SAP S/4HANA Payroll Implementation Consultant
Overview
Lead a critical payroll transformation as the primary consultant on a three-person SAP S/4HANA payroll implementation team. This role will partner with senior payroll leadership, Payroll Operations, HR, Finance, IT, Tax, Benefits, and external implementation teams to translate complex payroll requirements into an accurate, scalable, and operationally ready SAP solution.
The engagement will span design, testing, data conversion, cutover, go-live, and post-go-live stabilization. The current design phase is expected to continue through the end of 2026, with the next implementation phase scheduled to begin in early 2027 and go-live estimated for March or April 2028.
Key Responsibilities
Payroll Design and Implementation
- Document current-state payroll processes and define future-state requirements.
- Translate payroll business requirements into SAP S/4HANA functional requirements and specifications.
- Review system design and configuration related to payroll calculations, wage types, deductions, taxes, banking, accounting, and employee master data.
- Identify gaps between current payroll processes and the future-state SAP solution.
- Support design decisions and help ensure payroll requirements are incorporated into the implementation.
Configuration and Functional Support
- Provide functional expertise related to SAP Payroll configuration and processing.
- Support validation of payroll master data, wage types, deductions, garnishments, tax configuration, banking, and payroll rules.
- Troubleshoot payroll calculation and configuration issues.
- Evaluate upstream and downstream dependencies affecting payroll operations.
Testing and Validation
- Develop and execute end-to-end payroll test scenarios.
- Support unit testing, system integration testing, user acceptance testing, parallel payroll testing, and regression testing.
- Validate payroll calculations between legacy and S/4HANA environments.
- Reconcile payroll results, including:
- Gross-to-net calculations
- Taxes and deductions
- Employer contributions
- Bank and payment files
- Payroll accounting and general ledger postings
- Third-party payments and interfaces
- Document defects, perform root-cause analysis, and coordinate resolution with functional and technical teams.
Interfaces, Controls, and Compliance
- Validate inbound and outbound payroll interfaces and third-party integrations.
- Support validation of funding, banking, tax, benefits, time, and accounting interfaces.
- Help establish payroll controls, approvals, reconciliations, auditability, and compliance procedures.
- Identify risks or control gaps introduced through system or process changes.
Cutover and Go-Live
- Assist with payroll cutover planning, mock conversions, and conversion validation.
- Support payroll parallel testing and readiness activities.
- Develop payroll readiness and go-live checklists.
- Provide hands-on payroll support during deployment and post-go-live stabilization.
- Assist with transitioning the solution to the ongoing Payroll Operations team.
Documentation and Knowledge Transfer
- Document future-state payroll processes and key system procedures.
- Create troubleshooting guides, reconciliation procedures, and operational materials.
- Develop spreadsheets, templates, test scripts, and implementation documentation.
- Conduct knowledge-transfer sessions with Payroll Operations.
Required Skills and Qualifications
- Hands-on experience with SAP Payroll processing, configuration, support, or implementation.
- Experience supporting an SAP Payroll implementation, upgrade, migration, or major payroll transformation.
- Strong understanding of end-to-end payroll operations, including:
- Payroll calculations
- Wage types
- Deductions and garnishments
- Payroll taxes
- Banking and payment processing
- Payroll accounting
- Employee master data
- Hands-on experience processing high-volume U.S. payroll, ideally for a large employee population.
- Experience with payroll testing, parallel payrolls, reconciliation, root-cause analysis, and defect resolution.
- Understanding of payroll accounting and integration with Finance and the general ledger.
- Experience with payroll interfaces, third-party systems, and external payroll vendors.
- Ability to translate payroll business requirements into clear functional requirements and specifications.
- Strong analytical, troubleshooting, documentation, and organizational skills.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
- Ability to work effectively across Payroll, HR, Finance, IT, Tax, Benefits, and external implementation teams.
- Experience working in a large, publicly traded company environment.
Nice-to-Have Skills
- Experience with SAP S/4HANA Payroll, SAP HCM Payroll, SAP HCM for S/4HANA, or SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll.
- Workday HR experience, particularly knowledge of Workday-to-SAP Payroll integrations.
- Experience supporting large, complex, multinational payroll environments.
- Experience with multiple payroll countries or regional payroll implementations.
- Knowledge of payroll tax, banking, third-party remittances, statutory reporting, and payroll controls.
- Experience with payroll data conversion, cutover, go-live, and post-go-live stabilization.
- Experience working with external payroll providers, including ADP.
- Experience managing defects and validating converted payroll data.
- SAP certification or related SAP training.
Preferred Education and Experience
- Significant professional experience in U.S. payroll operations and payroll system implementations.
- Experience leading or supporting payroll workstreams within large-scale enterprise transformations.
- Experience bridging payroll operations, system design, functional requirements, testing, and implementation readiness.
- Experience in a large, publicly traded, or multinational organization.
- A specific degree requirement was not provided for this position.
Other Requirements
- Work arrangement: 100% remote.
- The U.S. payroll team is primarily based in the Mountain Time Zone.
- Flexibility to participate in occasional evening project meetings may be needed to accommodate APAC and India time zones.
- Engagement duration: Through June 2028.
- Expected start: As soon as possible, subject to an estimated two- to three-week onboarding period.
- Ability to support major implementation milestones, including testing, cutover, go-live, and post-go-live stabilization.
