Director, Global Payroll

Director, Global Payroll

Santa Clara, California, United States

The Opportunity

Our client is a pioneer in semiconductor manufacturing, providing tools for the world's most sophisticated electronics.

With billions of units in the field, our client is seeking a Director of Global Payroll to modernize and scale their worldwide payroll infrastructure during a period of rapid international expansion.

Core Mission

You will serve as the architect and operator of a complex global payroll ecosystem. This is a high-visibility role responsible for the seamless execution of nearly 400 annual cycles across the United States, APAC, Canada, and the EMEA region. You will move between high-level vendor strategy and hands-on technical troubleshooting, ensuring that a growing workforce is paid accurately and in total compliance with diverse international labor laws.

Key Strategic Mandates

• International Governance: Administer end-to-end payroll for 10+ global jurisdictions, maintaining rigorous oversight of third-party vendors and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
• Process Engineering: Audit and overhaul existing workflows to boost automation. You will define the "gold standard" for pay policies, tax compliance, and statutory reporting globally.
• Data Advocacy: Transform payroll data into actionable business intelligence. You will build custom dashboards and models to analyze labor costs and trends for Finance and HR leadership.
• Organizational Leadership: Mentor a high-performance team focused on accountability and service excellence, acting as the final point of escalation for complex equity or reconciliation issues.
• Audit Readiness: Own the control environment (including SOX frameworks), leading all quarter-end and year-end statutory activities and benefits reconciliations.

Professional Profile

• Global Pedigree: 10+ years of payroll experience with a heavy emphasis on multi-country operations (specifically within EMEA and APAC).
• Technical Toolkit: Expert-level mastery of major HRIS/Payroll platforms (e.g., Workday, ADP, or UKG) and advanced data modeling capabilities in Excel.
• Critical Thinking: A proven ability to diagnose root causes in complex data sets and implement scalable solutions independently.
• Education: Bachelor's degree in Finance, Business, or Accounting preferred.
• Communication: Comfortable collaborating across different time zones and presenting technical compliance findings to non-technical stakeholders.

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