Director, Global Payroll Strategy and Americas Payroll (Hybrid - Rahway, NJ)

Merck & Co.; Rahway (NJ); On-site; USD 157,000 - 247,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision health and other insurance

401(k) retirement benefits

Paid holidays

Vacation

Compassionate and sick days

Job summary

Merck & Co. in Rahway, NJ seeks a Director of Global Payroll Strategy and Americas Payroll Leader to deliver payroll for ~35,000 employees and lead a 20–25 person organization. This role balances operations, governance, and strategy, migrating payrolls from Finance to HR and managing external providers.

Responsibilities include developing a 3-year payroll roadmap, driving process automation, and partnering with HR, IT and Legal for seamless payroll delivery across regions.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of payroll experience with a large global company.
• Strong leadership and vendor management experience.
• Transformational mindset with process and services improvements.
• Service innovation mindset and strong analytical skills.
• Change management experience and cross-functional collaboration.
• Proven ability to lead large teams in on-site and virtual settings.
• Articulate communicator with broad client-facing skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute global payroll strategy and 3-year roadmap.
• Enhance governance with policies, audits and after-action reviews.
• Oversee external payroll vendors, contracts, SLAs and performance.
• Lead payroll transformation via standardization and automation.
• Collaborate with HR, Finance, IT and Legal for seamless integration.
• Analyze payroll data and present senior management insights.
• Oversee US and LATAM payroll and tax operations for 20–25 team.

Skills

Change Management

Global Payroll

Leadership

Partnership Strategy

Payroll

Payroll Administration

Payroll Compliance

Payroll Management

Payroll Services

People Leadership

Supplier Management

Transformation Strategy

Vendor Management

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Job description

Job Description

The Director, Global Payroll Strategy and Americas Payroll Leader has responsibility for the delivery of HR and LATAM payroll for approximately 35,000 employees as well as Global Payroll Strategy impacting employees globally. The role is a leadership role with 5 Direct reports and a total organization between 20 and 25 people. This leader will oversee the delivery of payroll services both through internal resources and an external vendor relationship. It will be expected that the role balances delivery, operational efficiency and elevates the employee and HR experience. In addition, this role will be the leader of Global Payroll Service strategy inclusive of migrating all company payrolls from Finance to HR, managing external provider relationships and on-going delivery strategy. This position will be based in Rahway, New Jersey and reports to the Executive Director, HR Regional Services.

Responsibilities

• Payroll Strategy and Roadmap :- Ensuring the realization of global payroll strategy across all markets. This includes migration plans for integration of finance-owned payrolls into HR, ensuring a 3-year payroll roadmap is created and approved, and creating and executing payroll strategies that align with the organization's goals and objectives. This includes identifying opportunities for process improvement, standardization, and automation to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of payroll operations on a global scale. This will require close and frequent collaboration with Regional Directors on the overall plan and country specific needs and priorities.
• Enhance Governance and Control Processes : The Director is responsible for creating internal and external control through governance and audit processes. They will collaborate with legal and compliance teams to develop and implement policies and procedures to further enhance governance as well as lead in any process failure events to conduct thorough after-action reviews, suggest recommendations and ensure execution path.
• Managing payroll vendors and relationships : The director oversees relationships with external payroll service providers globally. This includes contracts oversight, monitoring vendor performance, and ensuring service level agreements are met. They are also responsible for partnering to evaluate payroll systems, technologies and suppliers that best meet the organization's needs.
• Leading payroll transformation initiatives : The role involves driving payroll process improvements, standardization, and automation initiatives across the organization. This includes leveraging technology solutions to streamline payroll operations, eliminate manual tasks, and enhance data accuracy and reporting capabilities.
• Collaborating with cross-functional teams : The Global Payroll Strategy Director collaborates with various stakeholders, including HR, finance, IT, and legal departments, to ensure seamless integration of payroll processes with other business functions. They provide guidance and support to these teams on payroll-related matters and ensure alignment with the organization’s overall strategies and objectives. This role will be the single point of contact/demand management for IT budgeting and sequencing.
• Analyzing and reporting payroll data : The director is responsible for analyzing payroll data to identify trends, insights, and areas for improvement. They prepare and present reports to senior management on a regular basis, providing key metrics and recommendations for payroll-related decisions.
• US and LATAM Payroll & Tax Operations :- This role will have direct oversight of US Payroll & Tax Operations scope and team/org structure of inclusive of Direct reports with a total organization of 20 to 25 people. This role requires accurate, timely delivery of payroll in both union and non-union environments.

The successful candidate should be energized by an environment that requires strong leadership, attention to detail, coaching for excellence, and prioritizes governance, control and accuracy with an eye toward external trends and changing impactful legislation.

Education

• Minimum of a Bachelor's Degree, or currently in pursuit of degree completion, or equivalent relevant work experience in Business, HR, or Payroll.

Required Experience and Skills

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in Payroll with a large global company
• Strong, proactive business leadership skills
• Transformational mindset and deep experience in process and services
• Service innovation mindset and curiosity
• Change management experience
• Responsible for building and managing relationships with strategic vendor / partners.
• Demonstrated record and proven ability to lead a large team of individuals in both on-site and virtual locations.
• Must be articulate and able to communicate and address issues around service to a broad range client community.
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills
• Ability to mobilize with composure to solve issues and concerns and direct a team toward action.

MSJR

Required Skills

• Change Management
• Global Payroll
• Leadership
• Partnership Strategy
• Payroll
• Payroll Administration
• Payroll Compliance
• Payroll Management
• Payroll Services
• People Leadership
• Supplier Management
• Transformation Strategy
• Vendor Management

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

EEOC Know Your Rights

EEOC GINA Supplement•

We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another's thinking and approach problems collectively.

Salary

The salary range for this role is $156,900.00 - $247,000.00

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.

The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

Benefits

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family)
• Retirement benefits, including 401(k)
• Paid holidays
• Vacation
• Compassionate and sick days

More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.

San Francisco Residents Only

We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

Los Angeles Residents Only

We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.