[Remote] Director, Payroll Strategy and Operations

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. ELIQUENT Life Sciences is a global consulting firm serving life sciences companies. The Director leads the strategy, transformation, governance, and scalability of ELIQUENT’s global payroll function, partnering across HR, Finance, Technology, and external providers. The role strengthens controls, defines the future operating model, simplifies systems and processes, and builds transaction-ready capability while day-to-day payroll execution remains with the payroll team.

Responsibilities

• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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

Skills

• 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

Benefits

• A collaborative global environment
• Meaningful work
• Opportunities to grow
• Ability to contribute to the continued evolution of ELIQUENT’s HR function

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