Sr. Payroll and Time Operations Manager

About Unilabs

Headquartered in Geneva and part of the A.P. Moller Group, Unilabs is one of Europe’s leading medical diagnostics companies, offering a complete range of laboratory, pathology, genetics, and imaging services to patients across 14 countries. Unilabs invests heavily in technology, equipment, and people – using digital technologies in its state-of-the-art laboratories and imaging institutes – to improve the lives of close to 100 million people every year.

Role Purpose 

The Sr. Payroll Administration Manager is a strategic and operational leader responsible for the end-to-end delivery of payroll services in 10+ EU countries. The primary objective of this role is to act as the Payroll and Time Management Administration architect for the Shared Service Center (SSC) and lead the Payroll Transformation Project, with a focus on the transition of payroll services from local country entities into a centralized regional hub.

Key Responsabilities

Transition & Payroll Model Establishment (Project focus)

• Lead the transfer of payroll operations from local country teams to the SSC central team, ensuring zero disruption to pay cycles.
• Establish the "Target Operating Model" for new generation payroll, including standardizing workflows, approval matrices, and communication protocols.
• Lead the creation of Payroll and Time Management centralized SOPs including capture of local payroll nuances (tax codes, benefit rules, local filings) and document them.
• Manage the post-migration "hyper-care" phase to ensure the central team meets performance benchmarks before moving to business as usual.
• Ensure 100% accuracy in "parallel runs" during the transition phase.

Payroll Ownership

• Lead end-to-end payroll operations for 10,000+ employees across multiple EU countries, ensuring accuracy, legal compliance, and timely execution.
• Oversee payroll inputs, validations, controls, and final approvals in coordination with internal teams and external payroll partners.
• Ensure correct application of regulations (taxes, social security, benefits, allowances, absences).
• Address complex payroll cases, escalations, and employee issues with professionalism and speed.

Time Management Ownership

• Oversee the time-management platform and ensure correct data transfer to payroll.
• Manage related configuration changes, system updates, testing, and continuous improvement to ensure accurate time capture.
• Ensure correct handling of time related components (shift patterns, overtime, absences, approvals, and exceptions).
• Partner with IT and vendors to resolve system issues and improve user experience.

Operational Excellence (Core SSC Duties)

• Provide guidance to the Global/Regional teams to collect data input (Benefits, Compensation, Mobility) for disbursement pay.
• Monitor service trends and SLA completion rates, executing improvements to eliminate manual work and "shadow payroll" processes.
• Serve as the senior point of escalation for complex inquiries, redirecting as needed to the Total Rewards COE or Legal.
• Analyze and validate all off-cycle requests, payroll accounting, and third-party provider reconciliations.
• Ensure timely delivery of payroll inputs and query resolution within agreed windows.
• Reduction in the number of "local-only" manual payroll steps.

Compliance, Controls & Governance

• Maintain strong internal controls, segregation of duties, and risk mitigation processes for Payroll and Time Management.
• Manage year-end payroll activities, tax certificates, reporting, reconciliations, and audit deliverables.
• Lead continuous improvement for key processes and payroll solution in markets.

Stakeholder & Vendor Management

• Work closely with HR Business Partners, HR Operations, Finance, and line managers on payroll matters.
• Manage relationships with payroll vendors, pension funds, insurance providers, and authorities.
• Provide regular reporting, KPIs, and insights to the HR and Finance leadership.
• Ensure clear communication flow between SSC and market stakeholders.
• Act as the primary point of contact for external auditors and local tax authorities during and after the transition.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in HR, Finance, Business Administration, Accounting, or related field
• 5+ years in Payroll Management, with at least 3 years in a GBS/Shared Service environment
• Experience managing time-management systems and payroll interfaces.
• Proven track record of successfully transferring services from local to central teams in a multi-country setup.
• Prior experience collaborating with multi-country HR teams and external vendors.
• Proven ability to lead remote or regional teams through organizational change.
• Experience managing third-party payroll providers (e.g., ADP, Alight…).
• Proficiency in global payroll platforms (e.g., Oracle) and advanced Excel.
• Fluent English (Required)
• Regional Subject Matter Expertise (CH & EU):
• Expert-level knowledge of Swiss (CH) Payroll is highly preferred, strong knowledge of other EU payroll landscapes.
• High-level expertise in EU labor laws, GDPR data privacy requirements for payroll data, and statutory reporting across Euro-zone countries.