Manager, Global Payroll Strategy & Compliance
Remote
About Remote
We encourage every member of the Remote team to bring their talents, experiences and culture to the table to help us build the best-in-class HR platform.
What this job can offer you
As Manager, Global Payroll Strategy & Compliance, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping the future of payroll compliance at scale. You’ll lead a global team of country compliance experts, translating complex regulatory requirements into clear operational and product strategies. This role sits at the intersection of compliance, risk, and innovation — ensuring our payroll operations remain compliant, efficient, and future-ready as we continue to expand across markets.
You’ll partner closely with senior leaders across Product, Operations, Tax and Legal to embed compliance into every layer of our payroll ecosystem, drive proactive risk management, and deliver strategic initiatives that enhance quality, automation, and scalability.
What you bring
- Proven leadership experience managing high-performing teams within payroll compliance, risk management, or a related field.
- Deep expertise in global payroll legislation, compliance frameworks, and audit management.
- Strategic mindset — able to balance risk mitigation with operational and commercial priorities.
- Strong stakeholder influence, capable of engaging effectively across all organizational levels and functions.
- Exceptional project management and analytical skills, with a focus on execution, prioritization, and results.
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to simplify complex regulatory topics for diverse audiences.
- Experience working in remote or distributed teams is a plus.
Key Responsibilities
1. Lead and Develop a High-Performing Compliance Team
- Lead, mentor, and coach a team of 4–5 country compliance experts, fostering a culture of accountability, learning, and collaboration.
- Build capability within the team through clear development paths, structured feedback, and shared ownership of global outcomes.
- Champion excellence in audit execution, documentation, and continuous improvement.
2. Drive Compliance Strategy and Governance
- Design, refine, and execute the global payroll compliance framework — ensuring alignment with local legislation, internal policies, and company objectives.
- Partner with senior stakeholders across Payroll Operations, Product, and Legal to proactively manage compliance risks and regulatory change.
- Oversee country-level audit programs, ensuring findings are addressed, tracked, and translated into sustainable process and product improvements.
- Define and monitor key compliance KPIs, identifying trends, opportunities, and emerging risks.
3. Lead Risk and Process Improvement Initiatives
- Translate audit findings and incident learnings into actionable changes across workflows, systems, and tools.
- Partner with Product Managers to embed compliance logic and controls into payroll systems, enabling automation and reducing operational risk.
- Collaborate with the Incident Management and Operations teams to ensure timely and compliant resolution of payroll issues.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives that increase accuracy, efficiency, and transparency across global payroll processes.
4. Act as a Strategic Partner
- Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, providing insights on global compliance trends, risk exposure, and mitigation strategies.
- Contribute to long-term business planning, helping to shape the strategic direction of the Payroll Risk & Compliance function.
- Champion cross-functional collaboration, fostering strong relationships between Compliance, Product, Legal, and Operational teams.
Practicals
- You'll report to: Senior Manager, Global Payroll Strategy & Compliance
- Direct reports: 5-6
- Location: For this position we welcome everyone to apply, but we will prioritize applications from the following locations as we encourage our teams to diversify; EMEA
- Start date: As soon as possible
Application process
- Interview with recruiter
- Interview with future manager
- Interview with team member (without managers)
- Interview with Senior Director
- Bar Raiser Interview
- Prior employment verification check
Remote's Total Rewards philosophy is to ensure fair, unbiased compensation and fair equity pay along with competitive benefits in all locations in which we operate. We do not agree to or encourage cheap-labor practices and therefore we ensure to pay above in-location rates. We hope to inspire other companies to support global talent-hiring and bring local wealth to developing countries.
At first glance our salary bands seem quite wide - here is some context. At Remote we have international operations and a globally distributed workforce. We use geo ranges to consider geographic pay differentials as part of our global compensation strategy to remain competitive in various markets while we hiring globally.
Our salary ranges are determined by role, level and location, and our job titles may span more than one career level. The actual base pay for the successful candidate in this role is dependent upon many factors such as location, transferable or job-related skills, work experience, relevant training, business needs, and market demands. The base salary range may be subject to change.
At Remote, we foster internal mobility as a key element of our culture of employee growth and development, supported by a compensation philosophy that guarantees pay equity and fairness. Therefore, all compensation changes associated with an internal move will be reviewed by the Total Rewards & People Enablement team on a case by case basis.
Benefits
- work from anywhere
- flexible paid time off
- flexible working hours (we are async)
- 16 weeks paid parental leave
- mental health support services
- stock options
- learning budget
- home office budget & IT equipment
- budget for local in-person social events or co-working spaces
How you’ll plan your day (and life)
We work async at Remote which means you can plan your schedule around your life (and not around meetings). Read more at remote.com/async.
You will be empowered to take ownership and be proactive. When in doubt you will default to action instead of waiting. Your life-work balance is important and you will be encouraged to put yourself and your family first, and fit work around your needs.
If that sounds like something you want, apply now!
How to apply
- Please fill out the form below and upload your CV with a PDF format.
- We kindly ask you to submit your application and CV in English, as this is the standardised language we use here at Remote.
- If you don’t have an up to date CV but you are still interested in talking to us, please feel free to add a copy of your LinkedIn profile instead.
Not only do we encourage folks from all ethnic groups, genders, sexuality, age, abilities, disability status and any other under-represented group to apply, but we prioritize a sense of belonging. We have 4 ERGs (Women, Disability, Queer, Minorities in Tech) who meet regularly with the People team. During your interviews and beyond, we ask & encourage anybody who needs an accommodation to request one from their recruiter.
We will ask you to voluntarily tell us your pronouns at interview stage, and you will have the option to answer our anonymous demographic questionnaire when you apply below. As an equal employment opportunity employer it’s important to us that our workforce reflects people of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences and this data will help us to stay accountable. We thank you for providing this data, if you chose to.
At Remote, we embrace AI as a valuable tool while prioritizing human creativity and authenticity. We look forward to meeting candidates who balance innovation with genuine expertise and experience. To learn more about Remote's AI guidelines check see here.
Please note we accept applications on an ongoing basis.