Job DescriptionThe Senior Team Leader of Payroll Services at Whole Foods Market is a highly influential role responsible for overseeing global payroll operations and leading a dedicated team. This position ensures accurate payroll processing for over 100,000 part-time and full-time team members across the USA, UK, and Canada, supporting more than 550 store locations. The role involves developing and implementing payroll procedures, ensuring compliance with government reporting requirements, and facilitating critical cross-functional communication with other HR, Tax, Accounting, and Tech Centers of Excellence to ensure operational success. This role reports directly to the Vice President of Team Member Services (HR) operations.

Location: Austin, TX – This role is based in Austin, TX with an expectation of 3 days a week in the Store Support office.

Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership:

Provide overall leadership and direction to the Payroll team, fostering a positive and collaborative work environment.

Develop and execute strategies to optimize payroll processes, enhance efficiency, and improve service delivery.

Collaborate with senior leaders to align payroll objectives, policies, and practices with the company's rewards philosophy and TMS initiatives.

Identify opportunities for process improvements and recommend strategies to enhance the company's payroll practices and programs.

Ensure global payroll operations comply with applicable legal requirements across all markets geographies.

Operational Excellence:

Oversee and retain accountability for day-to-day and long-term payroll operations, including periodic payroll processing, tax calculations, reporting, and general ledger support.

Plan, evaluate, and ensure consistent documentation and adherence to payroll processes and procedures.

Monitor metrics for production, quality, and service levels, taking appropriate actions to ensure attainment of business objectives and growth targets.

Investigate, evaluate, and resolve complex, critical, and sensitive payroll-related issues raised by senior leadership or escalated from team members.

Partner with peer leaders and business partners on system setup, third-party vendor interfaces, and reporting requests.

Compliance and Risk Management:

Maintain comprehensive knowledge of local, state, federal, and international payroll legislation to ensure compliance across relevant business units.

Lead and support audits of payroll data and reports to ensure accuracy, quality, and adherence to regulatory requirements.

Assess current operations, identify areas of risk, and implement additional controls and mitigation strategies as needed.

Stakeholder Management and Communication:

Serve as the subject matter expert and point of contact for payroll-related inquiries from executives, TMS, Finance, and business leaders including Amazon partners.

Consult with business leaders on payroll operational, regulatory, policy, and other issues, trends, and challenges.

Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to ensure shared understanding of priorities, objectives, and anticipated outcomes.

Effectively communicate complex information and present recommendations to key stakeholders in a clear and concise manner.

Team Leadership and Development:

Manage and develop a team of payroll professionals, providing coaching, mentoring, and career development opportunities.

Foster a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, and customer-centric service within the team.

Leverage data-driven insights to recommend and implement task/project management and delivery methodology improvements.

Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Business Administration, Accounting, Finance) and 6-8 years of relevant payroll experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Minimum of 3-5 years of leadership experience in a payroll.

Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) or Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC) highly preferred.

Workday HCM and Payroll Training highly preferred.

Proven ability to lead and inspire teams, develop clear goals and priorities, and juggle multiple projects while maintaining a clear sense of priorities.

Expertise in payroll operations, HRIS systems (e.g., Workday, Kronos), and time and attendance processes.

Strong payroll tax acumen and understanding of accounting principles related to payroll.

Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.

Ability to collaborate cross-functionally and translate strategic objectives into tangible actions.

Demonstrated experience in process optimization, risk mitigation, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Proficiency in conflict management and willingness to challenge organizational thinking and drive change.

Multi-state and multi-country payroll experience required.

Experience processing payroll for large employee populations (50,000+ employees) preferred.

Location: Austin, TX – This role is based in Austin, TX with an expectation of 3 days a week in the Store Support office.

At Whole Foods Market, we provide a fair and equal employment opportunity for all Team Members and candidates regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, marital status, disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. Whole Foods Market hires and promotes individuals solely based on qualifications for the position to be filled and business needs.

Whole Foods Market works with job sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter to promote opportunities at our company. Please be aware that other career sites may not be accurate or up to date and may even be fraudulent. We encourage and recommend all candidates to apply via our site.

Who are we? Well, we seek out the finest natural and organic foods available, maintain the strictest quality standards in the industry, and have an unshakeable commitment to sustainable agriculture. Add to that the excitement and fun we bring to shopping for groceries, and you start to get a sense of what we’re all about. Oh yeah, we’re a mission-driven company too.

Whole Foods Market attracts people who are passionate - about great food, about the communities they live in, about how we treat our planet and our fellow humans - and who want to bring their passion into the workplace and make a difference.

Learn more about careers at Whole Foods Market here !

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