Payroll Manager (Service Delivery Excellence & Continuous Improvement)

At Alcon, we are driven by the meaningful work we do to help people see brilliantly. We innovate boldly, champion progress, and act with speed as the global leader in eye care. Here, you’ll be recognized for your commitment and contributions and see your career like never before. Together, we go above and beyond to make an impact in the lives of our patients and customers. We foster an inclusive culture and are looking for diverse, talented people to join Alcon. Payroll Manager (Service Delivery Excellence & Continuous Improvement) The Service Delivery Excellence & Continuous Improvement - Payroll role within Warsaw HRHC is responsible for strengthening end-to-end payroll service delivery, process governance, controls, and continuous improvement for the EMEA countries supported by the Warsaw HRHC. Serving as the key link between Payroll, HR Operations, HRIS, MDM, Finance, Compliance, in-scope country teams, and external payroll providers, this role ensures payroll processes are accurate, compliant, well documented, consistently executed, and scalable across the 15 EMEA countries supported from Warsaw. The role drives payroll operational stability, issue prevention, process standardization, documentation quality, audit readiness, vendor coordination, and improvement initiatives while safeguarding timely and accurate payroll delivery and a positive associate experience across the Warsaw HRHC EMEA payroll scope. In this role, a typical day will include : Payroll Governance & Process Ownership Own and strengthen end-to-end payroll process governance across the Warsaw HRHC EMEA payroll scope, ensuring clear accountability, consistent execution, and alignment with agreed operating models. Define and maintain payroll process standards, roles and responsibilities, inputs, outputs, controls, calendars, handoffs, and escalation paths. Ensure payroll processes are designed and operated to support accuracy, timeliness, compliance, audit readiness, and operational continuity. Drive governance routines, decision-making, and status updates for payroll operations leadership and key cross-functional stakeholders. Payroll Operational Integration & Execution Act as the operational integrator across Payroll, HR Operations, HRIS, MDM, Finance, Compliance, country stakeholders, and external payroll providers. Ensure payroll inputs, data flows, validations, approvals, outputs, funding activities, accounting interfaces, and post-payroll activities are aligned and effectively coordinated. Manage cross-functional dependencies and drive execution excellence where payroll delivery depends on HR master data, time and absence inputs, benefits, equity, tax, finance, or vendor activities. Support issue resolution by clarifying ownership, identifying root causes, coordinating corrective actions, and ensuring lessons learned are embedded into future payroll cycles. Payroll Process Governance & Operational Stability Monitor payroll cycle performance, recurring issues, missed inputs, late changes, manual interventions, escalations, and operational pain points across countries. Translate payroll cycle feedback, audit findings, compliance observations, and stakeholder input into clear corrective and preventive actions. Partner with payroll teams and vendors to improve payroll accuracy, timeliness, control adherence, issue closure, and overall cycle discipline. Ensure operational risks and dependencies are visible, tracked, assigned, and resolved before they impact payroll delivery. Payroll Projects, Change & Operational Readiness Lead payroll operational readiness for regulatory changes, vendor transitions, system updates, payroll implementations, country process changes, and transformation initiatives. Conduct payroll impact assessments and coordinate cutover planning, parallel runs, testing support, go-live preparation, training, communication, and stabilization activities. Ensure new or changed payroll processes are transitioned into steady-state operations with clear ownership, updated documentation, calendars, controls, and escalation routes. Promote disciplined change adoption and ensure payroll process changes are embedded into daily operations and reflected in procedures and governance routines. Documentation, Controls & Handovers Ensure payroll process documentation is complete, accurate, up to date, audit-ready, and easily accessible for operational teams. Own or coordinate the maintenance of payroll SOPs, process maps, cycle calendars, checklists, control descriptions, country-specific instructions, and handover materials. Identify documentation and control gaps and work with payroll teams, process owners, subject matter experts, and vendors to close them in a timely manner. Enable smooth transitions, back-up coverage, onboarding, process migrations, and temporary ownership changes by reducing dependency on individual knowledge. Service Delivery Performance & Continuous Improvement Monitor payroll service delivery performance and drive improvements aligned with payroll accuracy, timeliness, compliance, SLAs, KPIs, control adherence, and associate experience. Lead root cause analysis and resolution of payroll-related issues, using cycle trends, escalations, audit findings, vendor feedback, and stakeholder input to prioritize improvements. Identify opportunities for payroll standardization, automation, simplification, control strengthening, and process optimization across countries and interfaces. Capture lessons learned from payroll cycles, incidents, projects, handovers, and process changes, and incorporate them into future operating practices. Risk, Compliance & Governance Ensure payroll processes and changes are implemented in a compliant, controlled, and audit-ready manner across the EMEA countries supported by Warsaw HRHC. Identify and mitigate payroll, data, vendor, documentation, control, compliance, and operational continuity risks. Maintain strong payroll governance, con