Payroll Cluster Lead

At NielsenIQ, it is important for us to be connected in many ways.  As part of the Global Payroll Center of Excellence, the Payroll Cluster Leader will play a critical role in delivering Payroll and Financial Services Globally. This incumbent will work cross-functionally with HR, Finance and other internal and external Stakeholders to ensure accurate and timely salaries of associates, and third-party payments. The role will also be responsible for leading a team of four Payroll Specialists and driving the successful implementation and transition to new payroll vendors across the assigned cluster. Reporting directly to the Regional Payroll Director, EEMEA, the Payroll Cluster Leader will support the continued transformation, standardization, and operational excellence of NielsenIQ's global payroll function.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities 

• Manage Monthly Payroll processing activities for allocated countries in the Cluster, ensuring pay is processed on time, accurately, completely and in compliance with all regulations. 
• Manage, coach, and develop a team of four payroll professionals, fostering a high-performance culture and ensuring successful delivery of payroll operations and projects.
• Lead payroll vendor implementation and transition activities for the assigned countries, including planning, testing, stakeholder coordination, risk management, and go-live readiness.
• Contribute to designing short-term and long-term strategies to achieve continuous improvement and efficiencies in payroll processing and in optimizing systems. 
• Development and execution of payroll strategies, planning, and communications; establish and maintain departmental policies, practices, and procedures. 
• Oversee all Year End payroll processes, ensuring all statutory deadlines and requirements are met across multiple countries 
• Design, implement and perform SOX compliant controls relevant to the payroll process 
• Manage internal and external audit and tax-related activities, including preparation of data and evidence, and ensure any identified changes are executed. 
• Build positive relationships to ensure successful collaborations to be able to respond to internal payroll questions, and handle ad-hoc payroll requests. 
• Be accountable for ensuring all Payroll discrepancies are resolved in a timely manner and effectively communicated as required 
• Other duties as assigned. 
Experience & Qualifications 

• Minimum of 5 years of payroll operational experience in various countries across EEMEA 
• Experience in leading a team of payroll professionals
• Demonstrated experience leading payroll implementations, payroll vendor transitions, or payroll transformation projects across multiple countries will be considered a strong advantage.
• Attention to detail, professional awareness, and sense of urgency for employee questions; be able to spot errors or exceptions quickly. 
• Able to demonstrate a strong ability to absorb multiple country regulations and complexities 
• Strong experience with Microsoft Office. 
• Excellent communicator and collaborator. 
• Workday experience a plus
• Multiple EU language skills an advantage

Function: General Business
Experience Level: Mid-Senior Level