Production Support Manager

Overview

The UCPath Center at the University of California Riverside supports payroll, benefits, and HR transactions for UC employees. This position is located at the UCPath Center in Riverside and may involve a hybrid schedule with onsite and remote work.

The Production Support Manager operates within the UCPath Center and reports to an Assistant Director of Production. This role provides strategic leadership and operational oversight to a multifaceted team responsible for resolving escalated inquiries across HR Benefits, Accrual and Payroll transactional functions. The Manager drives end-to-end issue resolution, ensures service excellence, aligns with UC policies, and enforces standardized workflows that enable a seamless customer experience.

The incumbent leads HR supervisors and associates in triaging, analyzing, and resolving high-impact cases, while reinforcing operational discipline, quality assurance, and performance accountability. As a senior subject matter expert, the Manager provides authoritative guidance on complex issues, steers cross-functional engagement, and ensures decisions reflect regulatory requirements, enterprise standards, and best-practice operational principles.

• 25% People Management & Team Leadership:
  Provide leadership to supervisors and associates, set priorities, manage workload, and ensure adherence to policy, procedures, and service standards. Includes full-cycle people management, hiring, onboarding, development, coaching, performance feedback, and mentorship to strengthen decision-making and customer-centric service.
• 35% Escalation Oversight & Case Resolution:
  Lead end-to-end resolution of escalated inquiries across HR, Benefits, Accruals, and Payroll with complex policy, regulatory, and technical considerations. Ensure resolutions align with UC policies and regulatory requirements; document and communicate outcomes; collaborate with COE, HR, Benefits, Payroll and technical teams.
• 25% Process Optimization, Quality Assurance & Compliance:
  Drive workflow improvements, partner on system requirements (People Soft, Salesforce, RPA), validate changes, support testing, and maintain standard operating procedures. Ensure escalated case handling complies with UC policy and regulatory obligations; implement corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
• 15% Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement:
  Coordinate with UC locations, central offices, and internal UCPath units to streamline processes, communicate trends, and ensure alignment with policy changes and compensating controls. Represent Production Support in cross-functional forums.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years of progressive experience in HR, Payroll, Benefits, or shared-services operations in a high-volume, customer-focused environment and/or equivalent education/training.
• Minimum 5 years supervisory or managerial experience leading teams responsible for complex transactional processing or escalated case resolution.
• Minimum 2 years direct experience with People Soft HCM or other enterprise HRIS platforms, including troubleshooting and data validation.
• Minimum 2 years hands-on experience with Salesforce or similar case management systems, including triage, analysis, and workflow management.

• Experience in leading teams, setting expectations, coaching, and managing performance; ability to build relationships.
• Advanced knowledge of employer policies and procedures in large institutions; understanding of HR, benefits, payroll operations and their downstream impacts.
• Knowledge of HR and payroll concepts and regulations related to leaves, retirement, compensation, labor relations, and other areas of HR.
• Knowledge of HR/Payroll systems and data dependencies; understand downstream impacts of changes.
• Ability to hire, evaluate, and develop subordinates; achieve unit goals.
• Strong collaboration and teamwork; ability to lead in a collaborative environment and build consensus.
• Self-motivated, detail-oriented; ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects.
• Ability to promote change and exhibit influencing, conflict management, and negotiation skills;…