Senior Manager - HRIS & Payroll

Position Summary KDC/ONE is seeking an experienced and service-oriented Senior Manager, HRIS & Payroll to lead the strategy, governance, optimization, and day-to-day management of our human resources technology and payroll operations. This role is accountable for ensuring that HR systems and payroll processes are secure, reliable, scalable, compliant, accurate, and aligned with business and workforce priorities. The Senior Manager, HRIS & Payroll will partner closely with HR, Payroll, Finance, Internal Audit, Information Technology, and business/function leaders. The successful candidate will oversee HRIS configuration and integrations, payroll controls and reconciliations, data governance, reporting and analytics, vendor relationships, release management, user support, and continuous improvement. They will translate business needs into practical technology and payroll solutions while protecting sensitive employee information and improving the employee and manager experience. KDC/ONE currently uses Dayforce as its main HRIS & Payroll provider.

Key Responsibilities

HRIS Strategy and Leadership

Develop and maintain the HR technology roadmap in alignment with the organization's people strategy, operating model, and growth plans. Establish HRIS priorities, service standards and governance processes within annual budget. Advise senior HR and business leaders on system capabilities, process design, automation opportunities, risks, and investment needs. Lead, coach, and develop the HRIS team, including workload planning, performance management, succession planning, and capability building. Build strong partnerships across various stakeholders.

Systems Ownership, Payroll, and Optimization

Serve as the functional owner of core HR platforms, including human capital management, payroll, time and attendance, benefits, recruitment, onboarding, performance, learning, compensation, and workforce-planning systems, and oversee payroll operations in Canada, the United States and the UK. Oversee and perform system configuration, payroll controls, business processes, security roles, workflows, integrations, testing, documentation, and production support. Assess current processes and lead simplification, standardization, automation, and self-service initiatives. Manage system upgrades, releases, patches, regression testing, change controls, payroll parallel testing, and adoption activities. Maintain an accurate inventory of HR applications, payroll processes, integrations, data flows, owners, and dependencies. Manage integration/implementation of core HR modules in Europe with the potential of adding Payroll in Dayforce where possible.

Data Governance, Privacy, and Security

Establish and enforce standards for HR and payroll data quality, ownership, access, retention, classification, and appropriate use. Ensure HR technology practices support applicable privacy, employment, records-management, and information-security requirements, . Partner, when needed, with Privacy, Legal, and Information Security teams on privacy impact assessments, access reviews, audits, incident response, and risk remediation. Monitor role-based access, segregation of duties, payroll approvals, and audit controls, and ensure sensitive employee and payroll information is appropriately protected. Maintain audit-ready documentation, controls, approvals, and system records.

Reporting and People Analytics

Contribute to the development of reliable workforce reporting, dashboards, and analytics for HR and business leaders. Maintain/Define common data definitions and reporting standards to create a trusted source of workforce information.

Projects, Integrations, and Change Management

Lead HR technology implementations and enhancement projects from discovery through stabilization, including scope, requirements, timelines, resources, risks, testing, communications, training, and benefits realization. Coordinate integrations, where needed, between HR platforms and payroll, finance, identity-management, benefits, learning, recruitment, and other enterprise systems. Facilitate requirements workshops and convert business needs into clear functional specifications and delivery plans. Manage competing priorities and communicate project status, dependencies, decisions, and risks to sponsors and stakeholders.

Vendor, Budget, and Service Management

Manage HR technology vendors, consultants, contracts, renewals, service-level expectations, escalations, and performance reviews. Manage the Dayforce operating and project budgets/billing, and resource plans. Identify recurring problems, manage service quality and resolution times. Evaluate new technology and vendor proposals using defined business, security, privacy, integration, accessibility, and total-cost criteria.

Qualifications

Required

Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience. Approximately 7 or more years of progressive experience in HRIS, payroll, HR technology, HR operations, or a closely related field. At least 2 years of experience leading employees, project teams, vendors, or a significant HR technology function. Demonstrated experience administering and optimizing a major HR platform such as Dayforce (a plus), Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG, Oracle HCM, or a comparable system. Strong understanding of HR and payroll processes, including Canadian and American payroll requirements, and their relationships with benefits, talent acquisition, compensation, performance, learning, and workforce planning. Experience with payroll and HR system implementations, integrations, data conversion, user acceptance testing, parallel testing, release management, and change management. Strong knowledge of data governance, role-based security, privacy, internal controls, and the handling of confidential employee information. Reporting and analytical skills, with the ability to interpret data and communicate actionable insights. Proven ability to manage multiple priorities, influence cross-functional stakeholders, and deliver results in a changing environment. Strong written and verbal communication skills, sound judgment, and a customer-focused approach. Professional proficiency in French. Proficiency in English is also required where the role regularly supports systems, documentation, vendors, or stakeholders outside Québec.

Additional qualifications considered a plus

HRIS, project management, human resources, payroll, analytics, or change-management certification. Experience in a multi-entity, international, or rapidly growing organization. Experience with Canadian payroll processing (American payroll processing a plus), remittances, year-end activities, and employment-related systems and practices. Experience building an HR technology roadmap, business case, operating model.