Acuity Brands, Inc

Payroll Operations Manager - Anywhere in the U.S.A.

Acuity Brands, Inc • $104K — $225K *
Conyers, GA 30094In-Person
Finance & Insurance
8 - 10 years of experience
Today
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree or Equivalent
  • 9+ years relevant experience
  • Deep knowledge of payroll processing cycles and cutoffs
  • Strong payroll calendar and deadline management discipline
  • Experience leading payroll projects and system upgrades
  • Working knowledge of payroll systems, HRIS, and Time & Attendance platforms
  • Expertise in payroll tax, statutory, and wage-hour compliance

Responsibilities

  • Lead payroll process operations to ensure accurate and timely pay delivery
  • Manage payroll system implementations and coordinate testing activities
  • Oversee payroll inquiry queues and establish service level agreements
  • Ensure compliance with payroll tax and wage-hour regulations through audits
  • Govern and monitor foundational pay-impacting processes
  • Develop dashboards and reporting related to payroll accuracy
  • Drive continuous improvement in payroll processes through standardization and automation

Benefits

  • Health care coverage
  • Dental coverage
  • Vision plans
  • 401K benefits
  • Commissions/incentive compensation opportunities
Full Job Description


Work location:
  • This position may be based anywhere in the United States and includes travel as part of the responsibilities.


Job Summary

The Payroll Process Operations Manager is responsible for leading payroll process operations and driving discipline around payroll policies, controls, and time management standards. This role serves as a key operational leader, leveraging data analytics to improve payroll performance, reduce risk, and enable informed decision-making. The role will also support mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities, including payroll integration, process harmonization, and compliance alignment across newly acquired entities. The position also serves as a key liaison across HR Technology, Finance, and HR Operations to lead cross-process and system changes, govern pay-impacting rules, and provide operational analytics that strengthen payroll accuracy and service performance.

The role can be based anywhere in the U.S.A.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities (Essential Functions)

  • Payroll Process Operations: Lead payroll process operations by ensuring disciplined execution of payroll calendars, cutoffs, and workflow standards. Serve as the primary escalation point for payroll issues and operational risks, driving timely resolution and on-time, accurate pay delivery. Act as the HR Operations expert on wage and hour compliance, payroll policies, and timekeeping processes, overseeing workforce management systems to ensure adherence to federal, state, and local labor laws. Establish and maintain strong internal controls that safeguard payroll accuracy, regulatory compliance, and financial integrity. Drive continuous process improvement through standardization, automation, and audit-ready documentation while supporting payroll transformation, M&A integration activities, and system and policy enhancements that improve scalability and operational effectiveness.
  • Project Management & System / Implementation Leadership: Lead payroll workstreams for system implementations, upgrades, and configuration changes. Partner with HR Technology, Finance, and IT to assess cross-process impacts, coordinate testing and readiness activities, and manage timelines, risks, and stakeholder communication.
  • Service Delivery, Ticket Governance & Case Management: Oversee payroll inquiry queues, ticket volumes, and escalation pathways even when direct ticket closure is delegated. Establish SLAs, monitor resolution performance, and drive case-deflection strategies through knowledge resources and process clarity.
  • Compliance, Controls & Reconciliation: Ensure adherence to payroll tax, statutory, and wage-hour regulations through reconciliations, audits, and validation checks. Maintain documented procedures, segregation of duties, and audit readiness while supporting responses to tax notices or compliance inquiries.
  • Foundational Pay-Impacting Process Governance: Govern operational rules and standards for upstream workforce processes that directly affect pay outcomes, including time capture, compensation updates, terminations, leave status, and pay codes. Monitor exception trends and partner with HR/HRIS to reduce downstream payroll errors.
  • Analytics, Dashboards & Reporting: Develop and maintain dashboards and scorecards related to payroll accuracy, ticket volumes, overpayments, and time-and-pay exceptions. Analyze trends and provide actionable insights to leadership and cross-functional partners.


Skills and Minimum Experience Required

  • Bachelor's Degree or Equivalent
  • 9+ years relevant experience
  • Deep knowledge of payroll processing (cycles, cutoffs, funding, off-cycles, final pay)
  • Strong payroll calendar and deadline management discipline
  • Experience leading payroll projects, system upgrades, and implementations
  • Working knowledge of payroll systems, HRIS, and Time & Attendance platforms/integrations
  • Ownership of workforce time rules and standards (pay codes, overtime rules, shift premiums, accrual logic, union/CBA rules where applicable)
  • Ability to drive time & attendance change management (policy updates, system rule changes, stakeholder communication, training)
  • Troubleshooting expertise for time capture issues (missed punches, scheduling conflicts, accrual errors, integration defects)
  • Vendor and SLA management experience
  • Ticket queue and case management oversight skills
  • Payroll tax, statutory, and wage-hour compliance knowledge
  • Reconciliation, audit, and internal controls experience
  • Understanding of upstream pay-impacting processes (time capture, comp changes, terminations, pay codes)
  • Ability to build and interpret payroll dashboards and metrics
  • Strong cross-functional collaboration (Finance, HRIS, IT, Benefits, Vendors)
  • Clear executive communication and escalation management
  • Risk identification and structured problem-solving ability
  • Occassional travel for business


Preferred Experience
  • CPP or equivalent certification
  • Experience in outsourced model
  • Experience with SF/ECP / Workforce

The range for this position is $104,200.00 to 225,500.00. Placement within this range may vary, depending on the applicant's experience and geographic location. Acuity offers generous benefits including health care, dental coverage, vision plans, 401K benefits, and commissions/incentive compensation depending on the role. For a list of our benefits, click here.

About Acuity Brands, Inc

Acuity Brands, Inc. is a lighting and building management firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with operations throughout North America and in Europe and Asia. It currently has about 12,000 employees and recorded net sales of $3.5 billion for fiscal year 2020. The company designs, produces, and distributes lighting fixtures, controls, and related products and services for commercial, institutional, industrial, infrastructure, and residential applications. Its lighting and building management solutions are marketed under various brands, including Lithonia Lighting, Holophane, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, and others. Acuity Brands is committed to sustainability and energy efficiency, and offers a range of products that meet or exceed industry standards for energy efficiency and environmental performance.
Learn more about Acuity Brands, Inc
Size
13,000 employees
Market Cap
$5.3 billion
Industry
Manufacturing & Automotive
Net Income
$250.9 million
Founded
1898
5 Year Trend
+2.7%
Revenue
$3.2 billion
NASDAQ
AYI
* Ladders Estimates

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