Job Title: Senior Project Manager- (Payroll / Timekeeping Systems)
Work Location: Springfield, IL (Hybrid- 1 or 2 days per week.)
Duration: Long-term.
Role Overview
We are seeking an experienced Senior Project Manager (PM) to lead complex, cross-functional enterprise initiatives from planning through execution. This role requires strong leadership in project governance, risk management, stakeholder engagement, and delivery oversight across multiple teams and workstreams.
Experience managing or supporting payroll and/or timekeeping systems including payroll processing platforms, workforce management solutions, and time & attendance systems is a strong plus, as these initiatives involve mission-critical operations, regulatory compliance, and high-availability requirements. The Senior PM will be responsible for ensuring delivery rigor, stakeholder alignment, and risk-aware execution across all project phases.
Primary Responsibilities
1. Project Planning & Coordination
- Develop and maintain comprehensive, integrated project schedules spanning discovery, design, build, testing, and execution phases.
- Coordinate activities across cross-functional business and technical teams, including those supporting payroll and/or timekeeping system initiatives, ensuring alignment on dependencies and milestones.
- Facilitate weekly project status meetings, driving accountability, action tracking, and resolution of issues that may impact payroll processing cycles or workforce operations.
- Ensure milestone delivery on schedule, with heightened attention to timelines tied to payroll runs, time capture, and compliance deadlines where applicable.
2. Risk & Issue Management
- Identify and actively manage project risks related to payroll and timekeeping systems, including data accuracy, cutover timing, parallel runs, and operational continuity.
- Maintain a comprehensive risk register with probability/impact scoring, mitigation strategies, and contingency plans.
- Monitor contingency buffer consumption, particularly for high-risk activities such as payroll transitions or timekeeping integrations.
- Escalate critical risks and issues to executive sponsors with clear impact assessments and recommended mitigation options.
3. Stakeholder Communication & Reporting
- Provide weekly executive-level status reports covering schedule, risks, dependencies, and decisions.
- Communicate impacts of timeline changes on payroll cycles, workforce management processes, or time and attendance operations, as applicable.
- Facilitate governance discussions and support decision-making related to target platform selection, implementation sequencing, and rollout strategies for payroll and/or timekeeping systems.
- Serve as a primary liaison between business owners, HR/payroll stakeholders, IT teams, and vendors.
4. Scope & Change Control
- Enforce scope boundaries defined in the Statement of Work (SOW), with particular focus on scope elements affecting payroll accuracy and workforce time tracking.
- Manage change requests through a formal change control process, evaluating impacts to payroll timelines, compliance obligations, cost, and resources.
- Clearly document and communicate out-of-scope requests and future-phase considerations related to payroll and timekeeping enhancements.
- Ensure approved changes are reflected consistently across schedules, deliverables, and stakeholder communications.
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years of progressive experience in Project or Program Management delivering complex, enterprise-scale initiatives.
- Demonstrated success managing large, multi-workstream projects with executive-level visibility and governance.
- Strong expertise in project scheduling, risk and issue management, scope and change control, and stakeholder governance.
- Experience with payroll and/or timekeeping systems (e.g., payroll processing platforms, workforce management solutions, time and attendance systems) is a strong plus, particularly in environments with operational and compliance considerations.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical and operational issues into clear, actionable insights for executive audiences.
- Proficiency with enterprise project management tools, such as MS Project, Smartsheet, Jira, Azure DevOps, or equivalent platforms.
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