Payroll & Benefit Manager

Location: 24 Colonnade Road, Ottawa ON (Free Parking)

Schedule: Daytime, Monday to Friday

Starting Salary: $100,000/year

Commissionaires Ottawa is seeking an experienced and detail-driven Manager, Pay, Benefits & Regulatory Compliance to oversee payroll delivery, benefits administration, and HR legislative compliance across Ontario and Quebec. This leadership role ensures the accuracy, timeliness, and integrity of all pay and benefits activities, while supporting audit readiness, risk mitigation, and continuous improvement across systems, processes, and controls.

Reporting to the CHRO, this role is ideal for a leader who combines strong payroll and benefits expertise with a deep understanding of compliance, audit readiness, internal controls, and system governance. In addition to overseeing high-volume pay operations, the Manager drives process improvements, monitors legislation, enhances data integrity, and ensures organizational alignment with provincial and federal requirements.

This role provides both strategic and hands‑on leadership for Commissionaires Ottawa’s payroll and benefits operations, ensuring full legislative compliance, system accuracy, and uncompromising data integrity. It is well‑suited to someone who thrives in high-volume, deadline‑driven payroll environments and enjoys guiding teams through complex, time‑sensitive deliverables. You will oversee a small, dedicated team, collaborate closely with HR, Finance, and IT partners, stay ahead of emerging legislation, and play a key role in strengthening the organization’s compliance, audit readiness, and internal control framework.

• Providing leadership, coaching, and development to the Payroll Supervisor and Benefits Administrator, overseeing workload planning, cross‑training, and service excellence across payroll and benefits operations
• Leading the accurate and timely execution of payroll cycles for Ontario and Quebec, including reconciliations, year‑end reporting (T4/T4A/RL‑1), remittances, and adherence to collective agreement pay provisions
• Ensuring compliance with all relevant legislation and regulatory requirements (ESA, AODA, Pay Equity Act, CNESST, QPP, CRA/RQ), and updating internal processes, documentation, and communication to maintain organizational readiness
• Acting as the organization’s subject‑matter expert for regulatory interpretation, compliance risk assessment, and the development or refinement of payroll and benefits policies, procedures, and controls
• Overseeing data integrity and system governance across HRIS, payroll, and financial systems, including configuration changes, integrations, upgrades, defect resolution, and validating changes through structured testing
• Collaborating closely with HRIS, Finance, and IT teams to support integrations, reconciliations, system upgrades, and data integrity across payroll and benefits
• Producing recurring and ad‑hoc reporting on payroll accuracy, remittances, benefits utilization, workforce costs, compliance trends, and audit outcomes to inform decision‑making across HR and Finance
• Maintaining audit‑ready documentation and coordinating responses for internal and external audits, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and compliance with control requirements and statutory obligations
• Identifying operational inefficiencies and enhancing internal controls, SOPs, workflows, and reference tools in alignment with National Payroll Institute (NPI) best practices and organizational standards
• Investigating and resolving payroll discrepancies, compliance issues, data anomalies, and escalated employee or manager inquiries in collaboration with HR, Finance, IT, and external vendors
• Providing strategic oversight of benefits administration, including eligibility accuracy, carrier coordination, and alignment with collective agreement entitlements and provincial regulations

• Work for a reputable and nationally known company
• Work in a challenging and rewarding work environment
• Employer paid professional development
• A comprehensive benefits package
• Generous paid time off, holidays and sick days
• Retirement plans with company matching of…