European Payroll Manager

About the company

Our client is a well-established international company with a strong European presence and a long-standing reputation for quality, innovation and operational excellence.

As part of the continued development and harmonization of its European payroll operations, the company is looking for an experienced European Payroll Manager to lead and further strengthen its regional payroll setup.

The opportunity

In this role, you will lead and manage end-to-end payroll operations across Europe, ensuring accuracy, compliance and increasing levels of standardization.

You will play a key role in the harmonization of payroll and Time & Absence Tracking processes, support the transition to external payroll providers, and establish effective governance across countries, internal functions and external partners.

This is a senior regional role combining operational payroll leadership, transformation, vendor management and continuous improvement.

Your key responsibilities

• Lead European payroll operations

• Oversee payroll operations across multiple European countries, ensuring accurate and timely payroll delivery and full compliance with local regulations.

• Work closely with local HR teams, Finance Shared Services and other internal stakeholders to ensure smooth and reliable monthly payroll cycles.

• Drive payroll and Time & Absence harmonization

• Lead the harmonization and standardization of payroll processes across Europe.

• Support the implementation of a unified Time & Absence Tracking solution and its integration with HR, Finance and payroll systems.

• Support payroll outsourcing and transition

• Support the transition of payroll activities to external payroll providers across all stages, including planning, migration, go-live and stabilization.

• Ensure effective knowledge transfer, clear ownership and strong change management throughout the transition.

• Own vendor management and governance

• Manage external payroll providers end-to-end, including service scope, contracts, SLAs, performance monitoring, issue resolution and escalation.

• Build effective vendor governance and drive continuous improvement in service quality and delivery.

• Ensure compliance and manage risk

• Ensure compliance with European and local payroll, tax, audit and data protection requirements.

• Establish appropriate governance frameworks, support audit readiness and proactively identify and mitigate payroll-related risks.

• Manage stakeholders across functions

• Act as a key interface between HR, Finance, IT, Procurement, Treasury, local country teams and external vendors.

• Ensure alignment across countries and functions and manage complex stakeholder relationships with confidence.

• Lead continuous improvement and reporting

• Drive process optimization, automation and standardization across payroll and related HR administration activities.

• Provide meaningful payroll insights, analytics and reporting to senior management.

• Build and lead the future payroll organization

• Contribute to the design and development of a small central European payroll and administration team operating in a shared service model.

• Help define responsibilities, processes, governance and future ways of working.

Your profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Finance or a related field

• An advanced degree or relevant payroll certification is an advantage

• At least 5 years of experience in international payroll

• Strong experience managing payroll across multiple countries

• At least 3 years of leadership experience

• Deep understanding of European payroll processes, compliance and HR administration

• Strong knowledge of payroll systems and Time & Absence management

• Proven experience in payroll transformation, outsourcing and vendor management

• Experience managing contracts, SLAs, service performance and escalations

• Strong leadership skills with experience building and leading high-performing teams

• Experience working in complex, cross-functional and international environments

• Strong stakeholder management and influencing capability

• Excellent analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills

• Ability to translate complex payroll, HR and financial data into actionable insights

• Excellent communication skills and fluent English

• High level of accuracy, integrity and accountability

• Collaborative mindset and ability to perform in a fast-paced, changing environment

• Experience in a Shared Service Center or Global Business Services environment is a strong advantage

What the role offers

This is an opportunity to shape the future of European payroll within a complex international organization.

The role offers genuine influence over how payroll is governed, standardized and delivered across the region, together with significant exposure to senior stakeholders, external partners and international teams.

It combines operational leadership with transformation, team building and long-term organizational development.