Director of Payroll Operations & Compliance

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Overview

Keller is the world leader in geotechnical construction and deep foundations. With a North American presence of over 100 years, we operate as the market leader with over 50 offices throughout the US and Canada. By connecting global resources and local experience, Keller develops innovative, practical, and cost-effective solutions to geotechnical challenges. Our values of integrity, collaboration, and excellence enable us to lead the industry in providing the optimal solution for our clients.

Build the Payroll Engine Behind North America’s Most Complex Construction Workforce

Keller North America is looking for a seasoned payroll leader who knows that payroll is more than a process. It is trust, compliance, precision, and operational discipline at scale.

As our Director of Payroll Operations & Compliance, you will lead the strategy, governance, and execution framework for payroll across our U.S. and Canadian businesses. This is a high-impact role for someone who thrives in complex, multi-state, cross-border, union and non-union environments and knows how to bring consistency, control, and clarity to decentralized operations.

You will serve as the critical link between branch payroll teams and corporate payroll operations, helping standardize processes, strengthen compliance, improve communication, and create scalable payroll practices that support Keller’s continued growth.

Responsibilities

What You’ll Lead

In this role, you will:

• • Provide companywide leadership for payroll operations and compliance across the United States and Canada.
  • Create standardized payroll calendars, SOPs, checklists, controls, documentation, and escalation protocols.
  • Guide complex payroll matters involving union agreements, prevailing wage, certified payroll, fringe benefits, deductions, trust fund reporting, right-to-work requirements, and job costing.
  • Serve as the go-to escalation point for payroll compliance questions, branch payroll challenges, and union interpretation issues.
  • Partner with Corporate Payroll, HR, Finance, Legal, Labor Relations, Operations, IT, and regional leaders to improve payroll accuracy, reporting, controls, and visibility.
  • Audit branch payroll practices to identify risks, close gaps, and improve consistency.
  • Support payroll readiness for new branches, new jurisdictions, M&A activity, integrations, and business transformation.
  • Lead payroll governance initiatives that reduce risk, increase efficiency, and build a stronger operating model for the future.
  • Help shape payroll technology improvements, automation, workflow optimization, dashboards, and operational KPIs.

Qualifications

What You Bring

We are looking for a payroll expert with deep operational judgment, strong compliance discipline, and the ability to influence across a complex organization. Someone who has handled complex payroll at scale and can lead the function strategically, not just manage payroll transactions.

Ideal qualifications include:

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, HR, Business Administration, or a related field.
• 15-20+ years of progressive payroll leadership experience.
• Significant experience with complex multi-state payroll operations.
• U.S. and Canadian payroll experience strongly preferred.
• Background in construction, engineering, infrastructure, industrial, project-based, or craft labor environments.
• Deep knowledge of union payroll, collective bargaining agreements, prevailing wage, certified payroll, fringe benefits, deductions, trust fund reporting, labor costing, and job costing.
• Strong understanding of federal, state, provincial, and local wage and hour rules, payroll tax compliance, and labor compliance obligations.
• Proven success standardizing payroll practices across decentralized, multi-branch, or multi-region organizations.
• Experience influencing payroll teams and branch administrators, even without direct reporting authority.
• Strong communication, training, change management, problem-solving, and stakeholder management skills.

Even Better If You Have

• CPP, PCP, CPM, or equivalent payroll certification.
• Construction industry experience with large craft labor populations.
• Experience with shared services, payroll centers of excellence, or functional payroll governance models.
• Payroll transformation, technology implementation, automation, or process redesign experience.
• M&A, integration, new market expansion, or business transformation experience.
• Familiarity with Davis-Bacon requirements.
• Experience building payroll dashboards, compliance metrics, labor reconciliation reports, and operational KPIs.

Why Keller?

At Keller, payroll supports the people who build, strengthen, and move essential infrastructure across North America. This role offers the opportunity to shape payroll governance at enterprise scale, influence field and corporate operations, and build processes that make a measurable impact across the business.

Ready to bring structure, strategy, and confidence to a complex payroll environment?Join Keller North America as our next Director of Payroll Operations & Compliance.

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Additional Information

Salary Range: $190,000 - $200,000 per year  

Actual salary will be based on a variety of factors including relevant internal and external experience, knowledge, skills, scope of job, geographical location or other factors permitted by law 

Benefits 

• 401(k) + matching  

• Health, Dental, Vision insurance 

• Life insurance 

• Paid time off (PTO) 

• Holiday Pay 

Keller is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We encourage qualified women, minorities, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and others to apply. 

Equal Employment Opportunity