Director of HRIS & Payroll (UKG)

ABOUT THE COMPANY

This organization is a fast-growing portfolio company that owns and operates a collection of businesses across 40 states in the United States. Intentionally multi-brand and multi-location each business maintains its own identity and local market focus supported by centralized operational leadership technology HR finance marketing and other shared services. The organization completes approximately 1015 acquisitions per year.

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Director of HRIS & Payroll owns the organizations HCM/HRIS system UKG end-to-end and is accountable for accurate timely and compliant payroll execution across a multi-entity multi-state portfolio. The Director is the lead UKG practitioner designing system configuration and architecture building SOPs deploying new modules optimizing existing ones through workflow automation producing reports and dashboards and serving as the escalation point for manager-level help-desk questions.

The Director also serves as the source of truth on UKG and payroll best practices for downstream HR partners producing the SOPs training materials and process documentation the broader HR team relies on.

This role is the primary owner of payroll: hands-on directly for the first six months then transitioning transactional execution to offshore payroll specialists while retaining ultimate accountability and final sign-off authority on every pay cycle.

Given the organizations acquisition pace the Director maintains a clean auditable and scalable UKG environment that absorbs newly integrated operating companies without configuration sprawl. The role partners cross-functionally with HR Finance IT Legal and M&A leadership.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

HCM/HRIS Ownership UKG Strategy Architecture & Transformation

Serve as system owner and primary practitioner for UKG Pro (HCM and Payroll) and UKG Pro Workforce Management (timekeeping and scheduling)

Lead enterprise configuration strategy: earnings codes pay rules work rules business rules org structure security roles workflows and integrations

Design and deploy new UKG modules and system enhancements; evaluate and adopt platform releases

Produce SOPs training materials and rollout communications for managers employees and downstream HR partners

Manage the manager-level UKG help-desk and serve as the escalation point for system issues

Define and execute the 12-month UKG roadmap balancing optimization work new module deployment and acquisition integration

Maintain configuration governance and change-control standards to prevent sprawl as the portfolio grows

Payroll Execution & Team Leadership

Personally execute multi-state multi-entity bi-weekly payroll for the first six months in role

Transition transactional payroll execution to payroll specialists over a structured 90-day plan retaining final sign-off authority on every cycle

Onboard train manage and oversee the offshore payroll team; design the control structure KPIs and escalation thresholds that govern the function

Resolve escalated payroll issues exceptions and off-cycle items requiring judgment

Manage payroll tax accounts and ensure timely accurate filings (federal state and local)

Multi-State Compliance & Payroll Tax

Ensure multi-state payroll compliance across 40 active states including SUI SIT local taxes garnishments ACA multi-state withholding and reciprocity rules

Oversee quarterly and year-end processing (W-2s 941s state filings ACA 1095-C) and any required amendments

Partner with HR Legal and Finance on worker classification matters (W-2 vs. 1099) and lead remediation as needed

Lead internal and external payroll audits; maintain audit readiness year-round

Design and build proactive compliance monitoring within UKG configuration controls automated audit reports and exception alerts that surface multi-state tax classification and wage-and-hour issues before they become liabilities

Reporting Data Integrity & Analytics

Build and maintain reporting infrastructure in UKG Pro BI including operational dashboards and KPI metric reporting on payroll accuracy integration health compliance status and headcount

Establish and enforce data integrity standards across UKG Pro and Workforce Management

Deliver reporting to HR Finance and business operations leaders including dashboards that give individual business operators visibility into their own headcount payroll and HR metrics

Acquisition Integration & System Scalability

Partner with the integration team on each new operating companys UKG onboarding ensuring data configuration and processes are migrated cleanly and that newly acquired employees are set up correctly for HR and payroll

Design configuration patterns that scale to 1015 acquisitions per year without creating earnings code pay rule or org structure sprawl

Maintain a clean auditable system of record as the portfolio grows

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

5 years of direct hands-on UKG Pro and Workforce Management experience (configuration administration integrations and BI reporting) non-negotiable prerequisite for this role

10 years of progressive payroll and HRIS experience

Bachelors degree in Human Resources Business Administration Finance Information Systems or related field required

Proven experience operating in multi-state multi-entity environments

Experience in high-growth and/or acquisition-driven organizations regularly onboarding and integrating large numbers of new employees

SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE

Multi-state payroll tax compliance fluency including SUI SIT local taxes garnishments multi-state withholding reciprocity and ACA

Comfort with hands-on payroll execution someone who runs cycles personally not just oversees others running them

Strong process and SOP discipline; able to produce documentation that an offshore team can execute against without supervision

Working knowledge of worker classification standards (ABC test IRS common-law test multi-state implications)

Direct clear communication with executives business partners and frontline payroll staff

Comfort with ambiguity and rapid change in an acquisition-driven environment

High integrity and discretion when handling sensitive employee and financial data

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Experience leading UKG implementations transformations or major module builds

Experience managing offshore or distributed payroll teams

Experience in private equity-backed roll-up or acquisition-driven environments including integrating acquired companies payroll and HR data into UKG

Experience supporting seasonal and 1099-heavy workforce populations

CPP (Certified Payroll Professional) or equivalent certification

Required Experience:

Director