Director, Global Payroll

Zendesk; United States; Remote; USD 158,000 - 238,000; Full time

Job summary

Zendesk is seeking a strategic Director of Global Payroll to oversee payroll operations for thousands of employees worldwide. This role demands a strong leader with 15+ years of experience in global payroll, driving process improvements while ensuring compliance across various regions.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in global payroll leadership.
• Strong expertise in global payroll systems (Workday, Cloudpay, ADP).
• Exceptional people management and stakeholder engagement skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a global payroll team of 10+ professionals.
• Oversee end-to-end payroll operations ensuring compliance.
• Establish standardized payroll processes across regions.

Skills

Global Payroll Systems Expertise

People Management

Cross Cultural Communication

Stakeholder Engagement

Strategic Leadership

Operational Excellence

Tools

Workday

Cloudpay

ADP

Job description

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 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

#LI-WO1

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. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only (or OTE for commissions based roles), and do not include bonus, benefits, or related incentives.

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. Individuals seeking employment and employees at Zendesk are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We are an AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about your EEO rights under the law, please click here.

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.