Senior Manager Payroll Operations

Full-time - Senior

Saint Louis, MO

Machinery Manufacturing

About the position

The Senior Payroll Manager for North America supervises payroll and time/attendance operations across the United States and Canada, ensuring timely and accurate payroll processing in compliance with regional laws and regulations. This role involves managing a team of payroll professionals and vendor partners, collaborating with HR, IT, Legal and Finance departments, and optimizing payroll systems and processes to support the organization's strategic goals. This leadership position should reflect and drive a demeanor of continuous improvement ensuring Emerson is achieving standardization of processes and setups across all entities and that operations are effective and efficient in their delivery. The Payroll Operations Senior Manager-North America will act as the expert with knowledge in all areas of payroll and time/attendance operations across the United States and Canada.

Responsibilities

• Provide direction, guidance and coaching to a multi-country staff to ensure effective utilization of resources and timely and accurate delivery of payroll and payroll downstream processes and career development.
• Foster a culture of continuous learning and professional development within the payroll team. Identify training needs, provide opportunities for skill enhancement, and support career growth. Conduct regular performance reviews and offer constructive feedback to help team members achieve their full potential.
• Sets strategy and direction for US & Canada Operations in accordance with Global Payroll Operations & Global HR & country HR strategy initiatives and leads in the execution of key North America objectives and SLAs including developing and maintaining operational health metrics and driving adoption of case management tools.
• Ensure payroll processes align with federal, state, and local laws, including regulatory reporting, labor laws and tax obligations in both the U.S. and Canada. Stay updated on changes in payroll and tax regulations and implement vital adjustments to maintain compliance. Conduct regular audits to ensure adherence to compliance standards and address any discrepancies.
• Analyze current payroll practices and find opportunities for process improvements and automation specific to North American payroll and time operations. Drive initiatives to streamline processes, reduce errors, and enhance efficiency.
• Promote an internal customer service focus through effective leadership, supervision and development of staff. Address and resolve payroll-related issues and discrepancies promptly, ensuring employee satisfaction.
• Drive effective policy development, administrative oversight, responsiveness to customer needs, and timely communication across the organization.
• Lead new payroll implementations, mergers, acquisitions & divestitures through the management and oversight of data needs and system configurations, driving standards in partnership with Digital HCM, HRIS, project teams and applicable vendor partners.
• Maintain efficient understanding of the software tools that are used to manage and maintain payroll, time/attendance and tax compliance.
• Recommend, supervise and keep controls surrounding the payroll, payroll tax and time/attendance functions as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Internal Audit.
• Serve as critical issue support for payroll, tax and time/attendance related issues and employer liabilities for healthcare, retirement, pension information, taxes and other related items.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a Human Resources, Finance, Business, or related field.
• Minimum of 5 years working in a leadership/project leadership role with a global team that works in a customer service or operational support function.
• Minimum of 10 years of related work experience, preferably in a fast paced multi-national payroll environment.
• Experience with expatriates and executive compensation plans.
• Legal authorization to work in the United States - Sponsorship for this role will not be provided.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with Oracle applications
• Experience with ADP applications
• Experience with mergers, acquisitions and divestitures
• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP)

Benefits

• A variety of medical insurance plans, with dental and vision coverage
• Employee Assistance Program
• 401(k)
• Tuition reimbursement
• Employee resource groups
• Recognition programs
• Flexible time off plans including paid parental leave (maternal and paternal), vacation and holiday leave