Regional Payroll Director, Americas (Bilingual English/Spanish Required)

As part of NIQ’s Global Payroll Center of Excellence, the Regional Payroll Director, Americas has end-to-end accountability for accurate, timely, compliant, and controlled payroll delivery across 32 countries and approximately 8,000 employees. The role leads payroll delivered through in-house, outsourced, and global solutions, including U.S. headquarters and executive payroll, established country operations, and countries transitioning to NIQ’s global payroll platform. It leads a geographically dispersed organization of regional managers, cluster leaders, country teams, offshore resources, and external providers. Working closely with HR, Employee Experience, Benefits, Compensation, Equity, Finance, Tax, Treasury, Technology, Legal, and Audit, the role drives operational performance, financial integrity, regulatory compliance, vendor accountability, and payroll transformation. The position also serves as senior regional deputy to the VP, Head of Global Payroll, leading global priorities and escalations when required. Key Responsibilities Regional Payroll Delivery and Compliance Own accurate, complete, timely, and compliant payroll delivery across the AmericasLead regional managers, cluster leaders, country teams, offshore resources, and external providers, setting clear priorities and accountabilityOversee the payroll lifecycle, including inputs, calculations, approvals, funding, payments, statutory remittances, accounting, and reconciliationsMaintain effective governance, controls, procedures, calendars, escalation routes, business-continuity plans, and role coverageIdentify and resolve payroll issues, compliance risks, and control gaps through root-cause analysis and sustainable corrective actionApply consistent regional service standards while meeting country-specific statutory requirementsU.S. Payroll Provide leadership and governance for U.S. headquarters and executive payrollOversee federal, state, and local payroll tax compliance, year-end reporting, employee tax statements, statutory filings, and correctionsEnsure appropriate confidentiality, system access, segregation of duties, reviews, and approvalsLead resolution of tax notices, assessments, penalties, amended filings, and government inquiries with payroll providers and Corporate TaxOversee payroll requirements relating to leave programs, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, benefits, taxable benefits, equity, and employee deductionsPayroll Accounting and Financial Close Partner with Record-to-Report and Financial Controllership to ensure accurate and timely period-end and year-end closeOversee payroll journals, accruals, balance-sheet reconciliations, statutory liabilities, accounting interfaces, and supporting documentationMaintain clear ownership and closure plans for aged items, unmatched balances, historical differences, and other payroll-related concernsInvestigate material or recurring accounting differences and coordinate resolution across Payroll, Finance, Technology, offshore teams, and providers People and Vendor Leadership Lead, coach, and develop payroll leaders and teams, building technical capability, succession readiness, and operational resilienceFoster an inclusive culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and employee-focused serviceManage payroll providers against contractual obligations, KPIs, SLAs, compliance requirements, and implementation milestonesLead vendor governance and escalations, challenging underperformance and ensuring sustainable corrective actionMonitor regional performance and provide concise, evidence-based updates to senior stakeholdersControls and Transformation Ensure payroll controls are appropriately designed, performed, documented, and evidencedLead readiness for SOX reviews, internal and external audits, statutory audits, payroll tax audits, and regulatory assessmentsOversee country transitions to NIQ’s global payroll solution, addressing payroll, statutory, tax, banking, accounting, data, integration, reporting, and control requirementsProtect employee pay, compliance, financial controls, and business continuity throughout each transitionSimplify, standardize, automate, and strengthen payroll processes, systems, interfaces, and controls