Unilabs is hiring a Sr. Payroll and Time Operations Manager to act as the strategic architect for payroll and time management within our Shared Service Center. In this role, you will lead the Payroll Transformation Project, centralizing services from local country entities into a regional hub while ensuring zero disruption for over 10,000 employees across 10+ EU countries.
What You'll Do
- Lead the transfer of payroll operations from local teams to the central Shared Service Center, ensuring seamless pay cycles.
- Establish the Target Operating Model for new generation payroll, standardizing workflows, approvals, and communications.
- Create centralized Standard Operating Procedures for Payroll and Time Management, capturing local nuances like tax codes and benefit rules.
- Manage the post-migration hyper-care phase and ensure the central team meets performance benchmarks.
- Guarantee 100% accuracy in parallel runs during the transition.
- Lead end-to-end payroll operations, ensuring accuracy, legal compliance, and timeliness.
- Oversee payroll inputs, validations, controls, and final approvals with internal teams and external partners.
- Ensure correct application of regulations for taxes, social security, benefits, allowances, and absences.
- Address complex payroll cases, escalations, and employee issues professionally and swiftly.
- Oversee the time-management platform, ensuring correct data transfer to payroll and managing configuration changes.
- Ensure accurate handling of shift patterns, overtime, absences, approvals, and exceptions.
- Partner with IT and vendors to resolve system issues and improve user experience.
- Guide Global/Regional teams to collect data input for Benefits, Compensation, and Mobility for pay disbursement.
- Monitor service trends and SLA completion rates, executing improvements to eliminate manual and shadow payroll processes.
- Serve as the senior escalation point for complex inquiries, redirecting to the Total Rewards COE or Legal as needed.
- Analyze and validate off-cycle requests, payroll accounting, and third-party provider reconciliations.
- Ensure timely delivery of payroll inputs and query resolution within agreed service windows.
- Reduce the number of local-only manual payroll steps.
- Maintain strong internal controls, segregation of duties, and risk mitigation processes.
- Manage year-end payroll activities, tax certificates, reporting, reconciliations, and audit deliverables.
- Lead continuous improvement for key processes and the payroll solution across markets.
- Work closely with HR Business Partners, HR Operations, Finance, and line managers on payroll matters.
- Manage relationships with payroll vendors, pension funds, insurance providers, and authorities.
- Provide regular reporting, KPIs, and insights to HR and Finance leadership.
- Ensure clear communication flow between the SSC and market stakeholders.
- Act as the primary contact for external auditors and local tax authorities during and after the transition.
What We're Looking For
- Proven experience leading the end-to-end delivery of payroll services across multiple EU countries.
- Demonstrated success in managing large-scale payroll transformation and centralization projects.
- Expert knowledge of EU payroll regulations, taxes, social security, and benefits administration.
- Strong operational leadership skills with experience managing 10,000+ employee payroll cycles.
- Experience establishing Target Operating Models, standardizing workflows, and creating SOPs.
- Deep familiarity with time-management platforms and their integration with payroll systems.
- Excellent ability to manage external vendor relationships and internal stakeholder partnerships.
- Strong focus on risk mitigation, internal controls, and audit compliance.
- Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
Team & Environment
You will be a strategic leader within the Shared Service Center (SSC), responsible for architecting the payroll and time management function. This role is pivotal in transitioning services from local entities to a centralized regional hub.
