Payroll Service Delivery Manager, Nordics

ManpowerGroup Finland; Espoo; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

ManpowerGroup Finland is seeking a Payroll Delivery Service Manager to own end-to-end payroll for the Nordic entities, coordinating with outsourced providers and HR, tax, and accounting to ensure accurate and timely payroll services.

You will drive governance, stakeholder engagement, and transformational initiatives to optimize payroll processes and compliance across countries in the Nordic region.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience managing end-to-end payroll delivery for the Nordic region.
• Working knowledge of Nordic payroll requirements including local taxes and social security.
• Experience in outsourced payroll models with vendor performance accountability.
• Track record of handling employee-facing escalations with senior stakeholders.
• Fluency in English; a Nordic language is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Payroll processing, governance and sign-off for Nordic markets; ensure accuracy and timeliness.
• Own escalation handling and drive remediation with cross-functional teams.
• Lead process improvements and payroll transformation initiatives with partners and vendors.
• Monitor compliance, controls, and regulatory requirements across regions.
• Oversee vendor performance, SLAs and change management for payroll providers.
• Perform analytics, scorecards and reporting to stakeholders.

Skills

End-to-end payroll

Vendor governance

Stakeholder management

English fluency

Nordic payroll knowledge

Job description

We are looking for Payroll Delivery Service Manager for our client, an international software company located in Espoo.

The Payroll Service Delivery Manager (PSDM) for the Nordics owns end-to-end payroll delivery for company's Nordic entities, working through outsourced payroll providers and in close partnership with HR, Corporate Tax, Accounting and country stakeholders. Company's Payroll discipline is defined as delivering an exceptional pay experience for employees, providing accurate and efficient payroll financial reporting services, and ensuring compliance across global footprint by leveraging innovative automation and technology solutions. The PSDM is the accountable owner of that outcome for the Nordic countries, carrying broad accountability that spans change management, escalation handling, vendor governance, audit oversight and legislative preparedness.

Why Join This Role?

This is a high-impact opportunity to take visible, end-to-end ownership of payroll delivery across a complex Nordic portfolio while working at the centre of company's payroll transformation. The successful candidate will gain valuable experience in multi-country governance, senior stakeholder engagement, vendor performance management, operational controls and the practical use of automation and AI to improve accuracy, timeliness and employee experience.

For someone who enjoys solving complex problems, influencing across organizational boundaries and leaving processes stronger than they found them, the role offers meaningful responsibility, broad exposure and the opportunity to make a measurable difference within a defined assignment.

Assignment Context

This is a fixed-term assignment so the successful candidate must be able to take ownership of live escalations and in-flight workstreams quickly. Prior payroll service delivery experience in the Nordic region, and the ability to operate with limited ramp-up, are weighted heavily in selection. A structured handover covering open items, vendor commitments and country-specific process notes forms part of the assignment on exit.

Scope of the Role

The role covers payroll operations for Nordic countries - Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland, which operates using a BPO model with vendor-processed payrolls. Day-to-day scope includes payroll cycle governance and review/sign off, reconciliation and debt recovery cases, garnishment and deduction handling, employee escalations routed through HR case management.

Key Responsibilities

Payroll processing and reconciliation

• Execute and leverage best practices for end-to-end payroll processing and reconciliation completed both internally and by vendors within the Nordic region, including markets with higher headcount and complexity. Ensure each payroll cycle is delivered accurately and on time, that pre- and post-payroll controls are performed, and that reconciliation differences are investigated and cleared rather than carried forward.

Issue escalation and resolution

• Investigate processes to identify and resolve, or drive the resolution of, issues at root cause. Identify who needs to be involved in an escalation, partner with those parties to agree remediation steps, and drive stakeholder communication throughout. Own complex escalated cases end to end, including those raised through HR case management, and anticipate business needs and trends rather than reacting to them.

Process improvement and transformation

• Proactively evaluate current systems and processes, implement improvements and new processes, and partner with business partners, vendors and payroll colleagues. Review existing procedures to confirm they remain current and to identify where additional controls are needed. Orchestrate actions across stakeholders to interpret signals and articulate value in support of new systems, technology solutions, acquisitions and company-wide initiatives, including company's ongoing payroll transformation agenda.

Stakeholder management and compliance

• Drive reviews of payroll activities and communicate the health of payroll processes to upstream and downstream stakeholder groups, identifying issues needing resolution and proposing solutions with internal subject matter experts. Coordinate with internal teams so that employee payroll taxes and pension payments supported by payroll are filed correctly in accordance with regulatory requirements, avoiding regulatory penalties or fines. Operate within the agreed engagement model between PSDMs, Country HR Generalists and Country HR Consultants.
• Proactively track and assess vendor performance through adherence to service level agreements, metrics and scorecards at a regular cadence, and use those findings to determine and prioritise the changes needed to address identified risks and challenges. Ensure vendor adherence to standard operating procedures and operational controls where multiple vendors facilitate the payroll process, field and route issues raised by vendors, and build the business case for change order requests where new process needs arise.

Reporting, analysis and controls

• Perform complex payroll analyses and scorecard metrics, leveraging and updating established analytics models and ensuring the right information is collected and reported. Identify gaps in the data, generate hypotheses for root causes, and execute solutions to close them. Perform audits and reconciliations, analyse data to uncover errors and issues, and keep procedures current with new compliance and control requirements.

Vendor and Partner Landscape

• Nordic payroll is delivered through a multi-vendor model, so vendor governance is a substantial part of the role rather than a peripheral duty. The successful candidate will interact with global payroll providers alongside country-specific providers supporting Nordic operations. Familiarity with statement-of-work governance, change order processes and vendor scorecard review is an advantage.

Qualifications and Experience

• Demonstrated experience managing end-to-end payroll delivery for one or more Nordic countries, ideally in a multi-country or regional role.
• Working knowledge of Nordic statutory payroll requirements (most important Sweden) including local tax and social security filing obligations, holiday pay schemes and garnishment handling.
• Experience operating in an outsourced or partially outsourced payroll model, with direct accountability for vendor performance against service level agreements.
• A track record of managing employee-facing escalations and communicating credibly with senior stakeholders under time pressure.
• Fluency in English; a Nordic language is an advantage for engagement with local authorities and providers.

Employment is fixed-term contract until 31.5.2027 via ManpowerGroup.

For more information, please contact Senior Delivery Manager Petteri Paassola, petteri.paassola(at)fi.experis.com