Director, North American Payroll Operations

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment, and wealth management services.

The Firm's employees serve clients worldwide, including corporations, governments, and individuals from more than 1,200 offices in 43 countries.

We are searching for a director that will support and manage our North American Payroll Operations team. The candidate will have 5 to 8 years of hands-on payroll operational experience supporting US and Canadian workforce.

The role will serve as a steward to deliver on our 3 Pillars of Success : 1). Timely and accurate payroll processing; 2).

Foster and extend our service-first approach; 3). Promote and advocate continual progression of our capabilities. The candidate must leverage their exceptional organizational skills to manage both individual and team assignments, deliver timely payroll processing, and be sincerely passionate about Customer Service.

The candidate will use their critical and analytical thinking skills to resolve issues and be comfortable in situations where details may be limited and / or ambiguous - realizing how the pieces of the payroll puzzle fit.

Key RESPONSIBILITIES :

Own and manage the firm’s Payroll Incident Management area to ensure requests and inquiries are fulfilled in accordance to defined SLAs;

triage and assign cases to team members, as applicable, which could include our cross-functional partners.

• Support auditing of preview payroll registers and delegate required actions to the Morgan Stanley Payroll Production team surrounding corrections / adjustments of identified variances.
• Be hands-on by supporting the team with preparing necessary documentation and pay data templates for payroll transactions such as, but not limited to : employee withholding, check / payment adjustments, tax withholding and garnishments
• Continuously improve the firm’s Payroll processes by realizing and developing enhancements to existing or build new solutions to prepare, audit, balance and reconcile pay data.
• Identify and prepare trending analysis in payroll and employee master data audits per pay period as part of our continuous improvement initiative.
• Partner with the VP of Payroll, NA Ops to deliver on strategic initiatives and drive business enhancements in accordance with the guidance from the Head of Payroll, NA

How You’ll be SUCCESSFUL :

With your analytical thinking abilities and operational expertise, you will have the opportunity to create, empower and enrich an essential part of Morgan Stanley’s business.

In this role, your responsibilities will span across both functional and technical areas; involve various internal and external stakeholders with a focus and drive to support and deliver on the complex payroll needs for our customers.

You will lean into your 3 to 5 years of direct experience (min) using ADP Globalview or SAP ECC (PA and Payroll); complimented by the 2 years of experience (min) leading an outsourced payroll environment (ADP Managed Services preferred) to bring impactful contributions from your 1st day!

Qualifications and Success Factors :

• Advanced skills using Excel to analyze data as well as demonstrated proficiency using the full suite of MS Office applications
• Advanced knowledge of wage and hour laws and taxability of wages especially for California-based employees (EDD)
• Knowledge of Canadian payroll concepts such as, but not limited to : ROE, RRSP, and provincial tax filing (e.g., Quebec)
• Direct experience processing end-to-end payroll lifecycle for Canadian workforce
• Exemplary customer service skills with a genuine desire to provide exceptional customer service to our business partners and most importantly, our employees
• Min. of 3 years of direct supervisory experience manage 3-4 direct reports
• Self-driven with exceptional time management skills and the ability to work collaboratively within a team setting with minimal supervision

How You’ll Standout :

• Experience with business process modeling; develop / document payroll process diagrams / flows, standard operating procedures, and job aids.
• Written and verbal skills to effectively partner and interact at all levels within Morgan Stanley and external service providers
• HR IT / systems experience including Workday HCM, ADP applications such as : ADP4ME, SmartCompliance, eTime / Kronos, and Alight CRM.
• Understanding of system integration and data exchange concepts (source to target)
• Bachelor’s degree; advanced degree in lieu of experience
• CPP or FPC designation is ideal

Morgan Stanley's goal is to build and maintain a workforce that is diverse in experience and background but uniform in reflecting our standards of integrity and excellence.

Consequently, our recruiting efforts reflect our desire to attract and retain the best and brightest from all talent pools.

We want to be the first choice for prospective employees.

It is the policy of the Firm to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, sex stereotype, gender, gender identity or expression, transgender, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, marital and civil partnership / union status, pregnancy, veteran or military service status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversifying its workforce (M / F / Disability / Vet).