The Director, Enterprise Payroll provides enterprise leadership, design, and coordination for payroll across H&S Ventures and its affiliated entities. While payroll is executed within individual operating businesses, this role establishes the enterprise framework for payroll governance, compliance practices, and reporting standards across a shared HR and payroll systems environment. The role supports payroll operations at the family office and leads enterprise governance and coordination of payroll systems and compliance in partnership with H&S Ventures’ Enterprise HR and Legal teams.
Responsibilities
Enterprise Payroll Strategy & Leadership
- Define and maintain enterprise payroll design principles, including operating model, governance structure, and decision rights
- Lead the design and ongoing refinement of the enterprise payroll operating model, including assessment of current state, definition of future-state architecture, and execution roadmap
- Develop and deliver a multi-year enterprise payroll roadmap that aligns payroll calendars, pay-date governance, vendor management, and accountable ownership across the payroll operating model
- Establish and lead the enterprise payroll operating model that balances centralized governance with local execution, including performance oversight to ensure accurate, timely, and consistent payroll delivery across entities
- Lead cross-functional collaboration with entity payroll teams, HR, Finance, Legal, and Tax to drive alignment of payroll processes with organizational and compliance goals
- Inform executive stakeholders regarding payroll compliance exposure, system optimization, and operational risk
- Lead enterprise payroll analytics and reporting, delivering insights on cost, compliance risk, and operational performance to key stakeholders
- Ensure alignment between payroll operating model design and enterprise systems architecture, including Workday Payroll and related platforms
- Foster a culture of accountability, standardization, collaboration, and continuous improvement across enterprise and entity payroll teams
- Serve as the enterprise subject matter expert for payroll governance, including policy interpretation, escalation decisions, and exception management
- Develop, establish, and maintain enterprise payroll policies, configuration guardrails, and internal control standards across all affiliated entities
- Establish enterprise standards and strategies for payroll compliance monitoring across federal, state, and local wage and hour regulations
- Establish enterprise standards for interpreting and applying payroll and employment regulations, in partnership with Legal, HR, and Tax, ensuring consistent application across entities
- Own enterprise oversight of payroll-related internal and external audits, including coordination, issue resolution, and remediation efforts
- Establish and enforce enterprise payroll system access and data security standards to protect sensitive payroll information
Enterprise Payroll Implementation & Change Leadership
- Lead enterprise implementation and adoption of payroll system changes and operational processes, ensuring consistent execution, communication, and deployment across entities
- Own the coordination of enterprise payroll initiatives impacting multiple entities, including benefit plan changes, compensation programs, and legal-driven updates (e.g., new pay codes or processes)
- Ensure enterprise-wide alignment and adoption of payroll changes through structured communication, stakeholder engagement, and change management practices
- Serve as enterprise functional owner and governance subject matter expert for Workday Payroll, Workday Time and Attendance, ADP, ABI, TopBloc and associated payroll and timekeeping systems
- Lead the execution and ongoing management of the enterprise payroll systems roadmap, ensuring alignment with business, compliance, and scalability needs
- Define enterprise configuration and design standards, as well as enhancement intake, prioritization, and testing protocols for payroll system changes
- Establish and uphold enterprise configuration standards and system controls to ensure consistency, security, and compliance
- Lead cross-functional alignment with IT, HRIS, Finance and entity payroll teams to design and optimize integrations between payroll, time tracking, and financial systems
- Lead enterprise payroll workstreams for system implementations, integrations, and new entity onboarding, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards and design principles
Payroll Operations for H&S Ventures
- Direct payroll processing activities for the family office, ensuring accurate and timely payroll delivery across multiple entities and jurisdictions
- Serve as backup payroll processor for end-to-end family office payroll, as needed, ensuring continuity of operations and adherence to enterprise standards
- Ensure payroll operations align with enterprise control standards and compliance requirements
- Support payroll-related audits for the family office, ensuring alignment with enterprise audit standards and timely response to inquiries
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or related field required; advanced degree preferred
- 10+ years of progressive payroll leadership experience, including exposure to payroll accounting and at least 5 years in a leadership role overseeing multi-entity or complex payroll environments
- Experience designing enterprise payroll operating models, including governance frameworks, system architecture, and multi-entity structures
- Demonstrated experience operating within a matrixed organization and enterprise governance model, with accountability for setting standards across decentralized teams
- Experience owning or influencing enterprise payroll systems strategy, including integrations across HRIS, timekeeping, and financial systems
- Extensive experience with enterprise payroll systems (e.g., Workday Payroll), including configuration, governance, testing, and optimization
- Experience managing enterprise payroll vendors and system integrations
- Experience operating across multiple jurisdictions and complex regulatory environments
- Deep knowledge of federal and state wage and hour laws (with an emphasis on California), payroll tax regulations, and related compliance requirements
- Knowledge of ADP Smart Compliance, ABI timekeeping, or similar platforms preferred
- Proven success leading large-scale payroll transformation initiatives, including process standardization, system implementations, and organizational change
- Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior leadership and drive alignment across functions and entities
- High degree of integrity, discretion, and sound judgment in handling confidential employee and financial information