Payroll Implementation Lead

Cognizant; Taguig; On-site; PHP 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Growth That Matters

Support That Empowers

Impact That Inspires

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking a Payroll Implementation Lead in the Philippines to act as the business-facing command center for payroll readiness across countries. You will ensure readiness before go-live, coordinate with vendors, ITS, HR Technology, and country teams, and track post-go-live outcomes.

Responsibilities include driving recovery plans, ensuring data quality, implementing controls, and enabling smooth handover to Payroll Operations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree preferred in HR, business, finance, information systems, technology.
• 8–12 years in payroll implementation, transformation, operations, HR tech, or global payroll delivery.
• Strong experience in payroll operational readiness and go-live readiness.
• Working knowledge of payroll integrations (ADP WFS, Workday).
• Experience partnering with ITS, HR Technology, Payroll Ops, vendors, and country teams.
• Strong data governance, controls, reconciliation, and post-go-live stabilization.
• Vendor management for delivery quality and stabilization.
• Ability to track delivery outcomes with payroll metrics.

Responsibilities

• Operate as the business-facing payroll implementation command center across assigned countries.
• Own payroll operational readiness and handover quality before payroll operations takes over.
• Distinguish payroll delivery ownership from project management focusing on readiness and control.
• Translate payroll requirements, country practices, and vendor dependencies into operational readiness criteria.
• Partner with ITS/HR Technology to ensure payroll system handoffs and data exchanges are tested and ready.
• Ensure payroll controls, approvals, segregation of duties, and reconciliation are in place.
• Build payroll data governance into operating model with ownership, source-of-truth, and data quality checks.
• Act as escalation and triage point for readiness issues with clear owners and timelines.
• Develop recovery/go-to-green plans for red milestones with defined actions and owners.
• Track progress against recovery plans and gates with evidence-based closures.
• Manage vendor delivery quality and post-go-live stabilization obligations.
• Lead payroll business testing assurance including UAT readiness and defect closure.
• Maintain command center artefacts: dashboards, checklists, recovery plans, logs, trackers, cutover gates, scorecards.
• Define and track post-implementation metrics: accuracy, on-time payroll, defect trends, data quality, adoption.
• Identify automation opportunities to reduce manual work and improve control reliability.

Skills

Payroll implementation

Stakeholder management

Risk assessment

Data governance

Vendor management

Process improvement

Training & adoption

Go-live readiness

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree

Tools

ADP WFS

Workday integration

Job description

The Payroll Implementation Lead acts as the business-facing payroll implementation command center for assigned countries or workstreams. The role ensures that Payroll Operations is ready to take over the service after implementation, with clear processes, embedded controls, trained users, stable vendor support, accurate data, and measurable delivery outcomes.

This role is distinct from the Project Manager role. The Project Manager owns the overall plan, timeline, governance cadence, and project reporting; the Payroll Implementation Lead owns payroll business readiness, operational handover, control implementation, recovery actions, vendor performance, adoption readiness, and post-go-live outcome tracking.

The role provides hands-on business assurance across payroll process design, country readiness, data quality, controls, training, vendor commitments, stabilization, and recovery planning where implementation risks or delivery status move to red.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

· Operate as the business-facing payroll implementation command center across assigned countries, ensuring Payroll Operations, country teams, vendors, HR Technology, ITS, and control owners are aligned on what must be ready before go-live and what must be sustained after handover.

· Own payroll operational readiness and handover quality, ensuring processes, roles, controls, data ownership, vendor support, training materials, escalation routes, and working routines are in place before Payroll Operations takes over.

· Distinguish payroll business delivery ownership from project management by focusing on readiness, controls, adoption, recovery, operational stability, vendor performance, and measurable business outcomes rather than only plan tracking.

· Translate payroll operating requirements, country practices, statutory needs, payroll calendars, and vendor dependencies into clear operational readiness criteria, control requirements, training needs, handover actions, and go-live gates.

· Partner with ITS and HR Technology to ensure critical payroll system handoffs, Workday dependencies, ADP WFS integration points, data exchanges, and vendor interfaces are understood by the business, tested for payroll use, and ready to support operations.

· Ensure payroll controls are implemented as part of the solution, including input approvals, change controls, segregation of duties, payroll reconciliation, exception handling, statutory reporting checks, audit evidence, and post-go-live monitoring routines.

· Build payroll data governance into the operating model by clarifying data ownership, source-of-truth rules, data completeness checks, correction routines, access governance, reconciliation responsibilities, and ongoing data quality measures.

· Act as the business escalation and triage point for payroll readiness issues, ensuring data gaps, control weaknesses, vendor delays, testing defects, country blockers, adoption risks, and operational concerns are assessed, owned, and resolved.

