Senior Payroll Product Owner & Customer Support Manager

POSITION DESCRIPTION 

Senior Payroll Product Owner & Customer Support Manager 

Enterprise Systems | Payroll Product, Compliance, and Customer Experience 

Reports to	VP of Systems	Location	Flexible / as assigned
Employment	Full-time	Travel	As required for implementations
Role type	Product ownership + support	Credential	CPP or FPC required

Mission 

The Payroll Product Owner & Customer Support Manager owns the payroll product experience across Orion's operating companies. This role ensures employees are paid accurately and on time; payroll configuration remains compliant, controlled, and scalable; and payroll questions and defects are resolved with urgency and clear accountability. The role connects Payroll, Finance, Human Resources, Operations, and Systems to translate business and regulatory requirements into dependable system capabilities, repeatable processes, and effective support. 

What This Role Owns 

• End-to-end payroll product ownership, including roadmap, requirements, configuration standards, testing, release readiness, adoption, and continuous improvement. 

• Accurate and timely payroll processing outcomes supported by effective controls, reconciliations, issue prevention, and root-cause resolution. 

• The payroll customer support model for employees, managers, payroll teams, and Operating Companies, including service levels, knowledge content, case quality, and customer communication. 

• Payroll configuration governance across earnings, deductions, benefits, taxes, garnishments, unions, prevailing wage, time collection, PTO/accruals, reimbursements, labor costing, and general-ledger integration. 

• Resolution of payroll risks and defects from identification through correction, validation, communication, and prevention of recurrence. 

Key Outcomes 

1. Reliable and Accurate Payroll 

• Payroll is processed accurately, completely, and on schedule across assigned populations and jurisdictions as verified by the OpCo. 

• Payroll results, taxes, deductions, funding, labor costing, and general-ledger entries are reconciled using documented controls and integrations.  

• Material payroll defects are contained quickly, corrected through an approved process, and followed by a documented root-cause and preventive action. 

• Support for integrations with the outside processors of payroll and ERP 

2. Scalable Payroll Product 

• A prioritized payroll roadmap and backlog are maintained based on business value, compliance, customer impact, operational risk, and implementation demand. 

• Requirements and acceptance criteria are clear enough for configuration, integration, reporting, and development teams to execute without ambiguity. 

• Standard configuration is maximized while valid Operating Company, collective bargaining, jurisdictional, and business requirements are supported through governed exceptions. 

3. High-Quality Customer Support 

• Payroll cases are owned through resolution with timely, accurate, and understandable communication to the customer. 

• Support trends are converted into product fixes, training, knowledge articles, configuration improvements, and process changes. 

• Service levels, aged cases, repeat issues, customer satisfaction, and first-contact resolution are measured and improved. 

4. Successful Implementations and Stabilization 

• New Operating Companies enter payroll with validated employee data, tax setup, calendars, rates, time rules, costing, interfaces, security, and approvals. 

• Parallel payroll, user acceptance testing, cutover, payroll and employee data migration, first payroll, and post-go-live stabilization are completed against defined entry and exit criteria. 

• Payroll remains operational through acquisitions, implementations, conversions, upgrades, and organizational changes with no avoidable interruption to employees or financial reporting. 

Primary Responsibilities 

Payroll Product Management 

• Serve as the authoritative business owner for payroll capabilities within the enterprise technology ecosystem, including COINS, time-collection applications, HR/payroll platforms, banking, and finance integrations. 

• Develop and maintain the product roadmap, backlog, requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, configuration decisions, and release priorities. 

• Lead discovery with Payroll, HR, Finance, Operations, field teams, and Operating Companies; distinguish true requirements from local preference and design scalable solutions. 

• Approve payroll-related configuration and product changes within delegated authority and ensure decisions are documented, tested, and traceable. 

• Evaluate releases and regulatory changes, determine business impact, coordinate testing, and make evidence-based production-readiness recommendations. 

Payroll Configuration, Controls, and Compliance 

• Own functional design and governance for pay groups, calendars, earnings, deductions, benefits, taxes, garnishments, direct deposit, PTO/accruals, reimbursements, retroactivity, corrections, and off-cycle payrolls. 

• Ensure time and labor rules correctly support job, service, and overhead charging; union and non-union populations; salaried and hourly employees; and mobile and employee self-service entry. 

• Govern payroll treatment for union agreements, certified payroll, prevailing wage, Davis-Bacon requirements, and the system's greater-of-rate logic across prevailing wage, union rates, and employee wages. 

• Partner with Payroll and Finance to validate labor costing, burden and accrual rates, intercompany charging, payroll journals, reconciliations, and period-close requirements. 

• Maintain configuration documentation, control evidence, approvals, segregation of duties, audit trails, and operating procedures suitable for a growing, control-focused enterprise. 

