Payroll Implementation Manager

Job Description:

Key Responsibilities

1. Implementation Planning and Coordination

• Develop and maintain detailed country and workstream implementation plans aligned with the overall programme timeline.
• Coordinate implementation activities across HR, Payroll, Finance, Group IT, country teams, implementation partners and payroll service providers.
• Define and monitor key milestones, deliverables, dependencies, resource requirements and critical-path activities.
• Ensure that roles, responsibilities, expected outputs and due dates are clearly communicated to all relevant parties.
• Coordinate the sequencing of activities across SAP Payroll migration, Workday integration, payroll service transition and change management workstreams.
• Identify schedule conflicts, resource constraints and cross-workstream dependencies, and escalate them promptly.
• Maintain implementation momentum by following up on outstanding actions and ensuring timely closure.

2. Discovery and Blueprint

• Coordinate country kick-off, discovery, requirements-gathering and Blueprint sessions.
• Ensure that the appropriate country and functional representatives participate in relevant workshops.
• Track the collection, review and approval of country payroll requirements, statutory requirements, process information and supporting documentation.
• Coordinate the review and closure of gaps, assumptions, decisions and action items identified during discovery and Blueprint.
• Ensure that approved requirements and decisions are reflected in the implementation plan and relevant project deliverables.
• Work with the Payroll Project Technical Lead to ensure that technical dependencies and solution decisions are incorporated into country rollout plans.

3. Configuration, Integration and Data Readiness

• Coordinate configuration, integration and data-preparation activities across internal teams and implementation partners.
• Track completion of data templates, data cleansing, mapping, validation and migration-readiness activities.
• Monitor the delivery and review of functional and technical specifications.
• Coordinate the resolution of business, process and data-related issues that may affect implementation readiness.
• Ensure that configuration and integration dependencies are reflected in the project schedule.
• Escalate unresolved issues that may affect scope, timeline, payroll accuracy or country readiness.

4. Testing and Parallel Runs

• Develop and coordinate the overall testing schedule covering unit testing, System Integration Testing, User Acceptance Testing and payroll parallel runs.
• Ensure that test scope, scenarios, participants, environments, data, entry criteria and exit criteria are defined before each test phase.
• Coordinate country HR, payroll users, Finance, IT teams and vendors during testing and parallel-run activities.
• Monitor test execution, defects, retesting, outstanding issues and closure status.
• Ensure that testing evidence, reconciliation results, approvals and sign-offs are properly documented.
• Coordinate the review of payroll results, reports, payslips, interfaces and downstream outputs with the relevant business and technical teams.
• Track readiness against agreed testing and parallel-run acceptance criteria.
• Escalate material defects or unresolved gaps that may affect cutover or the Go/No-Go decision.

5. Cutover, Go-Live and Stabilisation

• Develop and maintain the integrated business and operational cutover plan.
• Coordinate cutover tasks, owners, dependencies, timings, checkpoints and readiness evidence.
• Ensure that business, system, data, support and communication readiness requirements are completed before go-live.
• Coordinate cutover rehearsals and track the closure of identified gaps.
• Consolidate country and workstream readiness status to support the Go/No-Go decision.
• Coordinate implementation activities during go-live and ensure that issues are assigned, prioritised and resolved promptly.
• Monitor hypercare and stabilisation activities, including incident trends, outstanding defects and operational handover.
• Ensure that exit criteria for hypercare and transition to business-as-usual support are defined and achieved.

6. Vendor and Stakeholder Management

• Manage day-to-day delivery coordination with implementation partners, payroll service providers and other third parties.
• Monitor vendor deliverables against agreed scope, quality, schedule and acceptance criteria.
• Facilitate regular implementation status reviews and ensure that decisions and action items are documented.
• Work with country leads and functional stakeholders to resolve delivery issues and maintain alignment.
• Escalate significant vendor-performance, timeline, resource or quality concerns to the Global Payroll Project Manager.
• Build effective working relationships across countries, functions and vendor teams.

7. Governance, Reporting and Documentation

• Maintain accurate implementation status, action, risk, issue, dependency and decision records.
• Provide consolidated implementation updates for project governance and management reporting.
• Ensure that project documentation, approvals, evidence and sign-offs are complete and properly stored.
• Support preparation for PMO, Steering Committee and management review meetings.
• Monitor compliance with agreed project governance, change-control and escalation procedures.
• Ensure that country implementation activities remain aligned with approved scope, timeline and project standards.

Decision-Making and Accountability

• Accountable for the timely and coordinated execution of country and workstream implementation activities.
• Makes day-to-day implementation and scheduling decisions within the approved project scope, plan and governance framework.
• Recommends corrective actions, recovery plans and implementation priorities when delivery deviations occur.
• Escalates matters involving material scope, cost, timeline, technical, regulatory or business impact to the Global Payroll Project Manager.
• Does not hold final approval authority for budget, major scope changes, technical design or Go/No-Go decisions.
• Works with the Payroll Project Technical Lead on technical matters and with business owners on payroll-process and operational approvals.

Job Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Human Resources, Information Technology, Project Management or a related discipline.
• At least five years of relevant experience in payroll, HR technology or enterprise-system implementation.
• Demonstrated experience managing at least two full-cycle payroll, Workday, SAP or HR transformation implementations.
• Experience managing multi-country or regional implementations involving multiple business units and stakeholder groups.
• Strong understanding of payroll implementation phases, including discovery, Blueprint, configuration, data migration, testing, parallel runs, cutover, go-live and stabilisation.
• Experience coordinating System Integration Testing, User Acceptance Testing and payroll parallel runs.
• Good working knowledge of SAP Payroll, Workday integrations and third-party payroll service models.
• Strong project planning, implementation management, risk management and problem-solving capabilities.
• Proven experience managing implementation partners, vendors and cross-functional teams.
• Ability to manage multiple workstreams, priorities, dependencies and deadlines in a complex programme environment.
• Strong stakeholder-management, facilitation, negotiation and communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail, with the ability to maintain accurate implementation plans, status reports and governance records.
• Experience with Microsoft Project, Microsoft Planner or similar project-management tools would be an advantage.
• PMP, PRINCE2, Agile or other relevant project-management certification would be an advantage.
• Experience in payroll transformation within a large multinational organisation would be an advantage.

To apply, please submit your resume and cover letter outlining your interest for this role.