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Payroll Manager (Service Delivery Excellence & Continuous Improvement)

The Service Delivery Excellence & Continuous Improvement - Payroll role within Warsaw HRHC is responsible for strengthening end-to-end payroll service delivery, process governance, controls, and continuous improvement for the EMEA countries supported by the Warsaw HRHC.

Serving as the key link between Payroll, HR Operations, HRIS, MDM, Finance, Compliance, in-scope country teams, and external payroll providers, this role ensures payroll processes are accurate, compliant, well documented, consistently executed, and scalable across the 15 EMEA countries supported from Warsaw.

The role drives payroll operational stability, issue prevention, process standardization, documentation quality, audit readiness, vendor coordination, and improvement initiatives while safeguarding timely and accurate payroll delivery and a positive associate experience across the Warsaw HRHC EMEA payroll scope.

In this role, a typical day will include :

Payroll Governance & Process Ownership

• Own and strengthen end-to-end payroll process governance across the Warsaw HRHC EMEA payroll scope, ensuring clear accountability, consistent execution, and alignment with agreed operating models.
• Define and maintain payroll process standards, roles and responsibilities, inputs, outputs, controls, calendars, handoffs, and escalation paths.
• Ensure payroll processes are designed and operated to support accuracy, timeliness, compliance, audit readiness, and operational continuity.
• Drive governance routines, decision-making, and status updates for payroll operations leadership and key cross-functional stakeholders.

Payroll Operational Integration & Execution

• Act as the operational integrator across Payroll, HR Operations, HRIS, MDM, Finance, Compliance, country stakeholders, and external payroll providers.
• Ensure payroll inputs, data flows, validations, approvals, outputs, funding activities, accounting interfaces, and post-payroll activities are aligned and effectively coordinated.
• Manage cross-functional dependencies and drive execution excellence where payroll delivery depends on HR master data, time and absence inputs, benefits, equity, tax, finance, or vendor activities.
• Support issue resolution by clarifying ownership, identifying root causes, coordinating corrective actions, and ensuring lessons learned are embedded into future payroll cycles.

Payroll Process Governance & Operational Stability

• Monitor payroll cycle performance, recurring issues, missed inputs, late changes, manual interventions, escalations, and operational pain points across countries.
• Translate payroll cycle feedback, audit findings, compliance observations, and stakeholder input into clear corrective and preventive actions.
• Partner with payroll teams and vendors to improve payroll accuracy, timeliness, control adherence, issue closure, and overall cycle discipline.
• Ensure operational risks and dependencies are visible, tracked, assigned, and resolved before they impact payroll delivery.

Payroll Projects, Change & Operational Readiness

• Lead payroll operational readiness for regulatory changes, vendor transitions, system updates, payroll implementations, country process changes, and transformation initiatives.
• Conduct payroll impact assessments and coordinate cutover planning, parallel runs, testing support, go-live preparation, training, communication, and stabilization activities.
• Ensure new or changed payroll processes are transitioned into steady-state operations with clear ownership, updated documentation, calendars, controls, and escalation routes.
• Promote disciplined change adoption and ensure payroll process changes are embedded into daily operations and reflected in procedures and governance routines.

Documentation, Controls & Handovers

• Ensure payroll process documentation is complete, accurate, up to date, audit-ready, and easily accessible for operational teams.
• Own or coordinate the maintenance of payroll SOPs, process maps, cycle calendars, checklists, control descriptions, country-specific instructions, and handover materials.
• Identify documentation and control gaps and work with payroll teams, process owners, subject matter experts, and vendors to close them in a timely manner.
• Enable smooth transitions, back-up coverage, onboarding, process migrations, and temporary ownership changes by reducing dependency on individual knowledge.

Service Delivery Performance & Continuous Improvement

• Monitor payroll service delivery performance and drive improvements aligned with payroll accuracy, timeliness, compliance, SLAs, KPIs, control adherence, and associate experience.
• Lead root cause analysis and resolution of payroll-related issues, using cycle trends, escalations, audit findings, vendor feedback, and stakeholder input to prioritize improvements.
• Identify opportunities for payroll standardization, automation, simplification, control strengthening, and process optimization across countries and interfaces.
• Capture lessons learned from payroll cycles, incidents, projects, handovers, and process changes, and incorporate them into future operating practices.

Risk, Compliance & Governance

• Ensure payroll processes and changes are implemented in a compliant, controlled, and audit-ready manner across the EMEA countries supported by Warsaw HRHC.
• Identify and mitigate payroll, data, vendor, documentation, control, compliance, and operational continuity risks.
• Maintain strong payroll governance, control evidence, issue tracking, and remediation practices to support high-quality execution and audit readiness.
• Partner with HRIS, Finance, Legal, Compliance, HR Operations, and vendors where payroll process changes require governance, system updates, automation, or broader alignment.

Partner & Vendor Management

• Serve as a primary operational liaison for external payroll providers, country payroll teams, HR Operations, Finance, Compliance, and key stakeholders on payroll process and service delivery topics.
• Build strong partnerships across Payroll, HR Operations, HR Operational Excellence, HRBPs, COEs, HRIS, Finance, Compliance, project teams, and external providers.
• Drive effective stakeholder engagement, issue resolution, escalation management, decision-making, and alignment on payroll process ownership and service expectations.
• Support vendor transitions, operating model changes, service reviews, and stabilization activities to ensure continuity and quality of payroll service delivery.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING TO ALCON :

• About 5 years of prior experience in payroll in a multinational environment.
• Fluent English is a must; an additional European language would be considered a strong advantage.
• Proven track record of driving team accountability and delivering against agreed KPIs.
• Experience managing multiple stakeholders across EMEA markets.
• Continuous Improvement mindset, preferably supported by Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt or Green Belt certification.
• Strong experience with ADP, Workday, ServiceNow, or similar platforms.
• Strong process management and process improvement background, with the ability to identify, standardize, optimize, and streamline end-to-end payroll and HR processes.
• Demonstrated ability to drive operational excellence, process governance, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a data-driven approach to decision-making.

HOW YOU CAN THRIVE AT ALCON:

•    Opportunity to work in a best-in-class organization in Medical Devices/Equipment sector

•    Opportunity to work in a high-paced agile environment

•    Work with people who are passionate about delivering outcomes and a culture of simplification and ownership

•    Truly international environment and daily interactions with colleagues from all over the world

•    Attractive benefits package (private medical care, group insurance, lunch card, transportation allowance, pension plan, Multisport/cultural card, free Alcon products for you and your significant other)

•    Attractive benefits package (private medical care, group insurance, lunch card, transportation, bonus)

•    Hybrid model of work (3/2/weekly),

•    Modern office in Marynarska 15, Warsaw, with a lot of facilities inside

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