We are looking for a Payroll Manager to join a retail organization on a Long-term Contract basis in Saint Louis, Missouri. This position will support a complex payroll transformation for a large employee population, helping ensure payroll accuracy, compliance, and continuity throughout critical implementation phases. The ideal candidate brings strong experience with Workday payroll operations, testing, and reconciliation, along with the ability to collaborate across payroll, HR, finance, and project teams in a high-visibility environment.

Responsibilities:

• Direct payroll conversion efforts tied to a large-scale Workday implementation, ensuring readiness across multiple phases of employee transition.
• Manage parallel payroll testing by reviewing outputs across systems and confirming accurate results before key deployment milestones.
• Conduct in-depth reconciliations and analyze payroll variances to identify issues, assess impact, and support timely resolution.
• Review gross-to-net calculations, deductions, taxes, and benefit-related payroll components to confirm processing accuracy.
• Partner with payroll leadership, HR, finance, and external implementation stakeholders to coordinate activities and reduce operational risk.
• Support user acceptance testing by validating payroll scenarios, documenting findings, and escalating defects when needed.
• Maintain clear records of payroll procedures, control points, test outcomes, and project decisions to support auditability and stabilization.
• Provide ongoing guidance during rollout and post-conversion periods to help ensure smooth payroll operations for newly integrated employee groups.