Payroll & Benefits Team Leader for France

Role and Responsibilities

The Payroll & Benefits Team Leader for France will lead a team of Payroll & Benefits Specialists and will be accountable for the operational delivery, quality, compliance, controls, and continuous improvement of French Payroll & Benefits activities.

This is a hands-on leadership role, combining people leadership, French payroll expertise, operational ownership, vendor/service management, and transformation support.   

Long Description

Long Description

Vendor & Service Management 

• Manage the day-to-day relationship with Payroll, Time, Benefits, and other relevant providers. 


• Monitor vendor performance against SLAs and KPIs. 


• Challenge service-quality issues and ensure providers take accountability for errors. 


• Monitor ticket volumes, aging, recurring issues, and resolution quality. 


• Support monthly service reviews and performance reporting. 


• Escalate material vendor issues to the Regional Payroll Lead with clear recommendations. 

Continuous Improvement 

• Identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate Payroll & Benefits processes. 


• Reduce manual activities, reconciliations, and unnecessary handoffs. 


• Improve controls, documentation, and operational ways of working. 


• Coordinate improvement opportunities with Global Payroll Experts, HRIT, and providers. 


• Ensure lessons learned from payroll issues result in sustainable process improvements. 

Payroll & Time Transformation 

• Represent French Payroll within Payroll & Time initiatives. 


• Provide French business, statutory, CBA, and operational requirements. 


• Support future-state process and solution design. 


• Participate in testing, parallel payroll, reconciliation, cutover, and hypercare. 


• Support implementation of the future Time-to-Payroll solution. 


• Ensure local requirements are appropriately incorporated without unnecessary customization. 


• Support transition to the future Payroll Operating Model. 

Experience and Skills

You Will Bring :  

• 5+ years of payroll experience in France, preferably within a complex organization. 


• Strong knowledge of French payroll legislation, taxation, statutory requirements, and year-end processes. 


• Experience leading, coordinating, or coaching payroll professionals. 


• Experience working with outsourced payroll providers. 


• Strong understanding of payroll controls, reconciliations, and payroll accounting. 


• Experience supporting hourly/manufacturing populations and complex Time-to-Payroll processes is preferred. 


• Experience working within a union/CBA environment is advantageous. 


• Strong analytical and root-cause problem-solving capability. 


• Ability to take ownership of issues through resolution. 


• Strong stakeholder and vendor-management skills. 


• Ability to manage multiple priorities within a payroll-critical environment.  

Must-Have Skills 

• French payroll expertise 


• Payroll operations and statutory compliance 


• People leadership and coaching 


• Payroll controls and reconciliation 


• Vendor/service management 


• Root-cause analysis 


• SOP and process documentation 


• Continuous improvement 


• Strong stakeholder management 


• Fluent English 

Nice-to-Have Skills 

• SAP Payroll/SAP SuccessFactors 


• Time Management / Time-to-Payroll experience 


• Manufacturing payroll 


• Payroll transformation or implementation experience 


• CIPP qualification or equivalent 

What We Offer

You will get:   

• The France-based annual base salary reasonably expected to be paid for this new hire is €63,000 to €79,600. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors such as skills, experience, qualification and internal equity and can ultimately be more or less than the posted salary range. 


• Benefits package 


• 16, or more, weeks of maternity/paternity and co-parenting leave, according to local regulations 


• Training platform for all employees 


• Free well-being sessions (physical and psychological) 

Additional information:   

• Location: Lyon, France


• Working model: Hybrid working model possible (3 days per week)