Customer Support and Problem Resolution 

• Act as the senior functional owner for payroll questions, defects, and service interruptions; personally drive complex or high-impact cases through resolution. 

• Triage cases based on employee impact, payroll deadline, compliance exposure, financial impact, and breadth of affected population. 

• Investigate issues across configuration, master data, time entry, interfaces, taxes, calculations, approvals, security, and downstream accounting; coordinate technical resources while retaining ownership of the outcome. 

• Provide clear status, workaround, correction, and closure communications to employees, payroll teams, leaders, and Operating Companies. 

• Build and maintain knowledge articles, troubleshooting guides, training materials, known-error records, and support playbooks; coach Tier 1 and Tier 2 resources. 

Implementation and Change Enablement 

• Lead payroll workstreams through requirements, data validation, configuration, conversion, parallel testing, cutover, first payroll, hypercare, and transition to steady-state support. 

• Define test scenarios that cover regular and exception payroll conditions, including new hires, terminations, transfers, rate changes, overtime, unions, prevailing wage, taxes, deductions, garnishments, PTO, reimbursements, retro pay, and corrections. 

• Validate payroll and employee conversion data and require reconciliation to approved source records before production use. 

• Deliver role-based training and readiness communications for payroll processors, managers, time approvers, employees, and support teams. 

• Own stabilization plans and ensure open items have accountable owners, deadlines, validated resolutions, and sustainable support documentation. 

Required Qualifications 

• Active Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) or Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC) credential from PayrollOrg is required at hire and must be maintained in good standing. CPP is strongly preferred; an FPC holder must have the experience and readiness to attain CPP within an agreed period. 

• Seven or more years of progressive payroll experience, including hands-on ownership of complex, multi-state U.S. payroll. Experience supporting Puerto Rico payroll is strongly preferred; Canadian payroll experience or a National Payroll Institute Payroll Compliance Professional (PCP) designation is valuable when included in the assigned scope. 

• Demonstrated expertise in payroll calculations, taxation, wage-and-hour requirements, deductions, garnishments, year-end processing, corrections, reconciliation, internal controls, and audit support. 

• Experience owning or administering a payroll product, payroll module, HRIS, ERP, or workforce-management platform, including requirements, configuration, testing, releases, and production support. 

• Demonstrated experience resolving complex payroll cases and translating recurring support issues into durable product, process, control, or training improvements. 

• Strong knowledge of time and labor, job costing, accounting integration, and payroll general-ledger reconciliation. 

• Ability to communicate clearly with employees, payroll practitioners, field leaders, executives, technical teams, vendors, and auditors. 

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, human resources, information systems, business, or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience. 

Preferred Experience 

• Payroll ownership in construction, mechanical services, field services, or another multi-entity environment with job costing, unions, certified payroll, and prevailing wage. 

• COINS, ADP Workforce Now, employee self-service, mobile time capture, ERP integrations, service-management applications, or comparable enterprise payroll technology. 

• Acquisition integration, payroll conversion, parallel payroll, implementation cutover, and post-go-live stabilization. 

• SOX-ready control design, segregation of duties, audit evidence, data governance, and operation in a private-equity-backed or rapidly scaling enterprise. 

• Experience using service-management platforms and support analytics to manage SLAs, root cause, knowledge, and customer satisfaction. 

Success Measures 

• On-time payroll completion and payroll accuracy, including timely completion of reconciliations and controls. 

• Number and severity of employee-impacting payroll defects, repeat incidents, manual corrections, and preventable off-cycle payrolls. 

• Case response and resolution performance, case aging, first-contact resolution, backlog health, repeat-contact rate, and customer satisfaction. 

• Release and implementation quality, including test completion, defect escape rate, first-payroll accuracy, cutover readiness, and stabilization duration. 

• Backlog health, roadmap delivery, adoption, documentation completeness, and measurable reduction in recurring support demand. 

• Compliance findings, control exceptions, audit issues, and timely remediation of identified gaps. 

Leadership Expectations 

• Own the result. Identify issues early, determine the path to resolution, coordinate the right resources, and remain accountable until the outcome is verified. 

• Protect the employee experience. Treat payroll accuracy, confidentiality, and timely communication as non-negotiable responsibilities. 

• Design for scale. Favor clear standards, automated controls, reusable configuration, and sustainable support over one-time workarounds. 

• Use evidence. Base decisions on reconciled data, documented requirements, completed testing, regulatory guidance, and measurable customer impact. 

• Build trust. Communicate directly, respectfully, and transparently—especially when the issue is complex, urgent, or personally significant to an employee. 

Role Scope Note 

This position is accountable for the payroll product and support experience. Payroll processing activities may be performed by centralized or Operating Company payroll teams; however, this role owns the systems, standards, controls, readiness, and cross-functional resolution necessary for those teams to succeed.