Are you a seasoned payroll leader ready to make a global impact? At Swiss Re, we are looking for a bold, forward-thinking professional to lead our Global Payroll function – driving excellence, transformation, and innovation across a complex, multi-country environment.
About The Role
As Global Head of Payroll, you will be at the helm of Swiss Re’s end-to-end global payroll operations, accountable for delivering accurate, compliant, and timely payroll across multiple countries and regions. This high‑impact leadership role focuses on payroll transformation through automation, AI, and technology while upholding the strongest governance, controls, and employee experience standards.
Key Responsibilities
* Lead and develop a high‑performing global payroll team, setting clear expectations and building capability through coaching and feedback to effectively deliver end‑to‑end payroll operations across multiple countries and regions, including complex scenarios such as international assignments, expatriate payroll, and cross‑border payments.
* Drive payroll transformation and innovation through process standardisation, system enhancements and integrations, and automation/AI initiatives to improve efficiency, accuracy, and the overall employee payroll experience.
* Own the payroll governance, controls and compliance framework, ensuring audit readiness, data security and regulatory adherence across all jurisdictions, in partnership with Finance, Risk and Audit.
* Manage vendor relationships and performance, leading strategy, procurement and contract negotiations for payroll outsourcing services, and overseeing contractual outcomes with the global payroll provider, including assurance reviews (SOC 1/SOC 2) and IT security alignment.
* Oversee financial management and year‑end activities, including budget forecasting, cost transparency, tax reporting, annual statements and statutory filings across all jurisdictions.
* Ensure robust payroll systems and data integrity, working closely with HR and Finance to accurately reflect payroll requirements in system architecture, including upstream/downstream interfaces and data quality controls.
* Leverage analytics and market insights to provide reporting on payroll costs, trends, service performance and risks, staying current on emerging best practices, regulatory developments and technology innovations.
About The Team
The Global Payroll team delivers accurate, timely and compliant payroll services for employees around the world. Working collaboratively with HR, Finance and external providers, the team manages end‑to‑end payroll operations, statutory reporting and governance across multiple countries, continually enhancing global payroll processes through automation, standardisation and innovation.
About You
You are a seasoned executive and inspiring payroll leader with deep technical mastery and a bold strategic vision. You have built your career leading large‑scale, complex, multi‑country payroll functions and have a proven track record of driving transformation at an enterprise level. You influence senior stakeholders at the C‑suite level, shape organisational strategy and are deeply committed to operational excellence, continuous improvement and an exceptional employee experience.
Requirements
* Extensive senior leadership experience in global payroll with a track record of operating at or near executive/C‑band level, leading large, geographically dispersed payroll teams across multiple regions.
* Deep expertise in multi‑country payroll regulations, tax, social security and controls, with the ability to navigate complex compliance scenarios across jurisdictions strategically.
* Proven experience owning and transforming multi‑country payroll operations (in‑house and/or outsourced), including full accountability for service delivery, vendor governance and strategic roadmap execution.
* Experience working with global payroll providers at a senior governance level, overseeing vendor performance and executive‑level issue escalation.
* Strong executive stakeholder management and communication skills, with a proven ability to influence and collaborate at C‑suite and board level across HR, Finance, Risk, IT and external partners.
* Good understanding of the payroll IT landscape and data flows (HR/finance/time/benefits), with hands‑on payroll systems experience including processing, reconciliations and exception handling.
* Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, diagnosing root causes, managing risk and driving sustainable corrective actions with high attention to detail.
* Strong understanding of data protection and confidentiality requirements when handling employee and payroll information.
* Adaptable, continuous learning mindset to stay current on regulatory changes, technology enablement and best practices in global payroll.
Nice to Haves
* Additional languages beyond English relevant to key payroll locations.
* Prior experience working for a payroll provider and/or in a payroll BPO environment.
Compensation
For Switzerland, the annual base salary range for this position is between 164,000 CHF and 246,000 CHF for a full‑time role. The specific salary offered considers the requirements, scope, complexity and responsibilities of the role, as well as the applicant’s education, expertise and experience. In addition to base salary, Swiss Re offers an attractive performance‑based variable compensation component designed to recognise achievements.
Swiss Re also provides a range of global and location‑specific benefits, which may vary depending on the terms of Swiss Re policies and your employment contract.
Equal Opportunity Statement
Swiss Re is an equal opportunity employer. We recruit, hire and promote without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, pregnancy, sexual orientations, marital status, military status or any other characteristic protected by law. Decisions on employment are solely based on an individual’s qualifications for the position being filled. During the recruitment process, reasonable accommodations for disabilities are available upon request.
We may use AI‑powered tools to support the review and evaluation of applications for this position. These tools are used to provide additional insights, and all hiring decisions are reviewed and made by people. For more information on how we use AI in recruitment and how we handle your personal data, please review our Data Privacy Statement before applying.
#J-18808-Ljbffr