Director, Global Payroll

Zendesk; Madison (WI); Hybrid; USD 158,000 - 238,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is looking for a strategic Director of Global Payroll to lead payroll operations worldwide. This high-impact role involves managing a global team, ensuring compliance, and driving process improvements. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in payroll leadership, particularly in tech environments, and will excel in stakeholder engagement and cross-cultural communication. This innovative firm promotes a hybrid work model, allowing flexibility while fostering collaboration and connection among team members. If you are passionate about payroll and ready to make a significant impact, this opportunity is for you.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in global payroll leadership, preferably in tech.
• Strong expertise in global payroll systems and exceptional people management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead a global payroll team, ensuring compliance with local regulations.
• Drive process improvements and manage payroll operations across regions.

Skills

Global Payroll Leadership

Cross Cultural Communication

Stakeholder Engagement

Operational Excellence

Tools

Workday

Cloudpay

ADP

Job description

locations Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America Austin, Texas, United States of America

time type Full time

posted on Posted 15 Days Ago

job requisition id R30907

Job Description

Zendesk is seeking a strategic, hands-on Director of Global Payroll to lead our payroll operations across the globe. This is a high-impact leadership role responsible for overseeing a global team of payroll professionals spanning the globe.

You will be accountable for ensuring timely, accurate, and compliant payroll processing for thousands of employees while driving process improvements, scaling global operations, and partnering closely with Finance, HR, Legal, and external vendors.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage a disbursed global payroll team of 10+ professionals across the US, LATAM, APAC, and EMEA
• Oversee end-to-end payroll operations for all global entities, ensuring compliance with local regulations, labor laws, and tax requirements
• Establish and maintain standardized payroll processes and controls across all regions while balancing local requirements
• Work closely with HR, Finance, Legal, and Compliance to support business needs and employee experience
• Represent Payroll in M&A activities, entity expansions, policy rollouts ensuring seamless integration and execution
• Serve as the subject matter expert and escalation point for complex payroll inquiries and global pay related issues and policies
• Partner with IT teams to optimize integrations between payroll systems and platforms
• Drive global process improvements that scale Zendesk’s growth that reduce manual effort and errors
• Own global reporting, forecasting and analytics providing insight and visibility into payroll costs, and trends
• Prepare and present executive-level reporting on global payroll operations, risks, and strategic initiatives

Requirements:

• 15+ years of experience in a global payroll leadership role, preferably in tech or a high growth environment
• Strong expertise in global payroll systems (Workday, Cloudpay, ADP)
• Exceptional people management, cross cultural communication, and stakeholder engagement skills
• Skilled at balancing strategic leadership with operational excellence

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $158,000.00-$238,000.00. This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives. While this range reflects the minimum and maximum value for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations, the offer for the successful candidate for this position will be based on job related capabilities, applicable experience, and other factors such as work location.

Hybrid: In this role, our hybrid experience is designed at the team level to give you a rich onsite experience packed with connection, collaboration, learning, and celebration - while also giving you flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. This role must attend our local office for part of the week. The specific in-office schedule is to be determined by the hiring manager.

The intelligent heart of customer experience

Zendesk software was built to bring a sense of calm to the chaotic world of customer service. Today we power billions of conversations with brands you know and love.

Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid way of working, enables us to purposefully come together in person, at one of our many Zendesk offices around the world, to connect, collaborate and learn whilst also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week.

Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster global diversity, equity, & inclusion in the workplace.

Zendesk endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to submit this application, complete any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please send an e-mail to [e-mail] with your specific accommodation request.

About Us

Zendesk is on a mission to simplify the complexity of business and make it easy for companies and customers to create connections.

Our customer experience software unlocks the power of billions of interactions, enabling businesses to build rich, meaningful relationships with their customers.

More meaningful moments. Fewer Zoom calls.

What’s it like to work here? Our offices reflect the global cities we call home, and have spaces for collaboration, quiet, and events.

With our hybrid approach, you’ll experience flexibility and connection, collaboration, and learning with your team.

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