Product Owner – Payroll & Workforce Management

Mars; Województwo mazowieckie; On-site; PLN 240,000 - 360,000; Full time

Job summary

Mars seeks a Product Owner for Payroll & Workforce Management to lead the enterprise payroll ecosystem and WFM capabilities across Europe. You will drive strategy, vendor coordination, and system integration with MSP partners, ensuring compliant, scalable solutions.

The role focuses on core payroll first, then Time & Attendance, with a strong emphasis on cross-country rollout and governance. A senior, multi-country orientation is required.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in product management or solution delivery within payroll systems.
• Strong exposure to Time & Attendance and Workforce Management platforms.
• Experience with MSP or large vendor delivery in payroll.
• Familiarity with European multi-country payroll and GDPR considerations.

Responsibilities

• Define, own and champion the multi-year roadmap for payroll and WFM systems.
• Translate requirements into user stories, epics, and acceptance criteria.
• Lead collaboration with MSP, oversee integration, releases and upgrades.
• Ensure compliance, data privacy and security across data flows.

Skills

Product ownership

Agile methodologies

Vendor management

Stakeholder management

Strategic roadmaps

Tools

ADP GlobalView/Streamline

SAP Payroll

Workday Payroll

Dayforce

UKG/Kronos

Oracle HCM Cloud

Job description

The Product Owner – Payroll & Workforce Management serves as the primary enterprise technology lead and authoritative point of contact for the organization's core payroll ecosystem and associated Workforce Management (WFM) capabilities, with an initial emphasis on core Payroll, but will be expected to subsequently include Time & Attendance (T&A).

In this strategic capacity, the role bridges business operations, corporate IT, and external service delivery partners. The Product Owner will direct the technical deployment, lifecycle optimization, and continuous improvement of payroll and time-tracking platforms, working hand-in-hand with our newly appointed Managed Service Provider (MSP).

While the initial mandate centers on leading complex deployments and vendor transitions across diverse European jurisdictions (navigating statutory rules, localization requirements, and Works Councils), the role will scale to define and govern the broader international footprint and roadmap.

Key Accountabilities & Responsibilities

Strategic Direction & Product Roadmap

• Product Vision & Strategy: Define, own, and champion the multi-year technology roadmap for enterprise Payroll and Time & Attendance systems, aligning product deliverables with broader HR Transformation and IT strategies.
• Requirements Translation: Translate high-level business, statutory, and operational requirements into clear user stories, epics, and acceptance criteria.
• Geographic Expansion: Drive the initial technology deployment across European entities, establishing a robust, reusable core template designed to scale globally.
• Primary Tech Liaison: Act as the lead technical authority interfacing with the new Managed Service Provider, holding the partner accountable for technical deliverables, SLA adherence, and architectural integrity.
• Vendor Tech Integration: Steer technical workshops, integration checkpoints, release schedules, and system upgrades with the MSP to ensure zero disruption to payroll execution.
• Commercial & Service Alignment: Partner with Vendor Management and Procurement to review statement of work (SOW) deliverables, system enhancements, and contract scope adjustments.

Workforce Management (WFM) & Time and Attendance

• Process Convergence: Develop a deep architectural and operational understanding of end-to-end workforce management processes, spanning shift scheduling, time capture, gross pay calculations, leave management, and statutory reporting.
• Product Ownership for T&A: Act as product owner for the Time & Attendance platforms, ensuring tight, automated, and compliant integration into gross-to-net payroll engines.
• User-Centric Design: Advocate for streamlined, mobile-ready, and intuitive employee/manager self-service experiences for time recording and approvals.

Agile Delivery & Backlog Management

• Backlog Prioritization: Own, manage, and continuously prioritize the product backlog based on business value, legislative urgency, technical feasibility, and operational risk.
• Sprint Execution: Lead agile ceremonies (sprint planning, backlog refinement, demos, and retrospectives) with internal developers, system integrators, and vendor engineering squads.
• Quality & Acceptance: Define definition-of-ready (DoR) and definition-of-done (DoD). Oversee User Acceptance Testing (UAT), parallel payroll test runs, and cutover readiness activities.

Compliance, Data Governance & Security

• Statutory Compliance: Monitor European statutory, regulatory, and fiscal changes (e.g., GDPR, country-specific labor laws, collective bargaining agreements, and Works Council guidelines), ensuring technology capabilities remain fully compliant.
• Data Privacy & Security: Partner with Enterprise Architecture, InfoSec, and Data Privacy officers to enforce rigorous data security standards across all data flows between core HR, T&A, and payroll MSP environments.

Candidate Profile: Qualifications & Experience

• Payroll Technology Expertise: 5+ years of demonstrable product management, business systems analysis, or solution delivery leadership within enterprise payroll systems (e.g., ADP GlobalView/Streamline, SAP Payroll, Workday Payroll, Dayforce, or local European engines).
• Workforce Management & T&A: Strong hands-on exposure to Time & Attendance and Workforce Management systems (e.g., UKG/Kronos, WorkForce Software, Reflexis, or integrated HCM modules).
• MSP & Third-Party Vendor Delivery: Proven track record working directly with large-scale global or regional managed payroll service providers, driving accountability and technical execution.
• European Multi-Country Environment: In-depth familiarity with the nuances of European payroll operations, cross-border data privacy (GDPR), and statutory/Works Council engagement models.
• Agile Product Ownership: Experience operating as a certified or practicing Product Owner (Scrum/Kanban) in a matrixed enterprise environment.
• Experience transitioning from legacy decentralized payroll models to centralized SaaS/managed models.
• Broad exposure to Core HR integration architectures (e.g., Workday, SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM Cloud) via APIs, flat-file integrations, and middleware.
• Experience scaling European operating models into Latin America, APAC, or North America.

Technical & Professional Competencies

• Integration & Systems Architecture: Solid understanding of payroll interfaces, data mapping, gross-to-net logic, batch processing, and exception handling protocols.
• Analytical & Problem-Solving Agility: Ability to deconstruct complex multi-country statutory pay rules and translate them into standardized functional and technical configurations.
• Stakeholder Influence & Negotiation: High emotional intelligence (EQ) with the executive presence to challenge vendor technical assumptions and align divergent regional business requirements.
• Change Enablement: Strong appreciation for organizational change management, hypercare support, and operational knowledge transfer.

Success Metrics & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Deployment Milestones: Timely and budget-aligned delivery of European country onboarding phases and MSP cutover schedules.
• First-Time Payroll Accuracy: Maintenance of target payroll accuracy rates >99.8% through parallel runs and post-go-live stabilization.
• Integration Reliability: Zero critical downtime or unhandled interface failures between Core HR, Time & Attendance, and the MSP payroll engine.
• Backlog Velocity & Health: Predictable release cycles, transparent backlog refinement, and measurable velocity trends across sprint cycles.
• Stakeholder & User Satisfaction: Positive Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and CSAT from HR operational teams, local payroll administrators, and operational managers.