Senior Principal Program Manager, Payroll Systems

QXO

$120K — $150K *
Business Services
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5-7 years of experience in HR, payroll, or enterprise systems implementation
  • Strong understanding of payroll operations and dependencies
  • Experience with Oracle Cloud HCM and related modules
  • Skilled in managing vendor relationships and partnerships
  • Proficient in program management practices and governance
  • Ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
  • Knowledge of data integration and flow without requiring coding

Responsibilities

  • Lead the execution of Oracle Payroll system implementation
  • Manage cross-functional coordination across various departments
  • Establish program governance and status reporting routines
  • Support vendor selection and assessment processes
  • Advise on payroll system implementation best practices
  • Define integration and data requirements for payroll systems
  • Facilitate stakeholder engagement and change readiness

Benefits

  • 401(k) with employer match
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • PTO, company holidays, and parental leave
  • Paid training and certifications
  • Legal assistance and identity protection
  • Pet insurance
  • Employee assistance program (EAP)
Full Job Description
What you'll do:

Job Summary

QXO is seeking a Sr. Principal Program Manager, Payroll Systems to support planning, vendor evaluation, and implementation of readiness for our future Oracle Payroll, Workforce Management, Time & Attendance, and Labor Scheduling capabilities. This role will serve as a strategic program leader and trusted partner to Payroll, HR Operations, HRIS, IT, and external implementation partners as QXO designs and deploys scalable payroll technology aligned with our future-state HR operating model.
The Sr. Principal Program Manager, Payroll Systems will support the assessment and selection of system implementation partners, help define the program roadmap, manage vendor relationships, and ensure the future payroll ecosystem is designed with strong process discipline, clear data flows, effective integrations, and operational controls aligned with ongoing company growth, including M&A activities. This person must understand the end-to-end payroll landscape, including the upstream and downstream connections between Core HR, workforce management, time and attendance, labor scheduling, absence, payroll processing, and other dependent systems.
A successful candidate does not need to be a hands-on configuration resource or developer but must understand Oracle Payroll concepts, integration patterns, payroll inputs and outputs, and the operational risks that can arise when payroll, time, scheduling, HR, and finance data are not properly aligned.

What You Will Do in This Role

Program Leadership and Delivery
• Support the planning, governance, and execution of the Oracle Payroll, Workforce Management, Time & Attendance, and Labor Scheduling implementation.
• Lead an integrated program including design, configuration, integrations, testing, cutover, change readiness, deployment, and stabilization of Oracle Fusion Cloud Payroll and related modules.
• Work with subject matter experts to translate business objectives and processes into clear program scope, business requirements, deliverables, and project plan.
• Manage cross-functional coordination across Payroll, HR Operations, HRIS, IT, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Operations, and external partners.
• Establish and maintain program governance routines, including status reporting, RAID management, issue escalation, decision tracking, dependency management, and executive updates.
• Ensure the program aligns with QXO's broader HCM Systems Program, HCM roadmap, HR operating model, enterprise architecture, and integration strategy.
• Support Oracle Payroll project delivery, including requirements gathering, build and configuration testing and validation, data conversion, cutover planning, preparing for go-live, and hypercare support
Vendor Assessment and Partner Management
• Support vendor and system integrator assessment efforts, including RFP development, evaluation criteria, scoring, demonstrations, interviews, and final recommendations.
• Assess vendor capabilities across Oracle Payroll, Workforce Management, Time & Attendance, Labor Scheduling, integration design, data conversion, testing, deployment, and post-go-live support.
• Hold implementation partners accountable for scope, quality, deliverables, timelines, documentation, knowledge transfer, and adherence to QXO standards.
• Manage day-to-day vendor relationships, including performance tracking, issue resolution, escalation management, and executive-level updates.
• Partner with Procurement, Legal, IT, and business stakeholders to support contract review, statement of work development, and vendor onboarding.

