Project Manager HCM Payroll

At Connect Centric, we are more than just consultants—we are partners committed to our clients' success. We take a hands-on approach, working closely with our clients to transform strategies into measurable, real-world outcomes. As a strategy execution team, we take full ownership of every initiative from start to finish, ensuring that our clients see tangible results, not just ideas.

Connect Centric is seeking a Project Manager to manage the payroll workstream within our client’s enterprise Human Capital Management (HCM) initiatives, with a primary focus on UKG and Workday. You will plan, coordinate, and track payroll deliverables, schedules, requirements, risks, testing, implementation readiness, cutover, and operational transition.

This role requires direct experience supporting payroll initiatives involving both UKG and Workday. Working under the direction of the client’s Project Management Office (PMO) Manager, you will partner with payroll, HR, finance, operations, IT, the Senior Program Manager, vendors, and implementation partners to deliver payroll outcomes that meet business needs, compliance requirements, and enterprise technology standards.

• Lead planning and execution tracking for the payroll workstream across UKG, Workday, and related workforce management initiatives.
• Develop, maintain, and track payroll workstream plans, schedules, milestones, dependencies, risks, issues, action items, and implementation activities.
• Facilitate payroll workstream meetings; prepare materials, document decisions, track follow-up actions, and communicate progress to stakeholders and leadership.
• Coordinate with payroll, HR, finance, operations, IT, the Senior Program Manager, vendors, and implementation partners to clarify scope, align priorities, and resolve risks and issues.
• Coordinate payroll requirements, configuration decisions, business workflows, integrations, data validation, testing, and implementation readiness for UKG and Workday.
• Support payroll cutover, implementation, transition planning, and post-implementation stabilization.
• Maintain dashboards, status reports, decision logs, risk, assumption, issue, and dependency (RAID) logs, action trackers, and other payroll project documentation.
• Communicate payroll delivery status, dependencies, risks, issues, decisions, compliance considerations, and adoption impacts to leadership and affected teams.
• Support payroll process improvement, change management, stakeholder readiness, training coordination, and adoption planning.
• Apply client-approved project standards, templates, governance routines, and delivery methods; follow client policies, confidentiality expectations, information security requirements, and applicable compliance standards.
• Assess payroll operations, workforce processes, data considerations, platform roadmaps, and vendor capabilities to recommend practical solutions and improvements.
• Help ensure deliverables meet business needs, quality expectations, compliance requirements, data integrity standards, configuration expectations, and delivery commitments while balancing enhancements, stakeholder requests, and deadlines.

• Bachelor’s degree and at least five years of experience providing business analysis, technology delivery, and senior project management support for enterprise HCM or payroll platform initiatives.
• Experience supporting payroll initiatives involving both UKG and Workday, including project planning, enhancements, requirements definition, configuration coordination, payroll workflow alignment, and integration coordination.
• Experience coordinating payroll testing, data validation, security and access considerations, reporting, readiness, training support, adoption,…