International Payroll Lead (Canada)

Rise is hiring an International Payroll Lead based in Canada to take full ownership of payroll design, execution, and compliance across its Canadian client payroll population and beyond.

This role is suited to a Canadian payroll specialist with around 6 years’ experience who is comfortable designing, owning, and executing payroll in a complex environment that includes:

• Multi-province payroll operations

• Manual statutory filings and calculations

• Historic compliance remediation

• Building payroll controls in a partially underdeveloped environment

• Supporting direct client payroll delivery operations in Canada

• Some international payroll processing exposure

Reporting to the Head of Global Payroll & HR, this role will be critical in stabilizing Canadian payroll operations, introducing a compliant and scalable control framework, and ensuring Rise is operationally ready to deliver payroll services to clients in Canada.

Key Responsibilities

Canada Payroll Operations Ownership

• Own end-to-end payroll operations across the Canadian employee and client payroll population

• Validate payroll inputs, outputs, calculations, statutory deductions, and payments

• Perform and review manual payroll calculations where required

• Manage payroll calendar, approvals, and processing timelines to ensure accurate and timely payroll delivery

• Ensure compliance with CRA requirements and all relevant provincial payroll obligations

• Own payroll processing across multiple provinces with differing statutory requirements

Canada Compliance, Filings & Controls

• Manage and review federal and provincial payroll tax filings and remittances

• Maintain payroll compliance tracker and statutory filing calendar for Canada

• Build and implement payroll controls across input validation, processing review, reconciliation, filing, and sign-off

• Introduce practical and audit-ready control evidence into the Canadian payroll cycle

• Identify and escalate payroll compliance issues, filing gaps, tax issues, underpayments, or overpayments quickly and effectively

• Support T4 and year-end reporting obligations across all relevant jurisdictions

• Ensure compliance with CPP, EI, provincial health tax, and other statutory obligations

Remediation & Stabilization

• Review and correct historic payroll set-up issues in partnership with internal stakeholders and external advisors where needed

• Validate statutory deductions, year-end reporting, and historical payroll records

• Lead payroll reconciliations, variance analysis, and corrective action where required

• Document manual workarounds, operational risks, and recommended improvements

• Support audit, due diligence, and internal control documentation requests

Client Payroll Readiness & Service Delivery

• Take operational ownership of payroll delivery for Rise’s client payroll population in Canada and various other countries

• Help design repeatable payroll workflows, controls, and documentation standards suitable for client-facing payroll operations

• Contribute to payroll operating procedures covering onboarding, recurring processing, compliance tracking, filings, reconciliations, and issue management

• Identify gaps between current internal payroll operating model and the requirements of a scalable client service model

• Partner with internal stakeholders to improve service readiness, delivery quality, and operational risk management

• Support future growth of the play books as Rise scales its North American service offering

SOPs, Documentation & Reporting

• Build and maintain payroll SOPs for payroll operations (internal and client-facing)

• Maintain organized, complete, and audit-ready payroll records

• Produce monthly payroll reports and variance summaries for the Head of Global Payroll & HR

• Support internal governance reporting and stakeholder communications on payroll performance

Systems & Process Improvement

• Assess current payroll configuration and identify functional, compliance, and control gaps

• Partner with internal stakeholders to improve payroll set-up, controls, and calculation logic

• Recommend pragmatic automation opportunities and process improvements without compromising compliance

• Support future-state payroll design and operational scalability as the client book grows

Experience Required

Essential

• Minimum 6 years’ Canadian payroll experience, with demonstrated ability to design, own, and execute a full payroll remit independently

• PCP (Payroll Compliance Practitioner) or PLP (Payroll Leadership Professional) qualified — must have

• Strong multi-province payroll experience including federal and provincial tax compliance

• Solid working knowledge of CRA requirements, CPP, EI, T4 obligations, and provincial health taxes

• Proven experience with manual payroll calculations and manual statutory filings

• Experience building or strengthening payroll controls in underdeveloped or partially manual environments

• Strong reconciliation, documentation, and audit-readiness capability

• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment with evolving processes and structures

Strongly Preferred

• Experience in a payroll services, EOR, PEO, or client-facing payroll delivery environment

• Experience managing payroll for third-party client populations, not just internal employees

• Familiarity with payroll systems used in Canadian multi-province environments

• Experience supporting year-end reporting, audit preparation, and compliance documentation

• Exposure to Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec payroll requirement

• Exposure to UK payroll — familiarity with HMRC obligations, PAYE, and UK statutory requirements an advantage given Rise’s broader international payroll operations

• Bilingual (English and French) an advantage but not required