Payroll Team Lead (maternity cover)

At NielsenIQ, we are seeking an experienced Payroll Team Lead to join our Global Payroll Center of Excellence on a maternity cover assignment. In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of payroll operations across Bulgaria, Poland, and Hungary, partnering closely with HR, Finance, payroll vendors, and other stakeholders.

As the Payroll Team Lead, you will provide operational leadership to the payroll team, ensure compliance with local regulations, manage payroll audits and controls, and support continuous improvement initiatives. The role reports directly to the Regional Payroll Director, EEMEA, and is part of NielsenIQ's Global Payroll organization.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities 

• Manage Monthly Payroll processing activities for allocated countries in the Cluster – Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary, ensuring pay is processed on time, accurately, completely and in compliance with all regulations. 
• Lead, coach and develop Payroll team members.
• 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. Hands-on experience with Bulgarian and/or Polish payroll processing is required.
• Experience in leading a team of payroll professionals
• 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. 
• SAP/ Workday experience a plus. 
• Multiple EU language skills an advantage

Function: General Business
Experience Level: Mid-Senior Level