Payroll Applications & Technology Director

Payroll Applications & Technology Director

Location:Culver City, CA
Pay:$92.00 - $100.00 per hour
26-10778

Job Summary

The Director, Payroll Applications & Technology provides strategic and technical leadership for the application ecosystem supporting North American payroll and workforce management. This role owns the technology roadmap, architecture, production support, modernization efforts, vendor partnerships, and development of high-performing technical teams while maintaining accountability for business-critical payroll operations. The Director leads complex incident resolution, integrations, implementations, and continuous improvement initiatives across payroll, workforce management, finance, HR, and related enterprise systems. Success requires deep payroll technology expertise, strong technical judgment, executive communication skills, and the ability to balance long-term strategy with hands-on leadership during critical production events.

Job Responsibilities

• Own the technical health, operating model, and multiyear roadmap for payroll and workforce management applications, including Infor WFM and UKG Payroll.
• Define technology strategy and investment priorities that improve reliability, simplify the application landscape, modernize capabilities, and enhance the payroll user experience.
• Establish and maintain standards for application configuration, integrations, reporting, automation, security, and technical controls.
• Ensure reliable, documented, monitored, and supportable integrations across Workday, SAP Finance, banking, tax, time and attendance, and related enterprise systems.
• Advance automation, observability, analytics, self-service, and responsible AI capabilities to improve efficiency and decision-making.
• Provide senior technical leadership for complex payroll application, integration, data, calculation, timekeeping, access, and financial posting issues.
• Lead evidence-based troubleshooting through data analysis, configuration and log reviews, interface tracing, testing, and business validation.
• Drive critical incidents from initial containment through root-cause analysis, permanent resolution, validation, documentation, and preventive action.
• Ensure temporary workarounds are controlled, documented, time-bound, and replaced with sustainable solutions.
• Lead technology teams through critical payroll cycles, releases, cutovers, go-lives, and stabilization periods.
• Mentor and develop payroll technology resources while establishing clear expectations for ownership, responsiveness, technical rigor, documentation, communication, and measurable outcomes.
• Build internal technical capabilities through coaching, cross-training, support playbooks, diagnostic standards, succession planning, and knowledge management.
• Identify capacity and capability gaps and develop sourcing strategies that appropriately balance internal resources, partners, cost, and risk.
• Lead payroll technology implementations, enhancements, releases, and operational initiatives using appropriate Agile and delivery practices.
• Partner with Payroll Operations, HR IT, Finance, Global Finance Operations, Information Security, Audit, integration teams, and other stakeholders.
• Provide concise, decision-ready executive communication regarding service health, priorities, incidents, risks, dependencies, delivery progress, and required decisions.
• Manage technology budgets, Agile funding, contracts, statements of work, service levels, and vendor performance.
• Align technology delivery with payroll-cycle timing and business priorities while proactively managing risks, dependencies, resource constraints, and contingency plans.
• Maintain current technical documentation, testing evidence, change controls, runbooks, support procedures, and audit-ready records.
• Ensure payroll technology solutions and operations comply with applicable payroll and tax requirements, collective bargaining agreements, SOX, information security, privacy, and audit controls.

Job Requirements

• 10+ years of progressive experience in payroll systems, HRIS, workforce management, payroll technology, or related enterprise applications, including leadership responsibility for business-critical production environments.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience configuring, administering, troubleshooting, or implementing enterprise payroll or workforce management platforms.
• Proven experience leading complex incident diagnosis, root-cause analysis, technical decision-making, and resolution across applications, integrations, infrastructure dependencies, and data.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end payroll processes, including Hours-to-Gross, Gross-to-Net, controls, integrations, and U.S. and Canadian payroll requirements.
• Experience leading technical teams, contractors, managed service providers, and vendors while maintaining accountability for outcomes.
• Experience with integrations, APIs, secure file transfers, data validation, SQL, reporting queries, testing, releases, change management, cutovers, and stabilization.
• Experience managing technology budgets, vendor relationships, service performance, and competing operational and project priorities.
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate between strategic priorities, technical details, operational requirements, and business needs.
• Ability to lead effectively in high-pressure production environments and during critical payroll cycles.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and decision-making skills.
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline or equivalent combination of education and professional experience.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline or equivalent combination of education and professional experience.

Work Experience

• 10+ years of progressive experience in payroll technology, payroll systems, HRIS, workforce management, or related enterprise applications.
• Experience leading payroll technology implementations, migrations, cutovers, go-lives, and post-production stabilization preferred.
• Hands-on experience with Infor WFM and UKG Payroll strongly preferred.
• Experience with Workday Core HCM and Compensation, SAP Finance, Cognos, Power BI, SQL, advanced Excel, or comparable technologies preferred.
• Experience supporting complex, multi-entity U.S. and Canadian payroll environments, including union and non-union populations, preferred.
• Knowledge of entertainment-industry collective bargaining agreements and their impact on payroll technology, calculations, and controls preferred.
• Experience using automation, scripting, monitoring, analytics, or responsible AI-enabled tools to improve technology support and delivery preferred.
• Relevant Agile, Scrum, ITIL, project management, payroll, or platform certification preferred.

About Equiliem

Equiliem believes in empowering success. It's our job to cultivate relationships that connect people and employers in a way that is inclusive, intelligent, and allows both to thrive.

Across the U.S., leading companies in healthcare, government, engineering, manufacturing, professional services, and energy rely on us for their workforce solutions. Our recruiting and HR services include contract and direct hire staffing, Payrolling/EOR, Independent Contractor Compliance, and Managed Services.

For almost 30 years, we've helped shape our industry. Today, we continue to research, ask questions, and continuously enhance the candidate journey and client experience.

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package to our employees, which includes:

• Medical Insurance
• Vision & Dental Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Matching 401(k)
• Commuter Benefits
• Employee Discounts & Rewards
• Payroll Payment Options

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