, and reporting standards across a shared HR and payroll systems environment. The role supports payroll operations at the family office and leads enterprise governance and coordination of payroll systems and compliance in partnership with Enterprise HR and Legal teams.
Responsibilities
Enterprise Payroll Strategy & Leadership
- Define and maintain enterprise payroll design principles, including operating model, governance structure, and decision rights
- Lead the design and ongoing refinement of the enterprise payroll operating model, including assessment of current state, definition of future-state architecture, and execution roadmap
- Develop and deliver a multi-year enterprise payroll roadmap that aligns payroll calendars, pay-date governance, vendor management, and accountable ownership across the payroll operating model
- Establish and lead the enterprise payroll operating model that balances centralized governance with local execution, including performance oversight to ensure accurate, timely, and consistent payroll delivery across entities
- Lead cross-functional collaboration with entity payroll teams, HR, Finance, Legal, and Tax to drive alignment of payroll processes with organizational and compliance goals
- Inform executive stakeholders regarding payroll compliance exposure, system optimization, and operational risk
- Lead enterprise payroll analytics and reporting, delivering insights on cost, compliance risk, and operational performance to key stakeholders
- Ensure alignment between payroll operating model design and enterprise systems architecture, including Workday Payroll and related platforms
- Foster a culture of accountability, standardization, collaboration, and continuous improvement across enterprise and entity payroll teams
Governance, Risk & Compliance
- Serve as the enterprise subject matter expert for payroll governance, including policy interpretation, escalation decisions, and exception management
- Develop, establish, and maintain enterprise payroll policies, configuration guardrails, and internal control standards across all affiliated entities
- Establish enterprise standards and strategies for payroll compliance monitoring across federal, state, and local wage and hour regulations
- Establish enterprise standards for interpreting and applying payroll and employment regulations, in partnership with Legal, HR, and Tax, ensuring consistent application across entities
- Own enterprise oversight of payroll-related internal and external audits, including coordination, issue resolution, and remediation efforts
- Establish and enforce enterprise payroll system access and data security standards to protect sensitive payroll information
Enterprise Payroll Implementation & Change Leadership
- Lead enterprise implementation and adoption of payroll system changes and operational processes, ensuring consistent execution, communication, and deployment across entities
- Own the coordination of enterprise payroll initiatives impacting multiple entities, including benefit plan changes, compensation programs, and legal-driven updates (e.g., new pay codes or processes)
- Ensure enterprise-wide alignment and adoption of payroll changes through structured communication, stakeholder engagement, and change management practices
Technology Design, Ownership & System Governance
- Serve as enterprise functional owner and governance subject matter expert for Workday Payroll, Workday Time and Attendance, ADP, ABI, TopBloc, and associated payroll and timekeeping systems
- Lead the execution and ongoing management of the enterprise payroll systems roadmap, ensuring alignment with business, compliance, and scalability needs
- Define enterprise configuration and design standards, as well as enhancement intake, prioritization, and testing protocols for payroll system changes
- Establish and uphold enterprise configuration standards and system controls to ensure consistency, security, and compliance
- Lead cross-functional alignment with IT, HRIS, Finance, and entity payroll teams to design and optimize integrations between payroll, time tracking, and financial systems
- Lead enterprise payroll workstreams for system implementations, integrations, and new entity onboarding, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards and design principles
Payroll Operations (Family Office)
- Direct payroll processing activities for the family office, ensuring accurate and timely payroll delivery across multiple entities and jurisdictions
- Serve as backup payroll processor for end-to-end family office payroll, as needed, ensuring continuity of operations and adherence to enterprise standards
- Ensure payroll operations align with enterprise control standards and compliance requirements
- Support payroll-related audits for the family office, ensuring alignment with enterprise audit standards and timely response to inquiries
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or related field required; advanced degree preferred
- 10+ years of progressive payroll leadership experience, including exposure to payroll accounting and at least 5 years in a leadership role overseeing multi-entity or complex payroll environments
- Experience designing enterprise payroll operating models, including governance frameworks, system architecture, and multi-entity structures
- Demonstrated experience operating within a matrixed organization and enterprise governance model, with accountability for setting standards across decentralized teams
- Experience owning or influencing enterprise payroll systems strategy, including integrations across HRIS, timekeeping, and financial systems
- Extensive experience with enterprise payroll systems (e.g., Workday Payroll), including configuration, governance, testing, and optimization
- Experience managing enterprise payroll vendors and system integrations
- Experience operating across multiple jurisdictions and complex regulatory environments
- Deep knowledge of federal and state wage and hour laws (with an emphasis on California), payroll tax regulations, and related compliance requirements
- Knowledge of ADP Smart Compliance, ABI timekeeping, or similar platforms preferred
- Proven success leading large-scale payroll transformation initiatives, including process standardization, system implementations, and organizational change
- Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior leadership and drive alignment across functions and entities
- High degree of integrity, discretion, and sound judgment in handling confidential employee and financial information
