Global Payroll & International Operations Lead

Nelnet Business Solutions; Oklahoma; On-site; USD 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

Nelnet in the United States is seeking an experienced international payroll lead to drive multi-country onboarding, determine payroll mechanisms (EOR, PEO, or direct) and worker classification, and partner with Legal, Tax and business leaders to implement scalable solutions.

You will own country-specific payroll build requirements, tax and compliance contexts, time-off policies, and data privacy controls, while building playbooks, training staff, and overseeing vendor relationships to ensure

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on multi-country payroll experience, including having personally stood up payroll in at least one new country.
• Experience selecting and managing EOR/PEO or in-country payroll vendors, including contract negotiation and SLA management.
• Experience building process documentation and training others to run it.
• Experience integrating a newly acquired or newly established entity into an existing payroll, benefits, or tax framework.
• Demonstrated comfort with ambiguous, build-as-you-go mandates.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills. This role touches Tax, Legal, HRIS, Benefits, and HRBPs constantly.
• Working fluency in international payroll tax fundamentals: how earnings and deduction codes ar

Responsibilities

• Lead the country onboarding assessment for each new or acquired country: determine the right payroll mechanism (EOR, PEO, or direct) and worker classification approach in partnership with Legal, Tax and business leaders, and drive setup of that system or vendor relationship.
• Define country-specific payroll build requirements: earnings and deduction codes, how each is taxed, and country-specific pay practices, partnering with the Payroll Tax Manager.
• Partner with the Payroll Tax Manager on tax and compliance requirements for each country: supply country-specific context on filings, statutory obligations, and year-end statement requirements, while the Payroll Tax Manager owns the tax decisions and framework.
• Define statutory and market-standard time-off and leave entitlements per country, and translate them into policy People Operations can administer.
• Define statutory termination and severance requirements per country (notice periods, mandatory severance formulas, required documentation), and build them into playbook guidance for People Operations and HRBPs.
• Own data privacy and cross-border data handling requirements for associate payroll data, including GDPR for EU countries, partnering with Legal and IT/Security on compliance.
• Serve as the HR-side point of contact for payroll funding and banking mechanics (currency, timing, in-country account requirements), partnering with Treasury and Finance.
• Lead and develop international People Services team members, providing direction, coaching, performance management, and capability-building to ensure consistent delivery of global payroll and people operations support
• Build and maintain the processing playbook for each active country, the documented reference People Operations uses to run day-to-day pay.
• Oversee the training and certification of People Operations team members as first-line international specialists, embedding international expertise within the current team through a tiered capability model.
• Serve as the escalation point and working backup for international payroll issues, associate questions, and processing gaps, including holiday and coverage mismatches that fall outside documented playbook guidance.
• Own vendor relationships for EOR, PEO, and international payroll providers: contract negotiation, SLA management, and ongoing performance evaluation.
• Continuously reevaluate the right operating model (EOR, PEO, or direct) per country as company size, strategy, or footprint changes, rather than treating the initial choice as permanent.
• Partner with HRIS and Systems on configuration and integration needs for new countries, and with HRBPs to close the international knowledge gap they've inherited but don't yet have.

Skills

Multi-country payroll

Vendor management

Process documentation

Cross-functional collaboration

Data privacy compliance

International payroll tax

Job description

Nelnet in the United States is seeking an experienced international payroll lead to drive multi-country onboarding, determine payroll mechanisms (EOR, PEO, or direct) and worker classification, and partner with Legal, Tax and business leaders to implement scalable solutions.

You will own country-specific payroll build requirements, tax and compliance contexts, time-off policies, and data privacy controls, while building playbooks, training staff, and overseeing vendor relationships to ensure