Vice President, Payroll Americas

Wilmington, DE

The Payroll Americas (AMRS) Team Leader will be responsible for managing the delivery of payroll services in the AMRS region balancing a high service level to employees and a high degree of statutory compliance whilst ensuring a cost-effective function. This includes ensuring payroll vendors are performing per the agreed upon Service Level Agreements (SLAs) whilst also providing oversight of the vendor managed payroll service teams to deliver payroll timely and accurately.

The Payroll AMRS Team Leader must have a strong technical background in payroll, including a working knowledge of employment tax and accounting matters, internal controls, and project management skills to manage the impact on payroll due to acquisitions, divestitures, changes in statutory rules, the year-end global bonus and equity process and other related operations. The regional lead will be responsible for ensuring that the Payroll AMRS team understands the full employee life cycle and its impact on payroll operations for the firm.

The role and key responsibilities:

Payroll operations and technology:
Manage a complex end-to-end payroll operation for 9000+ employees located in the AMRS region covering the following countries: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and Chile.
This includes, but is not limited to delivering pay timely, effectively, and in compliance with all federal, state, and local regulatory, tax and labor requirements.
Regularly review, audit, test, and update payroll controls with an eye for enhancing controls to prevent operational errors.
Partner with the HR integrations team to design optimized and standardize system interfaces to minimize data control issues that support a better control structure.
Team management and oversight:
Help devise the Payroll AMRS strategy, including flexing and determining team structure and delivery model to keep pace with the growth of the firm.
Manage and develop a strong, high performing team consisting of four team members located in both Wilmington, DE, USA, and Mexico City, Mexico.
Drive a high-performance, customer-focused and control centric culture within the team
Manage the team’s performance against objectives and measure outcomes with the goal of improving efficiencies and effectiveness
Payroll vendor management:
Manage external payroll vendor relationships to deliver payroll processing effectively across the region.
Meet regularly with payroll vendors to review performance and explore potential for improvement/enhancement of operations.
Develop and manage metrics that indicate operational optimization and are within the payroll vendors’ Service Level Agreements.
Must be comfortable working within ambiguous circumstances and is capable of constantly seeking out, proposing, and implementing process improvements and best practice initiatives as appropriate.
Oversee various audits, such as internal audits, employment tax audits, and social security audits as necessary.
Ensure compliance with the firms Sarbanes Oxley (SoX) control framework.
Maintain strong cross-functional relationships between teams such as HR Benefits, HR Talent Mobility, Compensation Accounting, Financial Planning & Analysis, Tax and Controllers to ensure their information needs and Payroll processes are aligned for maximum effectiveness.
Maintain and test the Disaster Recovery Plan as agreed with the Regional Head.
Lead the team through legal entity acquisitions, divestitures, and other firm initiatives such that implementations are a success with no compliance issues.
Lead, participate and deliver upon department projects as required.

Experience and Attitude:

A minimum of 10 years’ experience in a large multi-national payroll department, of which at least 5 years include managing a regional team.
Financial services and/or investment banking industry experience is preferable.
Knowledge and experience with employment tax and other regulations in the United States preferred.
Knowledge of withholding tax, related tax filings, tax policy and regulations as they relate to AMRS payroll reporting.
Knowledge of accounting, with a focus on compensation accounting.
Experience in designing, implementing, and reviewing internal controls aimed at reducing operational risk.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to work collaboratively across different internal teams and vendors.
Ability to confidently interact with all levels of the organization.
Ability to effectively manage vendors, ensuring adherence to contracts and Service Level Agreements.
Strong client service mentality and able to develop strong working relationships with your team, internal partners, and vendors to deliver a high-quality service.
Ability to manage multiple tasks, in an organized manner, and adhere to strict completion deadlines.
Strong analytical skills that enable candidate to recognize and resolve problems
Bachelor’s Degree preferred.

Key competencies

Experience working with outsourced managed service payroll vendors.
Certified Payroll Professional (CPP).
A high level of attention to detail.
A positive and ‘can-do’ attitude.
Risk Management.
Teamwork including collaborating with remote team members.
Problem solving.
Desire and ability to provide outstanding service to internal clients.
Adaptability / Resilience.
Communicate with impact.
Proven ability to manage competing priorities and meet tight deadlines.
Ability to identify, analyze and develop improvements to processes and/or procedures.
Discretion in dealing with confidential information.

Our benefits

To help you stay energized, engaged and inspired, we offer a wide range of benefits including a strong retirement plan, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive healthcare, support for working parents and Flexible Time Off (FTO) so you can relax, recharge and be there for the people you care about.

Our hybrid work model

BlackRock’s current hybrid work model is designed to enable in-person connections and collaboration that is core to our culture, while supporting increased flexibility for all employees. In line with local health guidance and regulations, employees are required to work at least 3 days in the office each week, with the flexibility to work from home up to 2 days a week. Some business groups may require more time in the office due to their roles and responsibilities. The health, safety and well-being of our people will always be our top priorities; we will continue to monitor local conditions and health advisories in making decisions about our work environments.