Job Description

The Director, Global Payroll Strategy and Americas Payroll Leader has responsibility for the delivery of HR and LATAM payroll for approximately 35,000 employees as well as Global Payroll Strategy impacting employees globally. The role is a leadership role with 5 Direct reports and a total organization between 20 and 25 people. This leader will oversee the delivery of payroll services both through internal resources and an external vendor relationship. It will be expected that the role balances delivery, operational efficiency and elevates the employee and HR experience. In addition, this role will be the leader of Global Payroll Service strategy inclusive of migrating all company payrolls from Finance to HR, managing external provider relationships and on-going delivery strategy. This position will be based in Rahway, New Jersey and reports to the Executive Director, HR Regional Services.

Payroll Strategy and Roadmap: Ensuring the realization of global payroll strategy across all markets. This includes migration plans for integration of finance-owned payrolls into HR, ensuring a 3- year payroll roadmap is created and approved, and creating and executing payroll strategies that align with the organization's goals and objectives. This includes identifying opportunities for process improvement, standardization, and automation to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of payroll operations on a global scale. This will require close and frequent collaboration with Regional Directors on the overall plan and country specific needs and priorities.
Enhance Governance and Control Processes: The Director is responsible for creating internal and external control through governance and audit processes. They will collaborate with legal and compliance teams to develop and implement policies and procedures to further enhance governance as well as lead in any process failure events to conduct thorough after-action reviews, suggest recommendations and ensure execution path.
Managing payroll vendors and relationships: The director oversees relationships with external payroll service providers globally. This includes contracts oversight, monitoring vendor performance, and ensuring service level agreements are met. They are also responsible for partnering to evaluate payroll systems, technologies and suppliers that best meet the organization's needs.
Leading payroll transformation initiatives: The role involves driving payroll process improvements, standardization, and automation initiatives across the organization. This includes leveraging technology solutions to streamline payroll operations, eliminate manual tasks, and enhance data accuracy and reporting capabilities.
Collaborating with cross-functional teams: The Global Payroll Strategy Director collaborates with various stakeholders, including HR, finance, IT, and legal departments, to ensure seamless integration of payroll processes with other business functions. They provide guidance and support to these teams on payroll-related matters and ensure alignment with the organization's overall strategies and objectives. This role will be the single point of contact/demand management for IT budgeting and sequencing.
Analyzing and reporting payroll data: The director is responsible for analyzing payroll data to identify trends, insights, and areas for improvement. They prepare and present reports to senior management on a regular basis, providing key metrics and recommendations for payroll-related decisions.
US and LATAM Payroll & Tax Operations: This role will have direct oversight of US Payroll & Tax Operations scope and team/org structure of inclusive of Direct reports with a total organization of 20 to 25 people. This role requires accurate, timely delivery of payroll in both union and non-union environments.

The successful candidate should be energized by an environment that requires strong leadership, attention to detail, coaching for excellence, and prioritizes governance, control and accuracy with an eye toward external trends and changing impactful legislation.

This role requires significant people leadership experience, supplier management, strategic capability in the payroll space, and values and role models strong collaboration and partnership. A focus and proven track record of managing and improving payroll operations and working with payroll suppliers is critically important in this role.

Education:

Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree, or currently in pursuit of degree completion, or equivalent relevant work experience in Business, HR, or Payroll.

Required Experience and Skills:

Minimum of 10 years of experience in Payroll with a large global company
Strong, proactive business leadership skills
Transformational mindset and deep experience in process and services
Service innovation mindset and curiosity
Change management experience

Responsible for building and managing relationships with strategic vendor / partners.
Demonstrated record and proven ability to lead a large team of individuals in both on-site and virtual locations.
Must be articulate and able to communicate and address issues around service to a broad range client community.
Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills.
Ability to mobilize with composure to solve issues and concerns and direct a team toward action

MSJR

Required Skills:

Change Management, Global Payroll, Leadership, Partnership Strategy, Payroll, Payroll Administration, Payroll Compliance, Payroll Management, Payroll Services, People Leadership, Supplier Management, Transformation Strategy, Vendor Management

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.

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The salary range for this role is

$156,900.00 - $247,000.00

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.

The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.

You can apply for this role through https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting.

San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully
Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company. No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

Domestic

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

N/A

Job Posting End Date:

09/12/2026

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.