Senior Global Payroll Director

TransUnion; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 166,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Senior Director, Global Process Leader for Payroll. This pivotal role involves overseeing global payroll operations, ensuring compliance, and driving process excellence across multiple regions. The ideal candidate will bring extensive experience in payroll leadership, including transformation and automation initiatives, while fostering collaboration with HR, Finance, and Legal teams. This position offers the opportunity to shape the payroll strategy and enhance the employee experience in a dynamic and supportive environment. Join a company that values diversity and innovation, and make a significant impact on global payroll operations.

Benefits

Flexible time off

Paid parental leave

Health benefits

Tuition reimbursement

401(k) retirement savings with employer match

Employee stock purchase plan

Mental health support

Charity gift matching

Long-term care insurance

Commuter benefits

Qualifications

• 15+ years in payroll leadership, with 5+ years in global payroll process ownership.
• Strong knowledge of global payroll tax, compliance, and labor laws.

Responsibilities

• Drive global payroll operations, ensuring standardization and compliance.
• Lead a high-performing global payroll team, fostering accountability and efficiency.

Skills

Payroll Leadership

Stakeholder Management

Analytical Skills

Problem-Solving

Communication Skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, HR, or Business Administration

MBA

Tools

ADP

Workday

SAP

Oracle

AI and RPA tools

Job description

What We'll Bring:

The Senior Director, Global Process Leader, Payroll will be responsible for overseeing global payroll operations and designing, standardizing, and optimizing the end-to-end global payroll process across multiple regions/countries. This role will drive global payroll operations and transformation, governance, and process excellence in partnership with HR, Finance, Tax, Treasury, Legal, and Technology teams, ensuring a best-in-class payroll operation that is efficient, compliant, and scalable.

As the strategic owner of the payroll process, this role will focus on process standardization, automation, vendor management, risk mitigation, and employee experience, ensuring payroll operations align with business growth, regulatory requirements, and transformation initiatives.

What You'll Bring:

• 15+ years of experience in payroll leadership roles, with at least 5+ years in a global payroll process ownership role.
• Extensive experience with multi-country shared services payroll operations and governance in a large multinational organization.
• Expertise in payroll transformation, automation, and technology integration (e.g., ADP, Workday, SAP, Oracle).
• Strong knowledge of global payroll tax, compliance, and labor laws across multiple jurisdictions.
• Proven experience in leading payroll process standardization and global payroll system implementations.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and leadership skills.
• Experience in Payroll service provider management and service provider negotiations.
• Strong analytical mindset, problem-solving skills, and ability to drive data-driven decisions.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, HR, Business Administration, or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Payroll certifications such as CPP (Certified Payroll Professional).
• Experience with AI, RPA (Robotic Process Automation), or payroll analytics tools.
• Background in global shared services / global business services (GBS) environments.
• MBA preferred.

Impact You'll Make:

Global Payroll Strategy & Governance

• Own and drive the end-to-end payroll process for all global payroll operations, ensuring standardization, efficiency, and compliance.
• Develop and implement a global payroll strategy, ensuring alignment with business objectives, HR, and Finance goals.
• Establish global payroll governance with clear policies, controls, and best practices across all regions.
• Drive continuous process improvement, automation, and digitization to enhance accuracy and efficiency.
• Ensure compliance with country-specific labor laws, tax regulations, and reporting requirements in partnership with HR and Legal teams.

Operational Excellence & Employee Experience

• Ensure timely, accurate, and compliant payroll processing for all employees across multiple geographies.
• Enhance the employee payroll experience, reducing payroll errors, and addressing payroll inquiries efficiently.
• Develop a centralized issue resolution model to handle payroll escalations effectively.
• Drive accountability for process outcomes, including efficiency, quality, compliance, and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Develop and enforce globally standardized policies and procedures while accommodating necessary regional variations. Foster a culture of process discipline across all regions and teams.
• Establish and enforce governance frameworks to ensure compliance with internal controls, regulatory requirements, and audit standards. Conduct periodic reviews and audits to mitigate risks and ensure process integrity.

Leadership & Change Management

• Lead a high-performing global payroll team across multiple locations, driving a culture of accountability, efficiency, and innovation.
• Provide strategic guidance and mentorship to regional payroll leaders and teams.
• Drive change management initiatives to ensure smooth adoption of new payroll processes, policies, and technologies.

Payroll Vendor & Stakeholder Management

• Manage the strategic relationship with outsourced Payroll service provider(s) ensuring contract compliance, SLA adherence, and service optimization.
• Work closely with HR, Finance, Compensation & Benefits, Tax, Treasury and Legal teams to ensure seamless payroll operations.
• Oversee third-party payroll audits, compliance checks, and risk mitigation efforts.
• Act as the key liaison between payroll teams and business stakeholders to ensure alignment of process goals with business needs. Ensure timely resolution of escalated issues and provide strategic direction on process-related decisions.

Process Standardization & Automation

• Identify and implement opportunities for process reengineering, automation, and efficiency enhancements to reduce processing times, operating costs, and accuracy rates. Benchmark performance against industry standards and drive initiatives for best-in-class results.
• Lead the transformation of payroll processes, tools, and technologies, reducing manual interventions and increasing efficiency.
• Drive global payroll automation by leveraging AI, robotics, and advanced payroll solutions.
• Collaborate with IT, Finance, and HRIS teams to enhance payroll system capabilities, integrations, and data accuracy. Ensure technology solutions align with global process requirements and deliver measurable benefits.
• Define, monitor, and report on key performance indicators (KPIs). Address underperformance through root cause analysis and corrective action plans.

This is a hybrid position and involves regular performance of job responsibilities virtually as well as in-person at an assigned TU office location for a minimum of two days a week.

Benefits:

TransUnion provides flexible benefits including flexible time off for exempt associates, paid time off for non-exempt associates, up to 12 paid holidays per year, health benefits (including medical, dental, and vision plan options and health spending accounts), mental health support, disability benefits, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave, adoption assistance, fertility planning coverage, legal benefits, long-term care insurance, commuter benefits, tuition reimbursement, charity gift matching, employee stock purchase plan, 401(k) retirement savings with employer match, and access to TransUnion’s Employee Resource Groups. Spousal, domestic partner, and other eligible dependent coverage is available on select health and welfare plans.

We are committed to being a place where diversity is not only present, it is embraced. As an equal opportunity employer, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability status, veteran status, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law.

Pay Scale Information: The U.S. base salary range for this position is $166,800.00 - $250,000.00 annually. *The salary range for this position reflects a reasonable estimate of the range of compensation for this job. At TransUnion, actual compensation is based on careful consideration of additional factors such as (but not limited to) an individual’s education, training, work experience, job-related skill set, location, and industry knowledge, as well as the scope and responsibilities of the position and market considerations. Regular, fulltime non-sales positions may be eligible to participate in TransUnion’s annual bonus plan. Certain positions may be also eligible for long-term incentives and other payments based on applicable company guidance and plan documents.

TransUnion's Internal Job Title:

Sr Director, Payroll