TrueBlue has an exciting career opportunity for a Director of Associate Payroll within the Billing and Payment Shared Services team. This is a key leadership role within our shared services organization.

People Management:

• Coach and develop team members on both the US and India teams to achieve their potential, elevate their skills and knowledge, and do their best work.
• Provide prioritization and clear direction for the many demands that face our payroll teams.
• Remove barriers to the team to drive results and team success as a servant leader.
• Build department structures and strategies to provide career opportunities for the collective global team.
• Build on and maintain a culture of empowerment, inclusiveness, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Create and maintain a positive team environment, conduct team meetings, provide recognition, and celebrate successes.
• Develop a culture among the teams that delivers a high level of customer service.

Strategy and Process Management:

• Develop, champion, and implement a strategic vision for Associate Payroll including people, process, and system strategy.
• Establish and manage departmental goals and objectives. Allocate resources and manage changing priorities to achieve objectives in alignment with established initiatives.
• Interpret and propose policies to ensure compliance with applicable federal and state rules and regulations while managing the financial impact of those decisions.
• Manage multiple corporate initiatives, programs, and projects, and ensure alignment with the overall business strategy. Establish metrics to assess the success of these initiatives, programs, and projects.
• Foster an environment in which customer needs and requirements are anticipated and expectations are exceeded. Analyze actual data for trends, drivers, and performance results against industry benchmarks to drive SLA compliance/quality improvement.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Manage change management activities and collaborate with various stakeholders for items related to associate payroll including but not limited to training, communications, and support.
• Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders within the Technology, Operations, Compliance, Finance, and other related organizations to ensure optimization of the end-to-end input and output processes.
• Lead the preparation and validation of relevant management quarterly business reviews, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and metrics.

System Support:

• Lead activities to identify functional requirements for the technical team, and work with the Director of Payroll Strategy and Systems for testing and implementation support for new systems, integrations, or process changes.
• Analyze complex transactions, identify system issues and work with internal and external teams to identify root causes; assess risk and implement mitigation plans to minimize or eliminate future occurrences.
• Leverage technology to gain efficiency and accuracy, including the use of chatbots to enable self-service, and RPA to automate manual tasks. Assist in troubleshooting existing payroll automations and work with IT to expand the utilization of BOT processing.
• Proficient in evaluating systems for accurate calculations for all areas of payroll – taxable wages, fringe benefits, pre-tax benefits, absence plans, etc.

Compliance, Controls, Audits:

• Design and implement proper segregation of duties, Sarbanes-Oxley controls, and internal self-audits. Partner with Internal Audit team to provide compliance reporting and SOX narratives that support the Corporate/Global process controls while ensuring no high-risk audit comments.
• Continually review and assess risk across the business and design controls to address and mitigate risk.

Individual should have a minimum of 10 years’ experience leading teams and payroll processes in high volume, multi-state, global environment. In addition, this position requires:

• Ability to adapt management style according to the situation and people.
• Ability to prioritize workload, utilize a wide degree of creativity and latitude to accomplish goals, understand business implications of decisions, and complete projects with minimal supervision.
• Experience leading a global payroll team, as a majority of your team will be located in India.
• Proven experience working with and influencing senior leaders and executives.
• Ability to collaborate, influence, and gain buy-in from disparate stakeholders.
• Deep knowledge of North American payroll operations, including regulations, taxes, related systems, and a strong understanding of upstream data inputs and integrations.
• Advanced data and analytical skills to assist in the identification and diagnosis of payroll issues.
• Advanced problem solving, process improvement and change management skills with the ability to think strategically, analytically, and creatively.
• Ability to identify complex problems and review related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
• Ability to think through payroll processes and propose technological solutions to save time, improve controls and improve service quality.
• Experience in designing, implementing, and reviewing internal controls aimed at reducing operational risk, i.e., Sarbanes-Oxley.
• Continuous improvement mindset with exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills.

Preferred Qualifications (It would be great if you also had…)

• Bachelor’s Degree or higher in HR, Accounting, Business, Finance, or related discipline
• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) designation (or similar)
• Knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
• Experience with Shared Service and Regional Delivery models for payroll
• Ability to work in a global work environment (GBS Team in India) which may require occasional conference calls and work outside of local working hours