Director of Payroll

Job Title: Director

Location: System Business Office

Department Name: Payroll

Req #: 0000251112

Status: Salaried

Shift: Day

Pay Range: $145,000.00 - $195,000.00 per year

Pay Transparency:

The above reflects the anticipated annual salary range for this position if hired to work in New Jersey.

The compensation offered to the candidate selected for the position will depend on several factors, including the candidate's educational background, skills and professional experience.

Job Summary:

The Director, Payroll Operations is responsible for leading the day-to-day execution of payroll operations across the organization, ensuring payroll is processed accurately, timely, and in full compliance with federal, state, and local requirements, organizational policy, and internal control standards.

This role provides strategic and operational leadership over payroll processing, validation, balancing, issue resolution, and service delivery, while also maintaining a strong focus on continuous improvement, operational discipline, risk mitigation, and team development.

The Director serves as the operational leader for payroll execution and is accountable for establishing a high-performing, control-focused environment that supports payroll accuracy, regulatory compliance, audit readiness, and enterprise scalability.

This role partners closely with Payroll Tax, Employee Experience, HR, Finance, Internal Audit, Compliance, and Information Technology to ensure the payroll function operates effectively and supports broader organizational goals.

The ideal candidate brings deep functional payroll expertise, strong leadership capability, a thorough understanding of and internal control frameworks, and the ability to translate payroll data into meaningful operational metrics and performance accountability.

Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive payroll experience in complex, multi-entity, high-volume environments
• Minimum of 5 years of leadership experience managing payroll operations teams, including people leaders
• Demonstrated experience leading end-to-end payroll operations in a large, complex organization with multiple pay groups, locations, legal entities, and employee populations
• Strong knowledge of payroll processing, wage and hour considerations, payroll controls, reconciliations, and compliance requirements
• Demonstrated experience supporting -controlled environments and interacting with internal and external auditors
• Experience developing operational metrics, dashboards, and performance reporting for payroll
• Experience leading process improvement, standardization, and control enhancement initiatives
• Experience with enterprise payroll and timekeeping systems, such as PeopleSoft, Workday, UKG, ADP, SAP, Oracle, or similar platforms
• Strong proficiency in Excel and payroll reporting/analysis tools

Job Responsibilities:

Payroll Operations Leadership

• Direct and oversee end-to-end payroll operations for all assigned payrolls, entities, and employee populations
• Ensure payrolls are processed accurately, timely, and in accordance with established payroll calendars, cutoff schedules, and service level expectations
• Lead the review and execution of all major payroll operational activities, including payroll input validation, audit review, balancing, funding coordination, reconciliation, confirmation, and final transmission
• Establish and maintain operational standards that support consistent payroll execution across all cycles
• Monitor workload distribution, staffing alignment, and processing readiness to ensure operational continuity and timely completion of payroll deliverables
• Serve as the primary escalation point for operational payroll issues, ensuring risks are assessed and resolved promptly and appropriately
• Maintain visibility into operational dependencies, deadlines, risks, and bottlenecks that may affect payroll execution

Compliance, Controls, and Governance

• Ensure payroll operations are conducted in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local wage and hour laws, payroll tax requirements, company policy, and collective internal control standards.
• Lead the design, execution, and ongoing monitoring of payroll operational controls to support compliance, audit readiness, and risk mitigation.
• Maintain a strong working knowledge of requirements and ensure payroll controls are dit and compliance expectations.
• Partner with Internal Audit, Compliance, HR, Finance, and external auditors on payroll-related reviews, control testing, walkthroughs, and remediation activities.
• Ensure segregation of duties is maintained across payroll operations and that access, approvals, validations, and exception handling align with internal control requirements.
• Oversee the identification, documentation, and remediation of control gaps, process failures, or compliance issues impacting payroll operations.
• Support development and maintenance of standard operating procedures, process narratives, risk/control matrices, and desk-level procedures for all critical payroll processes.
• Ensure payroll operational practices support confidentiality, data privacy, and secure handling of employee information.

Operational Accuracy and Risk Management

• Establish strong audit and validation practices to identify errors, anomalies, and variances prior to payroll finalization.
• Oversee payroll balancing, reconciliation, exception review, and variance analysis to ensure payroll results are accurate and complete.
• Ensure off-cycle processing, adjustments, retroactive payments, overpayment handling, and special payments are executed with proper review and approval.
• Develop and maintain clear escalation protocols for payroll issues, including high-risk pay issues, system failures, missed deadlines, and material variances.
• Evaluate recurring operational issues and implement corrective and preventive actions to reduce repeat errors and improve overall payroll integrity.
• Promote disciplined issue identification and root cause resolution rather than reliance on manual workarounds.
• Metrics, Reporting, and Performance Management

Benefits and Perks:

At RWJBarnabas Health, our employees are at the heart of everything we do. Driven by our Total Wellbeing promise, our market-competitive offerings include comprehensive benefits and resources to support our employees’ physical, emotional, financial, personal, career, and community wellbeing.  These benefits and resources include, but are not limited to:

Paid Time Off including Vacation, Holidays, and Sick Time
Retirement Plans
Medical and Prescription Drug Insurance
Dental and Vision Insurance
Disability and Life Insurance
Paid Parental Leave
Tuition Reimbursement
Student Loan Planning Support
Flexible Spending Accounts
Wellness Programs
Voluntary Benefits (e.g., Pet Insurance)
Community and Volunteer Opportunities
Discounts Through our Partners such as NJ Devils, NJ PAC, and Verizon
….and more!

Choosing RWJBarnabas Health!

RWJBarnabas Health is the premier health care destination providing patient-centered, high-quality academic medicine in a compassionate and equitable manner, while delivering a best-in-class work experience to every member of the team.  We honor and appreciate the privilege of creating and sustaining healthier communities, one person and one community at a time.  As the leading academic health system in New Jersey, we advance innovative strategies in high-quality patient care, education, and research to address both the clinical and social determinants of health. 

RWJBarnabas Health aims to truly make a unique impact in local communities throughout New Jersey. From vastly improving the health of local residents to creating educational and career opportunities, this combination greatly benefits the state. We understand the growing and evolving needs of residents in New Jersey—whether that be enhancing the coordination for treating complex health conditions or improving community health through local programs and education.

Equal Opportunity Employer