Senior People Ops Lead—Payroll & Systems

Convergent Research; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); Hybrid; USD 165,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Up to a 6% 401k match

Medical, dental, vision insurance

Life insurance, AD&D, disability

Paid holidays and PTO

Fertility benefits and childcare

Education and professional development

Wellness allowance

Team retreats

Job summary

Convergent Research is seeking a Senior People Ops Manager - Payroll & Systems to own the people ops infrastructure that keeps Convergent and its Focused Research Organizations running smoothly. You’ll ensure payroll accuracy, benefits administration, HRIS integrity, and compliant policies as the organization grows.

This senior, hands-on role requires building repeatable, auditable processes, partnering with the Head of People and cross-functional teams, standing up new FROs, supporting

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in HR ops, payroll administration, or a closely related field.
• 5+ years of direct, accountable ownership of payroll administration across multiple jurisdictions, including California.
• Experience standing up or substantially building people operations processes for a new entity, location, or country.
• Hands-on experience administering benefits, including coordinating at least one open enrollment cycle.
• Experience owning an HRIS, including configuration, integrations, data integrity, data governance, and reporting.
• Experience developing complete, compliant policy suites across multiple states or countries, including knowing when to engage legal counsel.
• Strong documentation and process-building skills, with examples of playbooks, controls, or operational systems you’ve created.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled tools for documentation, reporting, and workflow automation.

Responsibilities

• Own payroll and make it bulletproof. You'll manage US and UK payroll end to end, including timesheets, payroll changes, initial review, and accuracy.
• Keep benefits, retirement, and leave running smoothly.
• Make our people systems work for us, including HRIS architecture, integrations, data integrity, governance, and reporting.
• Keep our policies and compliance ahead of our growth across US and UK jurisdictions and EOR-covered countries.
• Coordinate immigration and compensation processes and support reporting for compensation reviews.
• Help new FROs become functioning employers with entity and EOR setup, payroll activation, and Notion workspace readiness.
• Help FROs wind down responsibly, including final pay, benefits termination, and records retention.

Skills

Payroll administration

HRIS

Policy development

Compliance

Vendor management

Documentation

Tools

TriNet

Rippling

Job description

Convergent Research is seeking a Senior People Ops Manager - Payroll & Systems to own the people ops infrastructure that keeps Convergent and its Focused Research Organizations running smoothly. You’ll ensure payroll accuracy, benefits administration, HRIS integrity, and compliant policies as the organization grows.

This senior, hands-on role requires building repeatable, auditable processes, partnering with the Head of People and cross-functional teams, standing up new FROs, supporting