Global Payroll Manager

About the company: 

The mining industry has steadily become worse at finding new ore deposits, requiring >10X more capital to make discoveries compared to 30 years ago. The easy-to-find, near-surface deposits have largely been found, and the industry has chronically under-invested in new exploration technology, relying on the manual techniques of yesteryear – even as demand accelerates for copper, lithium, and other metals to build electric vehicles, renewable energy, and data centers.

KoBold builds AI models for mineral exploration and deploys those models—alongside our novel sensors—to guide decisions on KoBold-owned-and-operated exploration programs. In the six years since founding, KoBold has become by far both the largest independent mineral exploration company and the largest exploration technology developer. Our data scientists and software engineers, who come from leading technology companies, jointly lead exploration programs with our renowned exploration geologists.

KoBold has proven its first discovery with materially less capital than the industry average and found one of the best copper deposits ever discovered: the copper is far more concentrated than the global average of copper mines, and this asset alone is expected to generate meaningful revenue for decades. KoBold has a portfolio of more than 60 other projects, each of which has the potential for another high-quality discovery.

KoBold is privately held; investors include institutional asset managers T. Rowe Price and Canada Pension Plan Investments; technology venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BOND Capital, and Standard Investments; and natural resources companies Equinor, BHP, and Mitsubishi.

About The Role:

Kobold has over 200 employees living across close to a dozen countries. Regardless of where people are based, many are working away from home and out in the field. This makes payroll complex as we consider the unique need for shadow and split payrolls each cycle. 

Our in-country payroll partners and software platforms currently vary by country. The fragmentation of our solutions adds to the complexity. To address this inefficiency, we will spend much of the next year centralizing our payrolls with a single international payroll provider while also integrating with a global HRIS. 

Whoever joins us now will need to be energized by the challenge to participate in the consolidation of payroll providers and HR tooling. They should have a first-principled approach to considering the best way to architect these new solutions and how we evolve our processes over time. 

The current plan is to have this new hire focus on the various implementations and take over each payroll as a new country launches. The Global Payroll Manager will not be trained on existing solutions and instead begin their time at KoBold solely focused on our fresh start with centralized tooling. 

Post-centralization, the Global Payroll Manager will lead the execution of all our payrolls with input and support from the other HR and Finance team members. While we will refer to this individual as our in-house payroll expert, they will be well supported by internal and external counsel to ensure sound decision making. 

KoBold’s ability to scour the earth for rare minerals is essential to our success. Paying people for that work is one of the key ingredients to making this possible. As the Global Payroll Manager, you will be an integral part of empowering our exploration efforts. It’s a big job with a lot of complexity and we can’t wait to find the person who will make it look easy. 

Reporting to the International HR Manager

Responsibilities:

Payroll Management:

• In accordance with local laws and regulations, lead or support the following 13 payrolls: United States (semi-monthly), Canada (semi-monthly), United Kingdom (monthly), Finland (monthly), Sweden (monthly), Namibia (monthly), Zambia (monthly), Australia (monthly), South Africa (monthly), Botswana (monthly), and the DRC (monthly)
• Expatriate payroll management to include shadow and split payroll requirements for international assignments
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of tax regulations, employment laws, and social security compliance in various jurisdictions.
• Manage tax filings, benefits deductions, garnishments, and other payroll-related functions
• Support in the establishment of payroll capabilities in new jurisdictions as KoBold’s global footprint expands
• Confidentially maintain up-to-date records for all payroll transactions and ensure the secure handling of employee salary information.
• Collaborate with local payroll providers, internal HR, Finance, and Legal teams to establish, execute, and evolve payroll-related processes and address issues
• Act as a key point of contact for employee payroll inquiries globally
• Handle payroll audits, statutory reporting, and year-end filings.
  

HRIS

• Upon joining, assist in the implementation of a Global HRIS system, working closely with IT, Regional HR, Finance and external vendors
• Ensure data integrity within the Payroll, Benefits and HRIS system(s), including updating employee records, reporting, and compliance-related information.
• Troubleshoot payroll platform issues, assist in management of vendor relationships, and with data migrations when necessary.
  

Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in payroll with a minimum of three years of experience processing payroll across a global portfolio of jurisdictions
• Intellectual curiosity and eagerness to learn about the science and technology being developed at KoBold
• Excitement about joining a fast-growing early-stage company, comfort with a dynamic work environment, and eagerness to take on an evolving range of responsibilities.

• Professional certifications (e.g., Certified Payroll Professional (CPP), Global Payroll Management Certificate, or equivalent) are a plus
• Proven experience managing or administering work through modern HR systems (e.g., Workday, Safeguard, SAP SuccessFactors, Deel, ADP, etc.).
• Strong knowledge of payroll regulations in multiple countries (e.g., US, UK, EU, Africa, Australia)

KoBold Metals is an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity for people of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, age, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.

This position is Full-Time Exempt 

The US base salary range for this full-time exempt position is $120,000-$160,000

Location: Remote, Candidates can be located anywhere in the United States or Canada. All candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States or Canada.