Director, Payroll

Azenta Inc. At Azenta, new ideas, new technologies and new ways of thinking are driving our future. Our customer focused culture encourages employees to embrace innovation and challenge the status quo with novel thinking and collaborative work relationships. All we accomplish is grounded in our core values of Customer Focus, Achievement, Accountability, Teamwork, Employee Value and Integrity

Job Title Director, Payroll. Job Description At Azenta, new ideas, new technologies and new ways of thinking are driving our future. Our customer-focused culture encourages employees to embrace innovation and challenge the status quo with novel thinking and collaborative work relationships. Azenta Life Sciences is a global leader in the life sciences space with headquarters in Burlington, MA, and offices and operations worldwide.

We are a market leader in automated bio sample management solutions and genomic services across areas such as drug development, clinical and advanced cell therapies for the industry's top pharmaceutical, biotech, academic and healthcare institutions globally. We provide unparalleled capabilities with our lab analysis, sample management and storage services, informatics software, and consumables, with the largest installed base managing millions of samples globally.

The Director, Payroll, reporting to the Senior Director, Total Rewards & HRIS, provides direct leadership and oversight of the European and U.S. payroll function, ensuring accurate, timely, and compliant payroll processing and related activities. This role owns global payroll governance across U.S. and designated international jurisdictions, including standardized controls, payroll calendars, provider oversight, and escalation of payroll compliance matters. This role manages day-to-day payroll operations, payroll compliance, and payroll system optimization, while supporting expatriate payroll/tax matters.

The Director, Payroll partners closely with Human Resources, Corporate Finance, Information Technology, and external auditors in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment to ensure efficient payroll operations, strong internal controls, and continuous process improvement, while providing leadership on audit readiness, payroll risk management, and cross-functional issue resolution.

• Oversee bi-weekly U.S. payroll operations across 25+ states for hourly and salaried employee populations, and oversee payroll operations for the UK, Germany, Switzerland, France, and additional European jurisdictions through internal teams and external providers.
• Ensure compliance with federal, state, local and foreign payroll laws, tax regulations, statutory reporting, filing requirements, and employer remittance obligations.
• Direct governance of external payroll providers and in-country partners, including service delivery, compliance support, issue escalation, controls, and continuous improvement.
• Maintain and enhance payroll processes to ensure accuracy, efficiency, and scalability, including standardized controls, documentation, and review procedures across jurisdictions.
• Identify opportunities to optimize and maximize the Workday payroll system.
• Partner with Information Technology on Workday HRIS/payroll enhancements, integrations, and issue resolution.
• Maintain internal control documentation related to payroll and tax compliance processes, support internal and external audits, and lead remediation of identified process or control gaps.
• Partner with Corporate Accounting to ensure accurate recording of payroll transactions within the Oracle General Ledger.
• Manage payroll-related accruals, including expatriate compensation, withholding, and tax equalization.
• Partner with Corporate Accounting and…