How you'll make an impact

You'll be a part of the Denver based Finance Team who undertake the finance function for all of Xero's worldwide operations. The Payroll Team, within the wider Finance Team, is a global shared service.

The Payroll Manager - Americas & EMEA is responsible for paying Xeros across the Americas and EMEA region. Within this region, Xero currently runs payrolls in the United States, Canada, the UK and South Africa.

As a trailblazer in this newly created role, you'll lead the Americas & EMEA payroll function, ensuring accurate, timely and cost effective payment and administration of all payroll requirements. You will have extensive US payroll experience and will be eager to run with the challenge of running Xero's payroll function for the Americas and EMEA. You will work with the Wellington-based Payroll Manager - APAC to transition the management of payroll for the Americas & EMEA to Denver, starting with the payroll for the US and Canada. You will also need to be confident to work remotely with the Wellington-based payroll team to process UK, Canada and South Africa payroll, until these processes are fully transitioned to Denver.

You will be an accomplished leader with experience of having several direct reports. The role requires management, mentoring and coaching of our existing US-based payroll specialist, with a view to growing the team further as required to meet business needs.

The Payroll Manager - Americas & EMEA position is a fast-paced and varied payroll opportunity within a dynamic and rapidly growing organisation, and you will have experience managing large payroll accurately and efficiently. You will have demonstrated history of managing existing payrolls while identifying opportunities to enhance and improve processes and service levels.

The successful candidate will have strong in-depth knowledge across the US payroll functions, including dealing with payroll related matters for 401(K) and employee benefits. The Payroll Manager - Americas & EMEA will also maintain close relationships with in-country HR and finance teams to ensure the payroll team continues to support their business requirements.

Payroll systems currently in use are NetSuite's Infinet Cloud Solutions and ADP Workforce Now, both of which have data integrations to NetSuite ERP and Workday HRIS. We primarily use G Suite, Slack and Zendesk to communicate in our day to day work. Xero is also supported by external payroll service providers in the Americas & EMEA regions.

What you'll do
Payroll

Reporting to the Tax & Payroll Director, you will be responsible for the payroll function for Xero employees based in the Americas and EMEA, including the effective and efficient processing of Xero's payrolls and associated processes. This will include but is not limited to:

• Management of payroll for the US (~400 employees), Canada (~5 employees), United Kingdom (~300 employees) and South Africa (~5 employees).
• Ensure operational delivery of the end-to-end payroll function accurately and on-time
• Management of relationships with external vendors, including external payroll service providers as and when required
• Management of associated payroll activities such as reconciliations, statutory compliance and reporting (including benefits and 401(K)), including audit support as required by the finance team and/or business
• Administering payroll services in accordance with organisational policies and procedures and in line with the legislative, departmental and audit requirements
• Keeping up to date with legislation changes across all jurisdictions, and research any payroll or tax issues that arise
• Assisting with review of New Market opportunities for Xero Group and set-up of payroll (in conjunction with external service providers) as Xero increases its footprint across the Americas and EMEA
• Reconciliation of payroll control accounts, and processing of monthly payroll journals
• Reviewing long term (LTI) and short term incentive (STI) bonuses and supporting the accurate processing of these
• Liaising with in-country HR managers and provide input and support to policy changes
• Responding to staff queries and promote a strong customer focus with ongoing emphasis on quality of service delivery to Xeros and the business

Leadership

Develop the pay team as a centre of excellence in the practise of payroll within the Americas & EMEA regions by:

• Motivating for excellence through building team spirit, mentoring and developing the members of the pay team, the team to do the best work of their lives
• Developing and encouraging best practice within the pay team
• Reviewing the training needs of the team and explore suitable training, both internal and external
• Responding to queries and promote strong customer focus with an emphasis on quality of service