· Develop and drive recovery or go-to-green plans where a country, vendor, workstream, or implementation milestone is red, including clear issue diagnosis, corrective actions, owners, timelines, decision needs, and executive escalation points.

· Track progress against recovery plans and readiness gates, ensuring red or amber items are not closed on activity alone but on evidence that the payroll risk, control gap, data issue, vendor delay, or adoption blocker has been resolved.

· Manage vendor delivery quality from a payroll business perspective by validating outputs, challenging gaps, confirming operational support commitments, tracking service dependencies, and ensuring vendors meet go-live and stabilization obligations.

· Lead payroll business testing assurance, including test scenario coverage, user acceptance readiness, parallel payroll validation, control testing, reconciliation outcomes, defect closure evidence, and business sign-off quality.

· Maintain command center artefacts such as operational readiness dashboards, control checklists, recovery plans, issue and decision logs, vendor action trackers, training readiness trackers, cutover readiness gates, and stabilization scorecards.

· Define and track post-implementation metrics and outcomes, including payroll accuracy, on-time payroll completion, defect trends, control exceptions, data quality, ticket volumes, vendor responsiveness, user adoption, training completion, and operational handover effectiveness.

· Identify automation and process improvement opportunities that reduce manual work, improve control reliability, strengthen reconciliation, shorten payroll cycle times, and improve the experience for Payroll Operations and country users.

· Ensure training and adoption readiness by validating role-based materials, process walkthroughs, knowledge transfer plans, super-user enablement, country readiness sessions, support routes, and hypercare routines before go-live.

· Monitor stabilization after go-live, ensuring operational issues are resolved, controls are working, metrics are tracked, vendor support is responsive, Payroll Operations is confident to run the service, and lessons learned are fed back into future implementations.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

· Bachelor’s degree or master’s degree preferred in human resources, business, finance, information systems, technology, or a related field.

· 8–12 years of relevant experience in payroll implementation, payroll transformation, payroll operations, HR technology, or global payroll delivery.

· Strong experience in payroll operational readiness, implementation command center, business cutover readiness, stabilization, recovery planning, or payroll service transition roles.

· Practical payroll expertise across payroll calendars, country payroll practices, statutory requirements, payroll controls, data inputs, parallel run validation, reconciliation, service handover, and post-go-live stabilization.

· Working knowledge of payroll integrations, ADP WFS, Workday integration, and Workday payroll-related dependencies, with the ability to understand business impact, challenge gaps, and ensure readiness without needing to own the technical build.

· Experience partnering with ITS, HR Technology, Payroll Operations, vendors, and country teams to ensure payroll solutions are ready for operational use and sustainable after handover.

· Strong control mindset with experience implementing or validating payroll controls, segregation of duties, audit evidence, data validation, reconciliation routines, exception handling, statutory reporting checks, and compliance monitoring.

· Strong data governance capability, including data ownership models, source-of-truth alignment, data quality checks, migration controls, reconciliation, access governance, correction routines, and ongoing data quality monitoring.

· Vendor management experience focused on delivery quality, support readiness, issue resolution, service dependencies, escalation management, implementation commitments, and stabilization performance.

· Experience building recovery or go-to-green plans for red or high-risk workstreams, including issue diagnosis, corrective actions, accountable owners, due dates, escalation needs, and measurable closure criteria.

· Ability to track and explain delivery outcomes using practical metrics such as payroll accuracy, on-time payroll completion, defect reduction, control exceptions, ticket volumes, training completion, vendor responsiveness, and adoption indicators.

· Ability to challenge incomplete requirements, weak controls, unclear ownership, vendor assumptions, unresolved risks, and readiness gaps in a practical and constructive way.

· Ability to identify automation and process improvement opportunities that improve controls, reduce manual effort, strengthen reconciliation, and support a more stable payroll operation.

· Clear communicator who can explain payroll readiness, operational risks, controls, recovery actions, vendor issues, adoption gaps, and post-go-live outcomes to operational teams, country stakeholders, technology partners, and senior leaders.

· Experience supporting training, knowledge transfer, user readiness, adoption planning, super-user enablement, hypercare, and transition to steady-state operations after go-live.

Strong Excel, reporting, dashboarding, issue tracking, executive summary, and outcome-tracking skills.

Why Join Us?

At Cognizant, we don’t just offer jobs—we build careers that thrive in the digital era.

• Growth That Matters – Clear career paths, continuous learning, and opportunities to move into leadership or specialized roles. You’re not just filling a seat—you’re building a future.
• Support That Empowers – A collaborative culture where your voice is heard, your ideas matter, and your well-being is prioritized through strong benefits and work-life balance.
• Impact That Inspires – Work on global accounts that shape industries, influence millions of users, and give you a sense of purpose beyond the paycheck.

Your future starts here—grow, thrive, and make an impact with Cognizant.