Payroll Systems and Process Expertise
• Advise Payroll and HR leaders on implementation approaches that align with leading practices for Oracle Payroll and QXO's future-state operating model.
• Understand and help define the end-to-end payroll process, including payroll cycles, pay groups, earnings, deductions, taxes, garnishments, arrears, retro pay, accruals, off-cycle payroll, payroll close, and payroll accounting.
• Identify critical payroll dependencies across Core HR, Workforce Management, Time & Attendance, Labor Scheduling, Absence, Finance, Benefits, Tax, and external providers.
• Anticipate payroll design risks and implementation "gotchas," including data quality, time capture, approvals, scheduling rules, labor allocation, pay rules, exception handling, and downstream reporting impacts.
• Support design decisions that reduce manual work, improve accuracy, strengthen compliance, and create scalable processes for a growing enterprise.

Integrations, Data Flow, and Technical Coordination
• Partner with IT, HRIS, enterprise architecture, and vendor partners to define integration requirements and data movement across systems.
• Understand how data flows from Core HR, scheduling, time and attendance, absence, benefits, finance, and third-party systems into payroll processing and downstream outputs.
• Help document key inputs, outputs, source systems, target systems, transformation logic, ownership, timing, error handling, and reconciliation requirements.
• Coordinate integration design discussions for Oracle Payroll and related workforce systems, including inbound and outbound interfaces.
• Work with vendor partners and subject matter experts to ensure integration requirements support payroll accuracy, compliance, auditability, reconciliation, and operational support needs.
• Partner with technical teams to manage integration dependencies, testing readiness, defect resolution, cutover activities, and post-go-live support.

Stakeholder Partnership and Change Readiness
• Serve as a primary liaison between Payroll leadership, HR Operations, HRIS, IT, Finance, Operations, and vendor partners.
• Facilitate working sessions to gather requirements, validate design decisions, resolve open questions, and drive alignment across stakeholder groups.
• Help stakeholders understand tradeoffs between customization, configuration, process change, integration complexity, and long-term supportability.
• Partner with change management and training teams to ensure impacted users understand new processes, roles, controls, and system capabilities.
• Support readiness activities, including stakeholder communications, business process documentation, testing coordination, cutover planning, and hypercare preparation.

What you'll bring:

  • Experience leading complex HR, payroll, workforce management, or enterprise system implementation programs.
  • Understanding of payroll operations, including payroll inputs, outputs, cycles, controls, integrations, and downstream dependencies.
  • Experience with Oracle Cloud HCM, Oracle Payroll, Oracle Time and Labor, workforce management, labor scheduling, or closely related platforms.
  • Proven experience managing system integrators, implementation vendors, or consulting partners.
  • Strong program management skills, including planning, governance, RAID management, executive reporting, dependency management, and cross-functional coordination.
  • Ability to partner effectively with Payroll, HRIS, IT, Finance, Operations, vendors, and executive stakeholders.
  • Working knowledge of HR and payroll integration concepts, including data mapping, inbound/outbound interfaces, reconciliation, testing, and production support.
  • Ability to understand technical concepts without needing to write code.
  • Strong facilitation, communication, problem-solving, and decision-driving skills.

Preferred Qualifications
  • Direct experience implementing or supporting Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, Payroll, and/or Oracle Workforce Management and Labor Scheduling modules.
  • Experience supporting workforce management, time and attendance, labor scheduling, absence management, or payroll-adjacent platforms or business processes.
  • Experience leading vendor selection, RFP development, SI evaluation, or implementation partner selection.
  • Experience with payroll parallel testing, cutover planning, hypercare, and post-go-live stabilization.
  • Experience supporting large, multi-state, multi-location, or other complex workforce environments.

Skills Required to Perform This Role
  • Enterprise program leadership
  • Payroll systems and process literacy
  • Vendor and system integrator management
  • Integration and data-flow understanding
  • Cross-functional stakeholder management
  • Strong communication
  • Risk, issue, and dependency management
  • Strong judgment, ownership, and follow-through

What you'll earn

  • 401(k) with employer match
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • PTO, company holidays, and parental leave
  • Paid training and certifications
  • Legal assistance and identity protection
  • Pet insurance
  • Employee assistance program (EAP)


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