Project Manager HCM Payroll

At Connect Centric, we are more than just consultants—we are partners committed to our clients' success. We take a hands-on approach, working closely with our clients to transform strategies into measurable, real-world outcomes. As a strategy execution team, we take full ownership of every initiative from start to finish, ensuring that our clients see tangible results, not just ideas.

Position Description
Connect Centric is seeking a Project Manager to manage the payroll workstream within our client’s enterprise Human Capital Management (HCM) initiatives, with a primary focus on UKG and Workday. You will plan, coordinate, and track payroll deliverables, schedules, requirements, risks, testing, implementation readiness, cutover, and operational transition.

This role requires direct experience supporting payroll initiatives involving both UKG and Workday. Working under the direction of the client’s Project Management Office (PMO) Manager, you will partner with payroll, HR, finance, operations, IT, the Senior Program Manager, vendors, and implementation partners to deliver payroll outcomes that meet business needs, compliance requirements, and enterprise technology standards.

What You Will Do
• Lead planning and execution tracking for the payroll workstream across UKG, Workday, and related workforce management initiatives.
• Develop, maintain, and track payroll workstream plans, schedules, milestones, dependencies, risks, issues, action items, and implementation activities.
• Facilitate payroll workstream meetings; prepare materials, document decisions, track follow-up actions, and communicate progress to stakeholders and leadership.
• Coordinate with payroll, HR, finance, operations, IT, the Senior Program Manager, vendors, and implementation partners to clarify scope, align priorities, and resolve risks and issues.
• Coordinate payroll requirements, configuration decisions, business workflows, integrations, data validation, testing, and implementation readiness for UKG and Workday.
• Support payroll cutover, implementation, transition planning, and post-implementation stabilization.
• Maintain dashboards, status reports, decision logs, risk, assumption, issue, and dependency (RAID) logs, action trackers, and other payroll project documentation.
• Communicate payroll delivery status, dependencies, risks, issues, decisions, compliance considerations, and adoption impacts to leadership and affected teams.
• Support payroll process improvement, change management, stakeholder readiness, training coordination, and adoption planning.
• Apply client-approved project standards, templates, governance routines, and delivery methods; follow client policies, confidentiality expectations, information security requirements, and applicable compliance standards.
• Assess payroll operations, workforce processes, data considerations, platform roadmaps, and vendor capabilities to recommend practical solutions and improvements.
• Help ensure deliverables meet business needs, quality expectations, compliance requirements, data integrity standards, configuration expectations, and delivery commitments while balancing enhancements, stakeholder requests, and deadlines.
 
Required Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree and at least five years of experience providing business analysis, technology delivery, and senior project management support for enterprise HCM or payroll platform initiatives.
• Experience supporting payroll initiatives involving both UKG and Workday, including project planning, enhancements, requirements definition, configuration coordination, payroll workflow alignment, and integration coordination.
• Experience coordinating payroll testing, data validation, security and access considerations, reporting, readiness, training support, adoption, issue resolution, and post-implementation stabilization.
• Hands-on experience using UKG and Workday to support payroll workstream delivery, project reporting, issue tracking, stakeholder communications, implementation and testing coordination, cutover planning, and decision support.
• Experience supporting complex payroll or HCM workstreams involving payroll, HR, finance, operations, technology teams, vendors, implementation partners, and senior stakeholders.
• Working knowledge of payroll operations, payroll compliance requirements, time and attendance, absence management, benefits, workforce scheduling, reporting, and employee self-service.
• Strong understanding of scope, schedule, budget, risk, issue, escalation protocols, dependency, resource, change, benefits, and stakeholder management.
• Experience supporting Agile or other delivery methodologies in enterprise platform, ERP, HRIS, payroll, workforce management, or HCM environments.
• Ability to work with stakeholders to define payroll and HCM solutions, delivery approaches, project decisions, and operational readiness plans, and to interpret vendor feedback and recommend actions.
• Experience preparing and presenting project reports, dashboards, status updates, decision materials, risk summaries, and payroll implementation readiness updates.
• Strong planning, organization, facilitation, analysis, problem-solving, and time management skills, with excellent documentation and attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex payroll and HCM concepts, risks, tradeoffs, and implementation impacts to business stakeholders and leadership.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and related collaboration tools.
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience with Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Jira, DevOps, or equivalent delivery management tools.
• PMP, CAPM, SAFe, Agile, Scrum, Prosci, ITIL, Workday, UKG, HRIS, payroll, or a similar certification.

Position Details

• Position Type: Full-time W-2 employment. Independent contractor or 1099 arrangements are not available for this position.
• Location: Washington D.C.
• This position is hybrid (2x per week)
• Pay Rate: $125K - $130K