Payroll Operations Manager, Americas

oyster; United States; Remote; USD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Oyster is seeking a Payroll Operations Manager (Americas) to scale payroll across the region. You will lead a distributed team, own escalations and vendor outcomes, and partner across business units to improve controls, customer experience, and service delivery.

This role requires deep US/Canada payroll expertise and knowledge of Latin American markets. You will drive automation, standardization, and process improvements while supporting expansion with accuracy, timeliness, and compliance.

Qualifications

• Deep US and Canada payroll expertise, including multi-state and provincial compliance.
• Exposure to Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia payroll operations is a plus.
• Strong equity-payroll knowledge and governance controls.
• Experience leading senior payroll ICs in a distributed environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop payroll ICs across the Americas with clear goals and feedback.
• Own escalations, root-cause analysis, risk identification and durable corrective actions.
• Manage vendor outcomes, SLAs, controls, scorecards, and accountability.
• Build scalable processes, documentation, and operating rhythms.
• Partner across Product, Finance, Legal and Lifecycle Operations to solve end-to-end problems.
• Drive automation, standardization, and reduction of manual work.
• Support Americas expansion while maintaining payroll accuracy and compliance.

Skills

US & Canada payroll

Multi-state compliance

Provincial compliance

Equity-payroll knowledge

Payroll controls & reconciliation

Risk & escalation management

SLA/KPI ownership

Vendor management

People leadership (senior ICs)

Process improvement

Remote/distributed leadership

Technical-to-strategy fluency

Job description

✨ One platform, a whole world of opportunity

The best jobs have always clustered in a handful of the world's wealthiest cities. But talent is everywhere. Oyster set out to close that gap - building a global employment platform that lets companies hire, pay, and care for brilliant people anywhere.

We're proof that a high-performing culture doesn't need an office. Distributed across 60+ countries since 2020, we've built something the industry keeps noticing:

• Ranked #10 of 250 on TIME and Statista's 2026 list of America's Top WorkTech Companies

• Named one of America's Greatest Startup Workplaces 2026 by Newsweek

• A G2 Spring 2026 Leader across Employer of Record, Global Employment, Multi-country Payroll, and HR Compliance

• The only B Corp-certified global employment platform ~ independently verified since 2023

Two of those rankings measured our business impact from the outside. One measured how our own people feel about working here. They landed in the same place ~ because at Oyster, culture and performance aren't separate conversations. They're the same one.

And we're just getting started. If you want to do the best work of your career alongside people who care as much as you do, we'd love for you to apply.

Location: While this position is posted in a specific location, all of Oyster’s positions are fully remote, and you can work from home. Forever. To create the best experience for this employee and to meet the business needs, this role requires you to be based in Americas.

Role Summary

The Payroll Operations Manager, (Americas) is a technically credible people leader who will shape and scale payroll operations across the region. You will lead an experienced distributed team, own operational escalations and vendor outcomes, and partner across the business to improve controls, customer experience, and service delivery. The role requires deep US and Canada payroll expertise, working knowledge of key Latin American markets, strong equity-payroll knowledge, and an automation-first approach to growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop experienced payroll ICs through clear goals, candid feedback, thoughtful delegation, and effective performance management.

• Act as the technical escalation point for complex US and Canada payroll matters and provide informed coverage across Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and emerging Americas markets.

• Own operational escalations, customer calls, root-cause analysis, risk identification, and durable corrective actions.

• Manage vendor outcomes, SLAs, controls, scorecards, and accountability; challenge recommendations when needed.

• Build scalable processes, documentation, coverage plans, metrics, and operating rhythms.

• Partner across Product, Finance, Accounting, Legal and Lifecycle Operations to solve end-to-end problems.

• Drive automation, standardization, simplification, delegation, and elimination of low-value manual work.

• Support Americas expansion while sustaining payroll accuracy, timeliness, compliance, and customer trust.

Core Requirements

• Deep US and Canada payroll expertise, including multi-state and provincial compliance.

• Practical exposure to Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia payroll operations.

• Strong equity-payroll knowledge.

• Expertise in payroll controls, reconciliation, risk, escalation management, root-cause analysis, and SLA/KPI ownership.

• Proven vendor-management and vendor-accountability experience.

• Experience leading senior, experienced payroll ICs without micromanaging.

• Evidence of process improvement with concrete, measurable outcomes.

• Remote or distributed people-leadership experience.

• Ability to move fluently between technical detail and regional strategy in an ambiguous, scaling environment.

Bonus / Nice-to-Have Experience

• Deep Latin America payroll experience.

• Puerto Rico, Guam, or other US-territory payroll knowledge.

• EOR or global employment experience.

• In-house payroll implementation or vendor-to-in-house migration experience.

• Payroll transformation and Product or Technology partnership experience.

• Advanced practical use of AI and automation in payroll operations.

How we work together at Oyster

Our values guide the work we do, the decisions we make, and the culture that makes Oyster what it is. We make it happen—progress is our default setting. We drive change, we build and give trust, and we move as one united team.

Our mission is to create a more equal world of work: helping companies everywhere hire, pay, and care for talent anywhere. Everything we do ladders up to our mission. We embrace asynchronous, collaborative work and share how we operate in the Oyster Public HQ so other global teams can learn from us.

How YOU work

With diverse locations, cultures, and needs, we created How YOU Work; a program supporting your whole human experience at Oyster:

• Work from anywhere: Oyster has no borders or HQ. As long as work is timely, your team is supported, and you're authorized to work where you live, you can work from anywhere.

• Paid time off: Enjoy 40 days off per year (including holidays and vacation), or more if required by your country.

• Mental health support: Access Plumm, our mental well-being service.

• Wellbeing allowance: Each month, receive a wellbeing allowance in your ThanksBen wallet to spend on a wide range of options.

• Flexible parental leave: All new parents are eligible for at least three months’ paid leave, with job protection for up to 12 months or as required locally.

• WFH stipend: Receive a stipend for your laptop and home office equipment to get you set up quickly.

✨ The best jobs should be available to everyone

We embrace diverse perspectives and intentionally build our product and company with an inclusive, global mindset. We encourage you to apply, even if you don’t meet every criterion, and are committed to a trust-based, thriving environment.

Oyster is committed to ensuring equal opportunity of employment for qualified persons with disabilities and actively fosters an inclusive work environment. If you require reasonable accommodations throughout the recruiting process, please email [e-mail] with the subject line: Interview Accommodations.

Our available positions are on our careers page. Our team will only contact you from an @oysterhr.com email, and we will never ask for money as part of an interview process or job offer. If you receive a suspicious email about Oyster jobs or are directed to a site other than www.oysterhr.com/careers, please report it via our Compliance and Ethics Helpline.