Senior Manager, Payroll

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Job Profile

Job Title

Department

Compensation Range

The Compensation Range is the span between the minimum and maximum base salary for a position. The midpoint of the range is approximately halfway between the minimum and the maximum and represents an employee that possesses full job knowledge, qualifications and experience for the position. In the normal course, employees will be hired, transferred or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range for a job.

Posting End Date

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date

Please include a cover letter which includes the rationale of why you are interested in this position, why you would be a good fit for this role, and how you meet the required qualifications.

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Summary

The Senior Manager, Payroll provides strategic and operational leadership in the delivery of payroll services across the University of British Columbia. Supporting a diverse employee population, including multiple unionized groups and complex compensation structures, this role ensures payroll is administered accurately, timely, and in compliance with applicable legislation, collective agreements, and institutional policy. This position plays a key role in financial reconciliation, labour relations support, internal controls, and payroll system development, while fostering a culture of service excellence, equity, and continuous improvement. The Senior Manager acts as a subject matter expert and escalation point for payroll issues, collaborating with Human Resources, Finance, Labour Relations, and Information Technology Services to support institutional priorities and employee experience. Key aspects of the role will include leading the team to deliver a high level of service and various projects, business engagement, change management and analysis of emerging trends to ensure that the University is enabled to deliver its mission. They are expected to be a subject matter expert, providing expertise on all regulatory and contractual obligations on payroll matters. An emphasis on managing risk exposure and strong control environment is expected.

Organizational Status

The Senior Manager, Payroll is a key position for internal controls and governance over the payroll function. This role is a key position for governance over the payroll function by developing and executing a payroll transformation strategy aligned with the University’s goals and objectives. This position will collaborate with Human Resources, Finance, the Integrated Service Center Teams and business units to gather payroll requirements and define payroll transformation initiatives by accessing current payroll processes and systems, identifying areas of improvement, and implementing best practices to streamline workflows.

This position will also support the Director in representing the University and leading interactions with audit, banks relating to payroll, government and other external stakeholders. The Senior Manager will liaise with senior faculty, staff, and teams within the Finance, Tax, Risk Management and Human Resources departments. This position also plays a key role in ensuring that these Clients receive excellent customer service, appropriate system support, and service level agreements in order to achieve their mandates and objectives.

Work Performed

• Manages day-to-day payroll operations for a large and complex workforce including unionized staff, faculty, students, and administrative personnel. Ensures workforce plans encompasses essential services performance.
• Oversees accurate and timely processing of semi-monthly payrolls and related financial transactions.
• Ensures full compliance with federal and provincial legislation, collective agreements, UBC policies, and audit requirements.
• Leads a team of payroll professionals, providing mentorship, coaching, and technical guidance to support professional development and high performance.
• Interprets and applies provisions of multiple collective agreements and employment policies related to pay, leaves, and entitlements.
• Serves as a payroll advisor on labour relations matters, supporting grievance resolution and bargaining processes with payroll data and insight.
• Maintains internal controls, manages risk, and ensures privacy and confidentiality of payroll data.
• Oversees preparation of statutory filings such as T4s, T4As, and ROEs; coordinates with Financial Reporting on year-end reconciliation.
• Collaborates with Human Resources, Integrated Resource Center and Information Technology on Workday configuration, payroll integration, and automation initiatives.
• Responds to complex payroll inquiries and escalated issues from employees, department administrators, and senior leadership.
• Provides training and communications on payroll processes, policies, and changes to the UBC community. Partners with comms and change teams to ensure change readiness and successful execution.
• Contributes to university-wide initiatives that support employee engagement, operational efficiency, and financial stewardship.
• Develops strategies for ensuring procedures, methods, standards and controls are created and followed to foster operational efficiency, monitor compliance, mitigate risks, and achieve desired results.
• Partners with others to implement a continuous improvement lifecycle: gathering University requirements, understanding user experiences, identifying areas for improvement, evaluating and prioritizing and assists with implementing product enhancements.
• Ensures strategic alignment between teams within Payroll Operations.
• Develops and fosters influential partnerships across the organization, including internal and external customers and stakeholders to improve payroll operations.
• Partners with IT to lead, design and enhance Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to help solve process issues.
• Develops and monitors the Payroll operational performance framework and service portfolios, and Service Level Agreements.
• Design and maintain a set of managerial & operational metrics that define performance of the business, opportunities, and progress to goals.
• Develop and foster the team's ability for "out-of-the box" thinking by developing new solutions through collaboration with payroll team members and internal customers.
• Key resource on the Workday product and strategic roadmap; engages in Workday Community groups to ensure UBC’s perspective on enhancements are well understood.
• Learn the Director's role to be back up [ emergency and vacations]
• Leading paymaster payroll processing and escalations [ i.e. Unions, Triumf]

Consequence of Error/Judgement

• Payroll errors can result in financial loss to the university, legal exposure, non-compliance with legislation, damage to labour relations, or a loss of trust among employees. The Senior Manager must exercise sound judgment, ensure accuracy, and maintain confidentiality while managing sensitive and high-impact processes. Poor decisions or lack of oversight could compromise the university’s financial integrity, reputation, and employee satisfaction. Due to the incumbent's responsibility for financial systems, the decisions and recommendations made will have a significant effect on departmental standards and operations.
• Errors could result in serious significant risks and inaccuracies in the University's records, which could result in any of the following: in errors in the financial statements, in the University being heavily fined, and/or an employee not being paid or covered for benefits they are entitled to. These records are subject to audit. Due to the incumbent's responsibility for financial systems, the decisions and recommendations made will have a significant effect on departmental standards and operations.

Supervision Received

The Senior Manager, Payroll autonomously under broad directives received from the Director, Payroll. Expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy and accountability for day-to-day decisions and leadership of payroll operations.

Supervision Given

Directly supervises a team of Payroll Managers, Analysts, and Payroll Specialists. Provides direction, performance feedback, and support for development planning. May oversee temporary staff or project teams related to system enhancements and operational initiatives.

Minimum Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline (business, finance, marketing, etc.).
• A minimum of 9 years of related experience or the equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Payroll Compliance Professional and Payroll Leadership Professional (PLP) designation from the National Payroll Institute or equivalent.
• Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own.
• Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Preferred Qualifications

• Extensive experience with data analysis in large ERP systems and/or large data sets is required, including demonstrated ability to build reporting tools, performance indicators and other analytical tools. Experience working with Workday is an asset.
• Experience in a large, unionized public-sector organization, preferably in higher education or government.
• Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• In-depth knowledge of Canadian payroll legislation, pension plans, and benefits administration.
• Demonstrated experience managing payroll teams and processes within a complex ERP environment (Workday, SAP, or similar).
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to lead teams, manage conflict, and foster collaborative working relationships.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with attention to accuracy and risk management.
• Ability to work effectively with diverse stakeholder groups, including faculty, union representatives, senior administrators, and technical teams.
• Completion of the CPA accounting program (CA, CGA or CMA)·
• Prior experience as subject matter expert in Payroll for a large, complex organization and people management experience as it relates to hiring, training, evaluating, disciplining, and terminating staff.
• Demonstrate ability to think strategically and lead cross functional teams.
• Broad knowledge and experience in payroll and benefits practices and related business processes.
• Ability to solicit ideas and opinions from others to efficiently and effectively accomplish specific objectives targeted at defined business outcomes.