Senior Manager, Payroll at Zendesk in San Francisco, CA

Senior Manager, Payroll Location: San Francisco, California, United States of America Job Description Who we are looking for: At Zendesk, we believe that delivering a flawless payroll experience is the foundation of employee trust and peace of mind. We are seeking a Senior Payroll Manager to spearhead our global payroll evolution, championing a future where AI-powered insights and intelligent automation eliminate manual complexity. Reporting to the Senior Director of Global Payroll, you will be a collaborative architect of change—leveraging emerging technologies to drive operational excellence and equity at scale. We are looking for a leader who is passionate about the intersection of people and innovation, someone eager to build high-trust systems and a culture of belonging. If you are a visionary who values teamwork and is ready to redefine what’s possible in a high-growth environment, we’d love to hear from you. What you will be doing: Global Payroll Orchestration: Lead and modernize end-to-end payroll operations on a global scale, overseeing complex payroll systems. You will optimize our tech stack—including Workday, our third-party global provider CloudPay, and critical integrations—to drive full automation and data synchronization into our ERP system. Ecosystem & Stakeholder Integration: Build high-trust partnerships with our global payroll providers and cross-functional teams, including HRIS / IT, People Ops, Benefits, Legal, Tax, Equity, and Accounting, ensuring payroll data is seamlessly integrated with our ERP system and the broader business ecosystem. Automate & Optimize Operations: Revolutionize the full global payroll lifecycle—from complex equity awards and incentive commissions to statutory benefits—leveraging Workday’s automated workflows and AI capabilities to ensure absolute precision and reliability in every pay cycle. Strategic Architecture & Communication: Translate complex global business requirements into maintainable, scalable, best-in-class technical architecture while effectively distilling technical complexities into actionable insights for business stakeholders to ensure cross-functional alignment. Intelligent Compliance & Risk Management: Stay ahead of shifting global statutory regulations by utilizing AI-enhanced monitoring tools and system audits. Ensure all global payroll processes mitigate risk, uphold global standards, and remain audit-ready through robust digital controls embedded within our global payroll framework. Transformation & Systems Evolution: Lead strategic projects to transition from manual legacy tasks to Workday-driven, AI-enabled platforms. Spearhead global transformations, including vendor migrations, M&A integrations, and rapid expansion into new international markets. Data Intelligence & Predictive Analysis: Transform raw global payroll data from Workday and CloudPay into predictive insights. Use advanced reporting tools and Excel to present operational metrics that drive continuous improvement and proactive decision-making for the global function. What you bring to the role: Basic Qualifications Systems Architecture & Leadership: 8+ years of progressive experience architecting and managing global payroll technology ecosystems, with a focus on scaling automated infrastructures across diverse international markets. Workday Expertise: Proven proficiency in Workday Payroll, with a preference for active Workday Certifications. You should have a deep understanding of Workday’s business processes, reporting, and lifecycle management. Advanced Systems Integration: Substantial experience managing high-tier payroll tech stacks, including CloudPay (or similar third-party global providers) and their end-to-end integration into ERP systems. AI & Future-Tech Mindset: A forward-thinking approach to emerging AI technologies, with a passion for discovering and implementing intelligent automation to eliminate manual workflows and transform the payroll function. Strategic Technical Implementation: Ability to partner effectively with business units to translate complex operational needs into automated solutions and AI tools, ensuring global systems remain efficient and scalable. Data-Driven Mindset: Expert-level skills in data analytics and Excel, with the ability to translate complex global payroll data into strategic, predictive insights for senior leadership. Collaborative Influencer: Strong history of partnering with HRIS / IT, Legal, and Finance teams to drive cross-functional system enhancements and digital transformation. Preferred Qualifications: Global Expansion Expertise: Proven track record of implementing payroll in new countries, including the setup of localized entities, statutory configurations, and the design of scalable, automated launch playbooks. Time & Attendance Integration: Deep experience implementing and optimizing Time Tracking systems and ensuring seamless, automated data flow between time entry platforms and global payroll engines. Systems Architecture & Integrations: Technical mastery in managing complex integrations across the HRIS ecosystem, ensuring 100% data synchronization between Workday, CloudPay, and third-party benefit or time providers. Global Transformation Leadership: Proven track record of leading large-scale Global Payroll transformations, specifically migrating legacy processes into a fully automated, AI-enhanced environment. AI Implementation Champion: Direct experience (or a clear roadmap) for implementing Generative AI or Machine Learning tools to improve data validation, anomaly detection, or employee self-service within a payroll context. M&A and Scalability Expertise: Previous experience navigating Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), ensuring payroll systems and ERP integrations scale seamlessly during periods of high change. #LI-WO1 The US annualized base salary range for this position is $163,000.00-$245,000.00. This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives. While this range reflects the minimum and maximum value for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations, the offer for the successful candidate for this position will be based on job related capabilities, applicable experience, and other factors such as work location. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only (or OTE for commissions based roles), and do not include bonus, benefits, or related incentives. Hybrid: In this role, our hybrid experience is designed at the team level to give you a rich onsite experience packed with connection, collaboration, learning, and celebration - while also giving you flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. This role must attend our local office for part of the week. The specific in-office schedule is to be determined by the hiring manager. The intelligent heart of customer experience Zendesk software was built to bring a sense of calm to the chaotic world of customer service. Today we power billions of conversations with brands you know and love. Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid way of working, enables us to purposefully come together in person, at one of our many Zendesk offices around the world, to connect, collaborate and learn whilst also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. As part of our commitment to fairness and transparency, we inform all applicants that artificial intelligence (AI) or automated decision systems may be used to screen or evaluate applications for this position, in accordance with Company guidelines and applicable law. Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster global diversity, equity, & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment and employees at Zendesk are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We are an AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about your EEO rights under the law, please click here. Zendesk endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to submit this application, complete any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please send an e-mail to peopleandplaces@zendesk.com with your specific accommodation request.