Leads the strategy, governance, transformation, and scalability of ELIQUENT’s global payroll function. Responsibilities include strengthening controls, risk management, audit readiness, operating models, systems, vendors, process efficiency, transaction readiness, business continuity, and payroll reporting. The role directs the Senior Payroll Manager, leads transformation initiatives, supports global growth and organizational changes, and communicates payroll risks, priorities, and recommendations to senior leadership.
Company Overview
ELIQUENT Life Sciences is a leading global consulting firm providing regulatory, quality, and compliance solutions to life sciences companies researching, developing, and manufacturing innovative products. ELIQUENT combines deep technical expertise, integrity, and strategic insight to support safe, effective, and high-quality drugs, biologics, medical devices, and diagnostics around the world.
Position Overview
The Director, Payroll Strategy & Operations is responsible for the strategic leadership, transformation, governance, and scalability of ELIQUENT's global payroll function. The role partners closely with Human Resources, Finance, Payroll, Technology, and external providers to ensure payroll operations are positioned to support organizational growth, operational efficiency, and transaction readiness. Unlike a traditional payroll leadership role focused primarily on payroll execution, this position is responsible for:
- Governance & Controls: Stabilize and strengthen payroll governance, controls, risk management, audit readiness, and business continuity.
- Future-State Operating Model: Define and execute a practical global payroll operating model with clear roles, decision rights, service expectations, and priorities.
- Simplification & Efficiency: Reduce fragmentation and manual work through targeted systems, vendor, data, and process simplification.
- Transaction Readiness: Build transaction-ready documentation, scalable capability, and visibility into payroll risks, dependencies, and progress.
The role leads payroll transformation initiatives while working in partnership with the Sr. Payroll Manager and payroll team, who retain day-to-day payroll execution responsibilities.
Key Responsibilities
Payroll Governance, Controls & Stability
- Establish and maintain a proportionate global payroll governance and control framework, including decision rights, approvals, reconciliations, audit trails, segregation of duties, issue escalation, evidence retention, and business continuity.
- Partner with the Sr. Payroll Manager to identify key operational, compliance, data, system, vendor, and key-person risks and prioritize practical remediation plans.
- Create an operating cadence for payroll performance, risk, controls, issues, and decisions, with clear reporting to the Vice President and relevant stakeholders.
- Coordinate payroll audits, control reviews, and corrective actions with Finance, Tax, Legal, HR, Technology, and external experts as appropriate.
Future-State Global Payroll Operating Model
- Assess the current payroll operating model across supported employee populations, countries, providers, systems, roles, and cross-functional handoffs.
- Define and execute a practical future-state operating model with clear responsibilities, service expectations, escalation paths, controls, and partnership requirements.
- Develop a phased payroll roadmap that distinguishes immediate stabilization needs from longer-term transformation opportunities.
- Ensure the operating model can support geographic growth, integrations, and changing business needs without compromising payroll accuracy or continuity.
Simplification, Systems & Process Improvement
- Identify the highest-value opportunities to reduce payroll fragmentation, duplicate work, manual steps, avoidable corrections, and inefficient handoffs.
- Evaluate targeted opportunities to simplify or consolidate payroll systems, providers, interfaces, reporting, and processes while preserving local compliance and business continuity.
- Partner with HR Operations and Technology to improve payroll-related data flows, integrations, ownership, reconciliations, and reporting visibility.
- Lead selected automation and approved AI-enabled improvements where there is a clear business case, appropriate controls, available resources, and measurable benefit.
- Establish a manageable set of payroll KPIs focused on accuracy, timeliness, adjustments, controls, service, provider performance, risk, and roadmap progress.
Transaction Readiness & Scalable Capability
- Build and maintain due-diligence-ready documentation for payroll processes, controls, systems, providers, country arrangements, key dependencies, risks, and business-continuity plans.
- Identify capability, documentation, cross-training, succession, and resource gaps that could limit payroll scalability or continuity and recommend practical solutions.
- Support payroll planning for geographic expansion, employee population growth, integrations, acquisitions, or other organizational changes.
- Ensure transformation initiatives are sequenced realistically and transferred to named operational owners with documented controls and sustainable support.
