Job Summary:

The Workday Payroll Manager is responsible for leading day-to-day payroll operations while supporting the optimization, governance, and continuous improvement of the organization's Workday Payroll environment. This role ensures accurate and compliant payroll processing across multiple jurisdictions, drives operational excellence, supports payroll transformation initiatives, and acts as a key liaison between Payroll Operations, HR, Finance, IT, and external vendors. The ideal candidate combines strong payroll operational expertise with deep knowledge of Workday Payroll, payroll accounting, controls, compliance, reporting, and testing practices.

The Payroll Manager also provides leadership and direction to the payroll team, ensuring effective service delivery, strong internal controls, regulatory compliance, and a high standard of customer service. The role is accountable for fostering a culture of continuous improvement, employee development, and operational excellence while supporting organizational growth and transformation initiatives.

Note: This is a hybrid role based out of Markham, ON. There will be occasional travel required for in person meetings 2-3 times per month or when needed for project support.

Key Responsibilities:

• Payroll Operations Management
  • Manage a team of Payroll Partners with a focus on end-to-end payroll processing activities for salaried, hourly, unionized, and non-union employee groups.
  • Ensure payrolls are processed accurately and on schedule in compliance with federal, provincial, and local legislation.
  • Oversee payroll balancing, funding, settlement, reconciliations, and post-payroll audit activities.
  • Review payroll outputs and validate payroll calculations including earnings, deductions, retroactivity, garnishments, taxable benefits, pensions, and statutory remittances.
  • Manage payroll calendars, pay cycles, off-cycle payments, and year-end activities including T4, T2200, or equivalent tax reporting.
  • Lead issue resolution for complex payroll escalations and root cause analysis activities.
  • Ensure strong payroll controls, audit readiness, and compliance with internal policies and regulatory requirements.
• Payroll Governance, Compliance & Financial Controls
  • Partner with Finance and Accounting teams to ensure payroll-related journal entries, accruals, settlements, and reconciliations are accurate and completed within required timelines.
  • Oversee payroll GL interface validation, account balancing, reallocations, and suspense resolution activities.
  • Support internal and external audits by preparing payroll documentation, reconciliations, and audit evidence.
  • Ensure legislative compliance related to payroll taxes, remittances, pension administration, and record retention requirements.
  • Monitor legislative changes and assess operational or system impacts to payroll processes and configurations
• People Leadership & Continuous Improvement
  • Lead, coach, and develop payroll team members to support operational excellence and professional growth.
  • Establish service standards, performance expectations, and accountability measures for payroll operations.
  • Support workforce planning, workload balancing, and prioritization of payroll operational activities.
  • Foster collaboration across Payroll, HR, Finance, and project teams during implementation and transformation initiatives.
  • Drive a culture of accuracy, customer service, continuous improvement, and data privacy compliance

Required Qualifications:

• Education:
  
  • Bachelor's Degree
    
    • HR, Accounting, Payroll or related field
• Workday Experience:
  
  • 5+ years of progressive payroll experience with complex, multi-province, unionized and non-unionized environments
  • 2-3 years leading a payroll team .
• Additional Skills/Abilities:
  
  • Certification in HR, Payroll, Finance is an asset
  • Experience in Workday Payroll and Core HCM is an asset

Preferred candidate identified

AI and compensation details: We use AI to take notes during our interview. All applications and interviews are reviewed by our Talent Acquisition team. This is a new position. The total compensation for this position is $87,000 - $108,000. The compensation offered is determined based on the successful candidate's relevant experience, skills, and competencies, taking into consideration internal equity