Payroll Director US & Canada

Overview

This role is responsible for the accurate, timely, compliant, and confidential delivery of payroll for US and Canadian operations. The Senior Payroll Manager owns the full payroll lifecycle and partners closely with Talent, Finance, Legal, employees, benefits, and payroll vendors to maintain strong controls, resolve issues, and build scalable payroll practices.

Responsibilities

Payroll Operations and Compliance

• Lead end-to-end biweekly payroll processing for US and Canadian employees, including regular wages, overtime, bonuses, monthly sales commissions, deductions, reimbursements, terminations, and off-cycle payments.
• Serve as the primary internal expert for US federal, state, and local payroll requirements and Canadian federal and provincial payroll requirements, including income-tax deductions, CPP, EI, provincial obligations, and statutory reporting.
• Review and validate payroll inputs before each payroll cycle, including time and attendance data, pay-rate changes, commissions, tax elections, benefit deductions, new hires, terminations, and employee master data.
• Support new US state and Canadian provincial registrations and maintain compliance calendars for payroll, tax, and reporting deadlines.
• Review, investigate, and coordinate responses to payroll tax notices, agency inquiries, audits, and other compliance matters.
• Maintain secure and confidential handling of employee payroll information in accordance with organizational policies, payroll-provider controls, and applicable privacy requirements.

Year-End Reporting and W-2 Accountability

• Own and coordinate US year-end payroll activities, including reconciliation, review, timely filing, and employee distribution of Forms W-2 and W-3.
• Manage W-2 correction processes, including W-2c coordination, root-cause analysis, employee communication, and documentation when needed.
• Reconcile W-2 totals to payroll registers, quarterly payroll tax returns, general ledger activity, benefit deductions, and retirement-plan contributions.
• Coordinate required Canadian year-end reporting, including T4s, T4As where applicable, RL-1 reporting where applicable, and other payroll-related statutory forms, remittances, and reconciliations.
• Ensure accurate and timely payroll tax filings, remittances, quarterly reporting, and year-end documentation in collaboration with ADP or other payroll providers and internal stakeholders.

Benefits, 401(k), and Employee Deductions

• Manage payroll-related benefit deductions, eligibility changes, leave-related pay impacts, and reconciliations with benefit carriers, brokers, and vendors.
• Administer and reconcile payroll-related Canadian retirement savings deductions, including RRSP contributions and employer programs where applicable; ensure timely, accurate remittances and coordination with plan administrators and vendors.
• Oversee payroll aspects of 401(k) administration, including employee contribution elections, employer match calculations, payroll file accuracy, funding coordination, and reconciliation support.
• Partner with Talent and Benefit vendors to implement annual enrollment changes, benefit elections, compensation changes, and employee lifecycle events accurately and on time.
• Identify, investigate, and resolve discrepancies between payroll, HRIS, benefits, 401(k), and vendor records.

Finance, Controls, and Reporting

• Prepare and reconcile payroll journal entries, payroll-related accruals, tax liabilities, benefit deductions, retirement contributions, and relevant balance-sheet accounts.
• Coordinate with Finance on payroll close activities, general ledger accuracy, management reporting, internal and external audit support, and control documentation.
• Develop and maintain payroll reconciliations, audit trails, operating procedures, checklists, calendars, and key controls.
• Create payroll reports and analyses for Talent, Finance, leadership, and external stakeholders as needed.

Systems, Process Improvement, and Stakeholder Support

• Maintain payroll systems and data integrity; administer or support appropriately authorized payroll-system access in accordance with organizational security policies and segregation-of-duties controls.
• Partner with HRIS, Finance, and payroll vendors to improve integrations, automate manual activities, optimize workflows, and strengthen payroll controls.
• Assess payroll processes, documentation, vendor performance, and system configuration; recommend and implement practical improvements.
• Support payroll-system implementations, ADP configuration changes, payroll and HRIS integrations, vendor transitions, data conversion, parallel testing, user acceptance testing, reconciliation, cutover, and post-implementation stabilization.
• Partner with IT, HRIS, Finance, Benefits, and vendors to assess the payroll impact of system changes; define requirements, validate interfaces and data flows, document controls, and resolve integration issues before and after deployment.
• Serve as a trusted point of contact for employees, managers, Talent, Finance, benefits and payroll providers; resolve inquiries promptly, accurately, and confidentially.
• Communicate payroll deadlines, policy updates, process changes, and action requirements clearly to stakeholders.

Requirements

• 5+ years of progressive payroll experience, including independent ownership of multi-state US payroll; direct Canadian payroll experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading the full payroll cycle in a fast-paced, multi-entity, or multi-jurisdiction environment.
• Hands-on US year-end payroll experience, including W-2 and W-3 review and reconciliation, W-2 distribution, correction processes such as W-2c, and coordination of timely filing.
• Strong working knowledge of US payroll compliance, including federal, state, and local withholding and tax requirements, wage-and-hour considerations, tax registrations, unemployment reporting, agency notices, and year-end reporting.
• Working knowledge of Canadian payroll requirements, including income-tax deductions, CPP, EI, remittances, T4 reporting, RRSP payroll deductions and remittances, and provincial payroll considerations.
• Experience supporting payroll-related benefits and 401(k) deductions, employer contributions or match calculations, vendor coordination, and reconciliations.
• Experience preparing payroll journal entries, account reconciliations, payroll reporting, and audit support.
• Proficiency with payroll systems; ADP experience is preferred. Advanced Excel skills and the ability to analyze large payroll datasets and identify discrepancies.
• Exceptional attention to detail, organization, confidentiality, communication, and ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Ability to obtain and maintain authorized, secure administrative access to the organization’s payroll systems, subject to organizational policy and payroll-provider requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• CPP, FPC, PCP, or comparable payroll certification.
• Experience leading or supporting payroll-system implementations, ADP or other payroll-platform configuration changes, payroll/HRIS integrations, data conversion, testing, vendor transitions, process redesign, or control remediation.
• Experience in a professional services, healthcare, life sciences, consulting, or similarly complex client-service environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, HR, Business, or a related discipline.
• Experience supporting international, UK, or EU payroll is a plus.

First 90-Day Plan

• Deliver consistently accurate, timely, and compliant biweekly US and Canadian payroll.
• Establish reliable W-2, W-3, and Canadian year-end reporting processes, including clear reconciliation and review controls.
• Strengthen payroll, benefits, and 401(k) reconciliation procedures and stakeholder communication.
• Improve payroll documentation, compliance calendars, audit readiness, and segregation-of-duties controls.
• Identify and implement prioritized systems, workflow, vendor, and process improvements.
• Become the trusted internal payroll expert for employees, Talent, Finance, Benefits, and Leadership.

Reporting Line

• Reports to: Head of Financial Operations, North America

Compensation & Benefits

• Compensation and benefits information not provided in the source materials.