Payroll Director, T&E

Jobtailor; Massachusetts; On-site; USD 160,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Jobtailor seeks a senior payroll and shared services leader to own end-to-end payroll, Time and Attendance, and expense reporting across multiple countries. You will drive strategy, governance, controls, and vendor partnerships while mentoring teams and delivering executive dashboards.

Responsibilities include global payroll delivery, statutory reporting, SOX controls, risk management, and incident response for payroll events. Strong leadership and international payroll expertise are essential.

Qualifications

• Knowledge of payroll and time & attendance across multiple jurisdictions.
• Experience with governance, controls, and compliance programs.
• Strong executive presence and stakeholder management in matrixed organizations.
• Experience driving standardization, automation, analytics, and ERP enablement.
• Understanding of internal controls and operational risk.

Responsibilities

• Oversee end-to-end payroll, Time & Attendance, and expense reporting globally.
• Ensure timely, accurate payroll delivery across countries and tax regimes.
• Drive strategy, governance, and continuous improvement with HR, Finance, Tax, and operations.
• Coach and develop leaders, and conduct regular performance conversations.
• Set global policies, controls, and service levels across regions.
• Own multi-country payroll runs, statutory reporting, and year-end processes.
• Ensure compliance with local payroll, tax, social security, and reporting rules.
• Lead remediation and enforce payroll controls and SOX compliance.
• Manage outsourcing partners, local providers, banks, and tax authorities; negotiate SLAs.
• Deliver executive dashboards on payroll metrics and program status; report to senior leadership.
• Lead business continuity planning for payroll and incident response.

Skills

Payroll leadership

Governance

Stakeholder management

Multi-country operations

ERP/financial systems

Process automation

Audit & compliance

Internal controls

English proficiency

Education

Bachelor's degree in accounting/finance/HR

CPP certification

MBA / CPA / CA / CIMA preferred

Tools

ERP systems

Job description

Responsibilities

• overseeing the end‑to‑end payroll, Time and Attendance, and Expense Reporting functions across several countries
• ensures accurate, timely, and compliant payroll delivery for a globally distributed workforce spanning multiple countries, jurisdictions, tax regimes, and service delivery models
• drives strategy, controls, technology adoption, and continuous improvement while partnering with HR, Finance, Tax and local operations
• accountable for meaningful career development conversations and regular coaching and feedback
• set global strategy, roadmap and governance to ensure consistent policies, controls and service levels across regions
• own end‑to‑end delivery for all entities, including multi‑country payroll runs, statutory reporting, year‑end processes and reconciliations
• ensure global compliance with local payroll, tax, social security and statutory reporting requirements
• lead remediation where gaps exist
• implement and enforce payroll controls (SOX/internal controls), audit readiness and vendor oversight
• manage relationships with outsourcing partners, local providers, banks and tax authorities; negotiate SLAs and commercial terms
• deliver executive reporting and dashboards on payroll metrics, risks and program status; present to senior leadership
• own business continuity planning for payroll and incident response for payroll failures or security events

Requirements

• 15+ years of progressive payroll / finance/HR/ shared services leadership experience, including multi-country operations
• Demonstrated governance leadership across Payroll and Compliance/Controls
• Proven ability to lead through influence in a matrixed environment; strong executive presence and stakeholder management skills
• Strong knowledge of payroll and T&A practices, operational acumen, service delivery and vendor management
• Experience driving transformation (standardization, process re-engineering, automation, analytics, ERP/financial systems enablement)
• Strong understanding of internal controls, audit requirements, and operational risk management
• Bachelor's degree in accounting, Finance, HR, Business, or related field required; CPP required, Payroll certified (ideal), MBA and/or CPA/CA/CIMA preferred (or equivalent)
• English proficiency required