Director, Payroll Applications & Technology

About the job

The Director, Payroll Applications & Technology is accountable for the strategy, reliability, modernization, and support of the application ecosystem that enables North American payroll.

Combining strategic leadership with practical technical depth, this Director sets the technology roadmap, develops high-performing technical teams, governs delivery and vendor partnerships, and provides decisive leadership for complex production issues and solution decisions.

The Director fosters a culture of ownership, disciplined execution, and continuous improvement. The role ensures teams use available data and tools to investigate issues, implement sustainable solutions, and engage vendor expertise strategically while maintaining clear internal accountability.

• KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Technology Strategy & Architecture
• Own the technical health, operating model, and multiyear roadmap for payroll and workforce management applications, including Infor WFM and UKG Payroll.
• Set technology strategy and investment priorities to increase reliability, reduce complexity, modernize capabilities, and improve the payroll user experience.
• Establish and uphold solution standards across configuration, integrations, reporting, automation, security, and controls.
• Ensure integrations and data flows across Workday, SAP Finance, banking, tax, time and attendance, and related enterprise systems are resilient, documented, monitored, and supportable.
• Advance automation, observability, analytics, self-service, and responsible AI-enabled capabilities that improve efficiency, reliability, and decision-making.
• Production Support & Operational Excellence
• Provide senior technical leadership for complex issues involving payroll applications, integrations, data, calculations, timekeeping, access, and financial postings.
• Lead evidence-based diagnosis through data analysis, configuration and log review, interface tracing, testing, and business validation.
• Drive critical incidents from containment through root-cause analysis, permanent correction, validation, documentation, and preventive action.
• Ensure temporary workarounds are controlled, time-bound, and replaced by sustainable solutions.
• Lead through critical payroll cycles, releases, cutovers, go-lives, and stabilization periods, prioritizing employee, compliance, financial, and operational impact.
• Engage vendors for specialized expertise while retaining internal ownership of diagnosis, stakeholder communication, and resolution.
• Team Leadership & Capability
• Lead, mentor, and develop payroll technology resources, building a cohesive and accountable delivery organization.
• Set clear expectations for ownership, responsiveness, technical rigor, documentation, communication, and measurable outcomes.
• Build durable internal capability through coaching, cross-training, support playbooks, diagnostic standards, succession planning, and knowledge management.
• Anticipate capacity and capability gaps and implement sourcing strategies that balance internal expertise, partners, cost, and risk.
• Foster a culture of curiosity, accountability, collaboration, inclusion, and practical innovation.
• Delivery, Governance & Partnership
• Lead payroll technology implementations, enhancements, releases, and operational initiatives using fit-for-purpose Agile and delivery practices.
• Partner with Payroll Operations, HR IT, Finance, Global Finance Operations, Participations & Residuals, Information Security, Audit, integration teams, and other stakeholders.
• Provide concise, decision-ready executive communication on service health, priorities, incidents, delivery progress, risks, dependencies, and required decisions.
• Manage technology budgets, Agile funding, contracts, statements of work, service levels, and vendor performance against defined outcomes.
• Align delivery commitments to payroll-cycle timing and business criticality, proactively managing risks, dependencies, resource constraints, and contingency plans.
• Maintain current technical documentation, testing evidence, change controls, runbooks, support procedures, and audit-ready artifacts.
• Ensure solutions and operations comply with payroll and tax requirements, collective bargaining agreements, SOX, information security, data privacy, and audit controls.

• MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
• 10+ years of progressive experience in payroll systems, HRIS, workforce management, payroll technology, or related enterprise applications, including leadership accountability for business-critical production environments.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience configuring, administering, troubleshooting, or implementing enterprise payroll or workforce management platforms.
• Proven success leading complex incident diagnosis, root-cause analysis, technical decision-making, and resolution across applications, integrations, infrastructure dependencies, and data.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end payroll, including Hours-to-Gross, Gross-to-Net, controls, integrations, and U.S. and Canadian payroll requirements.
• Experience leading technical teams, contractors, managed service providers, and vendors while maintaining clear accountability for outcomes.
• Experience with integrations, APIs, secure file transfers, data validation, SQL and reporting queries, testing, releases, change management, cutover, and stabilization.
• Experience managing technology budgets, vendor relationships, service performance, and competing operational and project priorities.
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to operate effectively across strategy, technical detail, operations, and people leadership.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline or an equivalent combination of education and professional experience.

• PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
• Hands-on experience with Infor WFM and UKG Payroll; experience with both platforms is strongly preferred.
• Experience with Workday Core HCM and Compensation, SAP Finance, Cognos, Power BI, SQL, advanced Excel, or comparable technologies.
• Experience supporting complex, multi-entity U.S. and Canadian payroll environments spanning union and non-union populations.
• Knowledge of entertainment-industry collective bargaining agreements and their implications for payroll technology, calculations, and controls.
• Experience leading payroll technology implementations, migrations, cutovers, go-lives, and post-production stabilization.
• Experience applying automation, scripting, monitoring, analytics, or responsible AI-enabled tools to improve technology support and delivery.
• Relevant Agile, Scrum, ITIL, project management, payroll, or platform certification.

The anticipated base salary for this position is $171,200-$214,000. This role may also qualify for annual incentive and/or comprehensive benefits. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location of the position.
Sony Pictures Entertainment is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other protected characteristics.

SPE will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records in accordance with applicable law.

Sony Pictures does not allow audio recording, video recording or use of AI note-taking tools during interviews. Please be aware these tools may be enabled as a default and can be difficult to disable once the interview has started, so we recommend you check your device and disable these tools prior to the start of your interview. If recording or the use of the tools occurs during the interview and cannot be promptly turned off or disabled, the interviewer may end the interview.

To request an accommodation for purposes of participating in the hiring process, you may contact us at SPE_Accommodation_Assistance@spe.sony.com.