Senior Manager, Payroll Operations - Americas (EOR)

The Senior Manager, Payroll Operations – Americas (EOR) is a senior regional leadership role responsible for delivering accurate, compliant, and scalable Employer of Record (EOR) payroll services across North and South America.

This role owns end-to-end EOR payroll delivery for the Americas region, leads high-performing payroll teams, ensures regulatory compliance, and drives operational excellence. The Senior Manager partners closely with HR, Finance, Legal, Product, and Client Success to continuously improve payroll quality, reduce risk, and enhance the client and employee experience.

This position blends regional operational ownership, people leadership, compliance rigor, and strategic process design within an EOR model.

• Own end-to-end EOR payroll operations across the Americas, ensuring:

• Lead complex payroll cycles (monthly, semi-monthly, biweekly) across multiple Americas jurisdictions.

• Serve as the regional escalation owner for payroll errors, employee pay issues, client concerns, and compliance risks.

• Drive root-cause analysis and corrective action plans for payroll incidents.

• Lead, coach, and develop Payroll Managers, Leads, and Specialists supporting Americas EOR.

• Set clear expectations using KPIs and competency frameworks.

• Conduct regular 1:1s, performance reviews, development plans, and succession planning.

• Foster a culture of accountability, ownership, continuous improvement, and client empathy.

• Ensure adherence to statutory payroll and employment requirements across Americas EOR countries, including tax, social security, labor law, and reporting obligations.

• Partner with Legal and Compliance on audits, regulatory changes, and country expansions.

• Maintain payroll SOPs, controls, and documentation to support internal audits and SOC/SOX readiness.

• Proactively identify compliance risks inherent to the EOR model and implement mitigation strategies.

• Design and standardize EOR payroll operating procedures across the Americas.

• Drive operational maturity through:

  • SOP creation and maintenance

  • RACI frameworks

  • Payroll processing checklists

  • RAG risk models

  • Control frameworks

• Partner with Product and Engineering to improve payroll tooling, integrations, and automation.

• Lead efficiency initiatives to reduce manual work, improve velocity, and enhance payroll quality.

• Work closely with:

  • EOR Implementation teams on new client onboarding

  • Client Success on escalations, retention, and service quality

  • Finance on funding, reconciliations, and reporting

  • Product on payroll roadmap priorities

• Act as the Americas EOR payroll subject matter expert for internal stakeholders.

• Support expansion of EOR services into new Americas countries.

• Contribute to departmental OKRs and annual planning.

• Produce executive-level reporting on regional payroll health, risks, and performance trends.

• Influence EOR payroll strategy through data-driven insights.

• 8–12+ years of progressive payroll experience, including multi-country payroll in the Americas

• 3–5+ years in people leadership roles

• Strong understanding of payroll compliance, statutory deductions, and employment regulations across North and South America

• Experience operating within an Employer of Record (EOR) model

• Proven ability to lead operational teams in high-growth or complex environments (SaaS, fintech, or global services preferred)

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

• Excellent written and verbal communication

• Comfortable owning escalations and partnering with executive stakeholders

• Experience supporting both LATAM and NORAM payroll operations

• Exposure to SOC1/SOX controls or payroll audits

• Advanced Excel and operational reporting skills

• Experience driving payroll automation or systems implementations

• Familiarity with HRIS and payroll platforms in multi-vendor environments

• Regional Operational Excellence

• People Leadership & Coaching

• Compliance-First Mindset

• Client Obsession

• Strategic Thinking

• Ownership & Accountability

• Data-Driven Decision Making

• Change Management

• Payroll Accuracy ≥99.8%

• On-Time Payroll Delivery = 100%

• Reduction in payroll-driven escalations QoQ

• SOP coverage across all Americas EOR countries

• Team engagement and retention

• Audit findings closed within SLA