Payroll Services Lead

Overview Personio's intelligent HR platform helps small and medium-sized organizations unlock the power of people by making complicated, time-consuming tasks simple and efficient. Our team of 1,500 Personios is building user-friendly products that delight our 15,000+ customers and their 1.5 million employees. Ready to make an impact from day one? Role The Payroll Services Lead is a net-new leadership role sitting at the heart of Personio's 2026 Payroll Operations agenda. Reporting to the Senior Director, Payroll Operations, you will build and lead a specialised team responsible for payroll processing, quality control, and the management of our external delivery partner – a critical operational pillar that bridges the gap between our core software and the complex, bespoke payroll needs of our customers. This is a unique blend of people leadership, technical payroll expertise, and vendor governance. You will oversee both internal specialists and a substantial external partner team (36 FTE), ensuring seamless execution across payroll processing, customer workarounds, and high-standard service delivery. As a founding leader of this function, you will shape how the Payroll Services team operates, define its norms, and build the playbooks that will scale with it. Payroll Operations Oversight: You oversee end-to-end payroll processing for customer accounts not handled within core software, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with agreed SLAs – and partnering with Implementation and Support on account migrations into the Payroll Services team. You are the owner of the collaboration with our payroll processing partners. Responsibilities Role Responsibilities: “What You’ll Do” Team Leadership & Development: You lead, develop, and performance-manage a team of internal IC specialists, acting as their primary coach and escalation point – building a culture of precision, accountability, and continuous improvement from the ground up. Quality Framework Ownership: You own quality sign-off procedures across all payroll runs managed by the team, establishing and maintaining QC frameworks, audit readiness standards, and processing pattern reviews that drive continuous improvement in error rates and output quality. Customer Workaround Management: You manage and execute agreed customer-specific workarounds and non-standard payroll requirements, coordinating with internal stakeholders to document, validate, and operationalise workaround agreements – and ensuring they are delivered consistently and reviewed regularly for scalability. Vendor Governance: You serve as the primary operational owner of the external vendor relationship, overseeing a team of 36 FTE – managing day-to-day coordination, performance standards, and quality expectations, and acting as the counterpart for vendor leadership in regular reviews and governance forums. Cross-Functional Collaboration: You define and maintain SLAs with Support and Implementation for account handover and case routing, represent the Payroll Services team in leadership forums, and contribute to operational planning – supporting OKR delivery across activation speed and service experience. Operational Reporting & Continuous Improvement: You provide the Senior Director with clear, data-informed visibility into team performance, delivery quality, and vendor outputs – identifying systemic issues and leading initiatives that strengthen the Payroll Services model over time. Role Requirements Payroll Operations Expertise: You have proven experience in payroll operations or a closely related function, ideally with exposure to payroll processing software – giving you the technical foundation to lead your team confidently and act as a meaningful escalation point. People Management: You have a track record of leading small, high-output operational teams with a hands-on, coaching-oriented approach – able to develop ICs, manage performance constructively, and build team culture from the ground up. Vendor & External Partner Management: You have experience managing a vendor or third-party team, holding external partners to quality and SLA standards and acting as an effective governance counterpart for vendor leadership. Quality Assurance & Process Improvement: You bring strong understanding of payroll compliance, processing accuracy, and QC frameworks – and you take a structured, data-informed approach to identifying errors, root causes, and improvement opportunities. Stakeholder Management: You can translate operational complexity into clear communication for leadership and customers, manage expectations across functions, and build strong working relationships with Implementation, Support, and senior leadership. Process & Documentation Mindset: You are comfortable defining operating norms, building playbooks, and maintaining process documentation that others rely on – especially in a build-phase environment where structure must be created rather than inherited. Structured & Autonomous Leadership: You operate with a high degree of independence, manage multiple competing priorities with composure, and apply structured thinking to navigate ambiguity – following through on commitments without losing quality or attention to detail. Benefits Personio is an equal opportunities employer, committed to building an integrative culture where everyone feels welcomed and supported. We embrace uniqueness and understand that our diverse, values-driven culture makes us stronger. We are proud to have an inclusive workplace environment that will foster your development no matter your gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, education level, or race. At Personio, we value in-person collaboration while also offering flexibility. This role is office-based, with 3 days per week required in your contracted office location. The remaining days can be worked from home or in the office if you prefer. In addition, you’ll have 20 Flex Days per year to work remotely from other locations. Aside from our people, culture, and mission, check out some of the other benefits that make Personio a great place to work: Receive a competitive reward package – reevaluated each year – that includes salary, benefits, and pre-IPO equity Enjoy 28 days of paid vacation, plus an additional day after 2 and 4 years Make an impact on the environment and society with 1 (fully paid) Impact Day Receive generous family leave, child support, mental health support, and sabbatical opportunities We enjoy gathering for meals, cultural initiatives, and events like local Summer Sessions and year-end celebrations. There’s also healthy snacks, drinks, and a weekly catered lunch #J-18808-Ljbffr Personio