Leader - North American Payroll

From a small family business to a multi-billion-dollar global company, Sonoco has been changing the face of products and packaging since 1899 — all while keeping the heart of “People Build Businesses” alive.

Our talented people are at the core of our growth, constantly reinventing the Sonoco wheel with brilliant solutions every year. Today we are a world leader in global packaging solutions with diversified operations in over 34 countries. We're extremely proud of our portfolio of brands, our achievements in sustainability and industrialization and the groundbreaking work accomplished by our people. 

North American payroll operations is part of the Service Delivery organization under the umbrella of GBS (Global Business Services). Service Delivery is the operations arm of GBS responsible for the day-to-day activities and direct support of customers, suppliers, and employee inquiries.

The primary responsibility of the Manager of North American Payroll will be to oversee the processing of hourly and salaried payroll within the assigned region, ensuring that these operations are executed in a timely and accurate manner, and in compliance with all company policy and regulatory requirements.

The successful candidate will be the primary connection point between the payroll processing operations team, our partners in Continuous Improvement and Technology, and our key customers and stakeholders within the Finance organization. As such, it will be imperative to build strong partnerships and collaboration within these key stakeholders.

The successful candidate will be responsible for assessing and implementing new standards where necessary to ensure:

• Compliance with local, state, and federal requirements
• Providing oversight to ensure efficiency and accuracy within the payroll processing operations
• Alignment with best practice SOX and accounting practices

Additionally, they will be responsible for execution of the strategic plan and for driving accountability of key deliverables within the department in the following strategic areas:

People

• Employee competency assessment and execution of key development plans for upskilling and career pathing for each role within the department
• Employee motivation and satisfaction
• Provide clarity in development needs of team through measurable performance reviews

Experience

• Triage of immediate issues and Failure Analysis to ensure preventative countermeasures are in place to reduce repeat events
• Lead the use of process and data quality score cards and improvement plans
• Proactive establishment of audits for ensured accuracy within payroll the organization

Process

• Ensure key performance indicators are driving the right actions and behavior in the payroll team
• Implement payroll reconciliation best practices
• Active leader of projects utilizing Lean methodology to drive process improvement, reduce manual work and optimize the team to eliminate waste
• Idea generation and submissions for continuous improvement initiatives

Key Skills and requirements for a successful candidate include:

• 7-10 years’ experience leading a large, multi-state payroll organization
• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, Business Administration, or other related field of study
• Extensive knowledge of the payroll function including preparation, balancing, internal control and payroll taxes with practical experience
• Driving compliance with SOX controls and GAAP
• Change and continuous improvement mindset
• Excellent communication skills
• Collaborative with strong interpersonal skills
• Ability to build a high performing team in a complex environment
• Experience with Equifax, ADP, ServiceNow and Workday

This position is located in Hartsville, SC. Opportunity for hybrid work schedule is available (2 or 3 days in office per week)

Compensation:

The annual base salary range for this role is from $135,920 to $152,910, plus an annual target bonus of 12.5% of base salary.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we strictly prohibit and do not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants or any other covered persons because of race, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marital status, gender identity or expression, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any legally protected characteristic.