Leadership & Partnership
- Provide strategic leadership to the payroll function and direct leadership to the Sr. Payroll Manager, with payroll specialists continuing to report through the Sr. Payroll Manager.
- Partner with the Sr. Payroll Manager to protect day-to-day payroll delivery while creating appropriate capacity for controls, documentation, reporting, and improvement work.
- Develop payroll capability through clear expectations, cross-training, succession coverage, process ownership, and continuous improvement.
- Communicate payroll priorities, progress, risks, decisions, constraints, and resource needs clearly to senior leadership.
Qualifications & Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
- 10+ years of progressive payroll experience, including meaningful multi-country or global payroll leadership responsibility.
- Demonstrated experience improving payroll governance, controls, operating models, systems, vendors, or processes.
- Experience leading focused transformation, implementation, consolidation, or continuous-improvement initiatives while maintaining reliable payroll delivery.
- Knowledge of payroll controls, compliance, audit readiness, data privacy, vendor management, and business continuity.
- Strong program leadership, prioritization, communication, stakeholder alignment, risk management, and change-management skills.
- Ability to translate complex payroll and operational matters into clear, pragmatic recommendations for senior leadership.
- Demonstrated people leadership and ability to build capability through existing payroll team.
- Ability to recognize where specialist legal, tax, accounting, technology, or country expertise is required and coordinate that support effectively.
- Experience with payroll automation, analytics, workflow tools, or responsible AI enablement.
- Experience supporting payroll due diligence, M&A integration, divestiture, or transaction-readiness programs preferred.
- Certified Payroll Professional (CPP), Global Payroll Management Certificate, PMP, Lean/Six Sigma, or comparable credential preferred.
A collaborative global environment, meaningful work, opportunities to grow, and the ability to contribute to the continued evolution of ELIQUENT’s HR function.
Similar Jobs
Blockchain • Fintech • Payments • Financial Services • Cryptocurrency • Web3
Build and evaluate fraud models for onboarding, login, account changes, and money movement. Develop labels, features, sampling strategies, thresholds, and production monitoring to detect account takeover, scams, money mules, and identity fraud. Transition third-party risk models to in-house solutions, measure model performance and drift, collaborate with fraud, risk, operations, and compliance teams, and evaluate AI agent workflows for transaction review and fraud-ring analysis.
Top Skills:
Ai AgentsBlockchain AnalyticsLightgbmPythonSQLXgboost
Artificial Intelligence • Fintech • Insurance • Marketing Tech • Software • Analytics
Investigates and processes commercial insurance claims, determines policy coverage, assesses damages, establishes reserves, negotiates settlements, prepares estimates, and maintains accurate claim documentation. The role requires direct communication with insureds, claimants, agents, and internal teams, while identifying potential fraud or subrogation opportunities and coordinating with appraisal and investigative units.
Artificial Intelligence • Fintech • Insurance • Marketing Tech • Software • Analytics
Handles inbound calls and warm leads, consults customers on insurance needs, recommends appropriate Property and Casualty products and coverages, and converts prospects into policyholders. The role includes paid licensing and sales training, customer relationship management, persuasive selling, and adherence to remote-work requirements. Representatives must work four weekdays and one weekend day, maintain a professional home workspace, and meet specified internet-speed requirements.
Top Skills:
PcWired High-Speed Internet
What you need to know about the Charlotte Tech Scene
Ranked among the hottest tech cities in 2024 by CompTIA, Charlotte is quickly cementing its place as a major U.S. tech hub. Home to more than 90,000 tech workers, the city’s ecosystem is primed for continued growth, fueled by billions in annual funding from heavyweights like Microsoft and RevTech Labs, which has created thousands of fintech jobs and made the city a go-to for tech pros looking for their next big opportunity.
Key Facts About Charlotte Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 90,859; 6.5% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Lowe’s, Bank of America, TIAA, Microsoft, Honeywell
- Key Industries: Fintech, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud computing, e-commerce
- Funding Landscape: $3.1 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (CED)
- Notable Investors: Microsoft, Google, Falfurrias Management Partners, RevTech Labs Foundation
- Research Centers and Universities: University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Northeastern University, North Carolina Research Campus
