Payroll Operations Services Manager

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Strada is a people, payroll, and technology leader simplifying international workforce management. Operating in 180+ countries, we design and deliver people-first solutions powered by cloud-based technology – helping organizations grow and enabling workforces to perform at their best.

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The Payroll Operations Services Manager (OSM) provides end-to-end oversight of payroll operations for assigned clients and serves as the primary operational escalation point. The OSM coordinates delivery teams, third-party providers, Client Service Leaders, and cross-functional stakeholders to meet contractual obligations and service commitments. The OSM leads operational health, service-level performance, payroll change execution, audit readiness, financial and resource management, service recovery, and continuous improvement. The OSM is also a people leader who develops aligned payroll colleagues to deliver consistent, compliant, and client-focused outcomes.

Core Accountabilities

Payroll Service Delivery Oversight

• Provide oversight for day-to-day payroll delivery across service locations, platforms, internal teams, and third-party providers.
• Monitor payroll workload, critical processing activities, capacity, dependencies, risks, and open items to ensure business-as-usual work and projects meet required deadlines and quality standards.
• Lead payroll status calls and key client-event planning, including annual and recurring payroll activities including Union agreement changes, bonus cycles, year-end operations, legislative changes, mergers and acquisitions, and changes in scope.
• Ensure consistent execution of operating procedures, controls, contractual requirements, and approved service delivery practices.
• Evaluate orphaned or unclear work to define the process, establish ownership, or eliminate unnecessary activity.
• Lead operational readiness and stabilization activities for new services, transitions, vendor changes, and material payroll initiatives.

2 Client Delivery and Service Partnership

• Partner with the CSL to ensure governance actions, service priorities, and client commitments are completed accurately and on time.
• Build trusted relationships with key client contacts and serve as the secondary operational contact for payroll delivery matters.
• Participate in and, as appropriate, lead client governance meetings, operational reviews, and status calls, presenting payroll performance, risks, actions, and recommendations.
• Provide payroll operational consultation, recommendations, and best-practice guidance to support changes, releases, and legislative or tax updates.
• Coordinate timely client communications regarding payroll operations, delivery risks, service improvements, resource changes, and other business initiatives impacting payroll delivery.

3 Governance, Metrics, and Operational Health

• Monitor payroll operational health and performance across aligned clients and teams, driving achievement of established service and operational targets.
• Analyze dashboards, productivity data, operational metrics, open-item reporting, and service results to identify trends, emerging risks, performance gaps, and improvement opportunities.
• Prepare payroll governance materials, service metrics, and operational scorecards, ensuring assigned content is accurate, complete, and ready for stakeholder review.
• Develop and coordinate mitigation and recovery plans for missed targets, operational risks, escalating concerns as appropriate.

4 Escalation Management, Service Recovery and E&O

• Serve as the primary escalation point for payroll service delivery issues and high-impact or highly visible service failures.
• Coordinate issue investigation to determine root cause, impacted population, operational and client impact, risk exposure, and required corrective actions.
• Develop and coordinate service recovery and mitigation plans, ensuring actions are tracked through completion and appropriate stakeholders are engaged.
• Coordinate Root Cause Analysis documentation and coordinate required internal review, approval, and client delivery.
• Initiate and support Errors and Omissions processes, ensuring required documentation is completed and coordinating with the CSL and applicable stakeholders to mitigate financial and client impacts.
• Review and track service recoveries, corrective actions, and recurring issues to identify trends and drive process improvement and risk-reduction opportunities.

5 SLA, Contract, Risk and Compliance Management

• Serve as the payroll operational subject matter expert for aligned Statements of Work, service commitments, SLA definitions, calculations, targets, and contractual obligations.
• Monitor SLA, KPI, and other contractual performance, coordinating root cause analysis, remediation, recovery actions, and reporting when performance targets are not met.
• Ensure payroll delivery remains within contractual scope and identify potential scope creep or work requiring a Change Request.
• Conduct applicable risk-based audits and ensure required payroll controls are executed, monitored, and maintained in accordance with established control requirements.
• Coordinate and actively participate in SOC1 audits, control assessments, evidence collection, remediation activities, and other applicable compliance reviews.
• Maintain payroll Business Continuity plans for aligned clients and coordinate required testing, recovery exercises, and execution during bu