Sr. Manager, Payroll (Contract)

Sr. Manager, Payroll | 6-Month Contract

Markham, Ontario | Hybrid | $70 to $100/hour

Envy Consulting Group is recruiting a Sr. Manager, Payroll for a large national not-for-profit healthcare organization with approximately 10,000 employees across Canada. This is a critical six-month contract supporting a major Workday transformation. The successful candidate will provide both strategic leadership and hands-on payroll expertise during a key stage of the implementation. You will work closely with an experienced internal payroll team, the systems implementation partner and senior stakeholders to ensure payroll readiness, testing, cutover and go-live are executed successfully. This role is ideal for a senior payroll leader who has already led a large and complex payroll function through a Workday implementation and is comfortable operating at both the leadership and detail level.

The Role

As Director, Payroll, you will assume leadership of the payroll function during a critical transformation period. You will be responsible for maintaining payroll stability while helping lead the organization through the final stages of its Workday Payroll implementation.

Key responsibilities include:

• Provide senior leadership across payroll operations and the Workday Payroll implementation
• Lead payroll testing, parallel runs, validation and issue resolution
• Oversee payroll readiness for cutover and January 2027 go-live
• Partner closely with the Payroll Manager, Payroll Lead and broader payroll team
• Work with the Workday implementation partner and internal project stakeholders
• Identify payroll risks, process gaps and system issues before go-live
• Support reconciliation, controls and data validation throughout testing
• Lead troubleshooting of payroll, time tracking and time and attendance issues
• Ensure payroll processes remain accurate, compliant and operational during the transition
• Provide direction and escalation support on complex payroll matters
• Support change management and transition planning across the payroll function
• Help establish post-go-live processes, controls and accountabilities
• Provide senior-level guidance while remaining hands-on when required

What We’re Looking For

• Significant leadership experience overseeing payroll in a large, complex organization
• Experience managing payroll populations of several thousand employees
• Hands-on Workday Payroll implementation experience is required
• Previous experience leading or playing a senior leadership role through testing, parallel payrolls, cutover and go-live
• Strong understanding of Canadian payroll legislation, controls and compliance
• Experience with complex payroll environments involving multiple employee groups, schedules and pay structures
• Strong knowledge of payroll reconciliation, testing and data validation
• Experience leading experienced payroll teams
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to work across HR, Finance, IT and implementation partners
• Comfortable operating as both a senior leader and payroll subject matter expert
• Previous PeopleSoft Payroll experience is strongly preferred
• Healthcare, homecare, not-for-profit or similarly complex workforce experience would be an asset

Contract Details

• 6-month contract
• Compensation of $70 to $100/hour, depending on experience
• Markham, Ontario
• Currently 4 days per week onsite, Monday through Thursday
• Fridays remote
• Greater hybrid flexibility is expected following the critical implementation period
• Immediate priority hire

This is a high-impact opportunity for an experienced payroll leader to step into a sophisticated national organization and help guide one of its most important operational functions through a major system transformation. If you have led a large Canadian payroll environment through a Workday Payroll implementation and go-live, we would like to hear from you.