Senior Payroll Manager, North America

Job Description

The Senior Payroll Manager for North America supervises payroll and time/attendance operations across the United States and Canada, ensuring timely and accurate payroll processing in compliance with regional laws and regulations. This role involves managing a team of payroll professionals and vendor partners, collaborating with HR, IT, Legal and Finance departments, and optimizing payroll systems and processes to support the organization’s strategic goals. This leadership position should reflect and drive a demeanor of continuous improvement ensuring Emerson is achieving standardization of processes and setups across all entities and that operations are effective and efficient in their delivery. The Payroll Operations Senior Manager-North America will act as the expert with knowledge in all areas of payroll and time/attendance operations across the United States and Canada. We look forward to seeing your application!

Preferred location: St. Louis, MO (willing to consider candidates located in other major cities near Emerson's main offices).

In this Role, Your Responsibilities Will Be:

• Provide direction, guidance and coaching to a multi-country staff to ensure effective utilization of resources and timely and accurate delivery of payroll and payroll downstream processes and career development.
• Foster a culture of continuous learning and professional development within the payroll team. Identify training needs, provide opportunities for skill enhancement, and support career growth. Conduct regular performance reviews and offer constructive feedback to help team members achieve their full potential.
• Sets strategy and direction for US & Canada Operations in accordance with Global Payroll Operations & Global HR & country HR strategy initiatives and leads in the execution of key North America objectives and SLAs including developing and maintaining operational health metrics and driving adoption of case management tools.
• Ensure payroll processes align with federal, state, and local laws, including regulatory reporting, labor laws and tax obligations in both the U.S. and Canada. Stay updated on changes in payroll and tax regulations and implement vital adjustments to maintain compliance. Conduct regular audits to ensure adherence to compliance standards and address any discrepancies.
• Analyze current payroll practices and find opportunities for process improvements and automation specific to North American payroll and time operations. Drive initiatives to streamline processes, reduce errors, and enhance efficiency.
• Promote an internal customer service focus through effective leadership, supervision and development of staff. Address and resolve payroll-related issues and discrepancies promptly, ensuring employee satisfaction.
• Drive effective policy development, administrative oversight, responsiveness to customer needs, and timely communication across the organization.
• Lead new payroll implementations, mergers, acquisitions & divestitures through the management and oversight of data needs and system configurations, driving standards in partnership with Digital HCM, HRIS, project teams and applicable vendor partners.
• Maintain efficient understanding of the software tools that are used to manage and maintain payroll, time/attendance and tax compliance.
• Recommend, supervise and keep controls surrounding the payroll, payroll tax and time/attendance functions as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Internal Audit.
• Serve as critical issue support for payroll, tax and time/attendance related issues and employer liabilities for healthcare, retirement, pension information, taxes and other related items.
  
  

Who You Are:

You adjust communication to fit the audience and the message. You establish and maintain customer relationships. You learn from new experiences and others, and from structured learning. You readily adapt to personal, interpersonal, and leadership behavior. You display a can-do demeanor in good and bad times. You take time to ask questions and define the problem and make learning a priority and a goal.

For This Role, You Will Need:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Finance, Business, or related field
• Minimum of 10 years of related work experience, preferably in a fast paced multi-national payroll environment
• Minimum of 5 years working in a leadership/project leadership role with a global team that works in a customer service or operational support function
• Experience with expatriates and executive compensation plans
• Legal authorization to work in the United States – Sponsorship for this role will not be provided
  
  

Preferred Qualifications that Set You Apart:

• Experience with Oracle applications
• Experience with ADP applications
• Experience with mergers, acquisitions and divestitures
• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP)
  
  

Our Culture & Commitment to You

At Emerson, we prioritize a workplace where every employee is valued, respected, and empowered to grow. We foster an environment that encourages innovation, collaboration, and diverse perspectives—because we know that great ideas come from great teams. Our commitment to ongoing career development and growing an inclusive culture ensures you have the support to thrive. Whether through mentorship, training, or leadership opportunities, we invest in your success so you can make a lasting impact. We believe diverse teams, working together are key to driving growth and delivering business results.

We recognize the importance of employee wellbeing. We prioritize providing flexible, competitive benefits plans to meet you and your family’s physical, mental, financial, and social needs. We provide a variety of medical insurance plans, with dental and vision coverage, Employee Assistance Program, 401(k), tuition reimbursement, employee resource groups, recognition, and much more. Our culture offers flexible time off plans, including paid parental leave (maternal and paternal), vacation and holiday leave.

Our compensation philosophy is simple: we pay a competitive base salary, within the local market in which we operate, and reward performance during our annual merit review process. The salary range for this role is $120,000 - $170,000 annually, commensurate with the skills, talent, capabilities, and experience each candidate brings to a role.

This position will be open for a minimum of 7 days from the day of posting. Applicants are encouraged to apply early to receive optimal consideration. In compliance with the Colorado Job Application Fairness Act, in any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Work Authorization

Emerson will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States. This is not a position for which sponsorship will be provided. Individuals with temporary visas such as E, F-1 (including those with OPT or CPT), H-1, H-2, L-1, B, J or TN, or who need sponsorship for work authorization now or in the future, are not eligible.

About Us

WHY EMERSON

Our Commitment to Our People

At Emerson, we are motivated by a spirit of collaboration that helps our diverse, multicultural teams across the world drive innovation that makes the world healthier, safer, smarter, and more sustainable. And we want you to join us in our bold aspiration.

We have built an engaged community of inquisitive, dedicated people who thrive knowing they are welcomed, trusted, celebrated, and empowered to solve the world’s most complex problems — for our customers, our communities, and the planet. You’ll contribute to this vital work while further developing your skills through our award-winning employee development programs. We are a proud corporate citizen in every city where we operate and are committed to our people, our communities, and the world at large. We take this responsibility seriously and strive to make a positive impact through every endeavor.

At Emerson, you’ll see firsthand that our people are at the center of everything we do. So, let’s go. Let’s think differently. Learn, collaborate, and grow. Seek opportunity. Push boundaries. Be empowered to make things better. Speed up to break through. Let’s go, together.

Work Authorization

Emerson will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States. This is not a position for which sponsorship will be provided. Individuals with temporary visas such as E, F-1(including those with OPT or CPT) , H-1, H-2, L-1, B, J or TN, or who need sponsorship for work authorization now or in the future, are not eligible for hire.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Emerson is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, age, marital status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status. We are committed to providing a workplace free of any discrimination or harassment.

Accessibility Assistance or Accommodation

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About Emerson

Emerson is a global leader in automation technology and software. Through our deep domain expertise and legacy of flawless execution, Emerson helps customers in critical industries like life sciences, energy, power and renewables, chemical and advanced factory automation operate more sustainably while improving productivity, energy security and reliability.

With global operations and a comprehensive portfolio of software and technology, we are helping companies implement digital transformation to measurably improve their operations, conserve valuable resources and enhance their safety.

We offer equitable opportunities, celebrate diversity, and embrace challenges with confidence that, together, we can make an impact across a broad spectrum of countries and industries. Whether you’re an established professional looking for a career change, an undergraduate student exploring possibilities, or a recent graduate with an advanced degree, you’ll find your chance to make a difference with Emerson. Join our team – let’s go!

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