Payroll Project Lead

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
• Coordinate testing, validation, communication, training, and change management activities for payroll system, vendor, policy, and process changes
• Support Payroll leadership with project governance, status reporting, executive updates, and prioritization of competing operational initiatives
• Create and maintain project documentation, process maps, standard operating procedures, job aids, and implementation plans to support operational readiness
• Ensure project deliverables support compliance with federal, state, provincial, and local payroll, wage, hour, tax, and audit requirements
• Facilitate audit readiness by organizing project records, controls evidence, approvals, testing results, and implementation documentation
• Serve as a subject matter resource and escalation partner for project‑related payroll questions, risks, dependencies, and operational impacts

• 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