Manager, Payroll Transformation & Process Optimization (GBSC People & Capability)

Our Purpose

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re helping build a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.

Title and Summary

We work to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere, by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships, and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. We cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences enable us to be a better team - one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better business results.

Who is GBSC?

The Global Business Solutions Center (GBSC) is a powerhouse of innovation and strategic partnership inside of Mastercard that combines operational excellence with a vision for what’s next. More than a service provider; it is a collaborative force that delivers impactful outcomes. Anchored in strong, reliable operations, the GBSC brings to life bold ideas that empower teams across Finance, Legal, People & Capability, Sales, Marketing, and Product.

About the Role

The Manager, Payroll Process Design & Optimization Lead is responsible for designing, optimizing, and continuously improving global payroll processes to ensure they are standardized, compliant, timely, and digitally enabled across countries.

This role applies leading-practice process architecture, documentation, governance frameworks, and optimization initiatives, across the payroll lifecycle, into scalable solutions-from upstream data inputs through calculation, validation, payment, reporting, and post pay activities-while partnering closely with regional payroll team, Technology, Risk, and vendors.

The role enables consistent payroll outcomes and improved employee experiences by defining scalable process standards, controls, and metrics that support Mastercard’s broader modernization and automation agenda, while execution accountability remains with regional and in country payroll teams.

Success in this role requires working in close alignment with Payroll leadership to translate strategic direction into executable, scalable, and continuously improving process outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with Payroll leadership to support global payroll process design and optimization efforts, contributing insights, analysis, and frameworks that inform the evolution of future state process standards and execution across the payroll lifecycle.
• Enable and support the development, alignment, and use of payroll process flows and documentation by partnering with Payroll and related teams to ensure artifacts are clear, practical, and reflective of agreed-upon operating models; support consistent understanding and execution across regions while accounting for local legal, regulatory, and business requirements.
• Manage Payroll Transformation portfolio, including intake, prioritization, transformation roadmap, and work sequencing.
• Support Payroll leadership by defining structured global vs localization approaches, clearly articulating global standards versus permissible country-level variation; identify and assess process variation, bringing data and fact-based recommendations to leadership on where standardization, simplification, or deviation is appropriate .
• Function as a process design lead and trusted advisor for payroll related changes, system enhancements, country implementations, and operating model evolution-translating business needs into tangible, prioritized process requirements and design standards aligned to Payroll strategy and operating norms.
• Partner with Product & Engineering to simplify, automate, and optimize payroll processes and data flows, ensuring process designs support system capabilities across Workday Payroll, time and attendance, benefits, integrations, and in country vendors.
• Support enhancement testing by providing relevant use cases and executing user-testing to validate that optimized process designs are viable, system-enabled, and fit-for-purpose.
• Leverage payroll process performance metrics to identify trends, prioritize future optimization opportunities, and track improvement over time.
• Support strong vendor and cross functional process governance by partnering with P&C, Tax, Risk & Compliance, and payroll providers to drive service quality, regulatory adherence, data privacy and security, and continuous improvement.
• Assess payroll process impacts of policy changes, acquisitions, technology advancements, workforce updates, and regulatory developments, leading process change design, impact analysis, documentation updates, and stakeholder communications.

Qualifications & Leadership Profile

• 7+ years of experience in global payroll operations, payroll process design, or shared services environments, with strong knowledge of multi country payroll processing, statutory compliance, and payroll controls
• Demonstrated experience designing, standardizing, and governing end to end processes within complex, matrixed, global organizations-ideally within a Global Business Services, Consulting, or transformation led model.
• Strong working knowledge of payroll platforms and ecosystems (for example, Workday Payroll and external payroll vendors), including process enablement for automation, workflow tools, and emerging AI enabled capabilities.
• Proven understanding of audit requirements, SOX controls, regulatory reviews, and risk management frameworks, with the ability to translate control expectations into practical process design.
• Advanced analytical and problem solving skills, with the ability to balance precision, scalability, and employee experience in high risk, highly regulated environments.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence without direct authority across regions, functions, and senior leadership.

• Enterprise first mindset with clear accountability for process integrity, quality, and continuous improvement, paired with a calm, structured, and pragmatic decision making approach.

Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must:

• Abide by Mastercard’s security policies and practices;

• Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed;

• Report any suspected information security violation or breach, and

• Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guidelines.