Houlihan Lokey
Payroll Implementation Project Manager - 2 year FTC
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Payroll Implementation Project Manager - 2 year FTC
Global Payroll Implementation Project Manager
Business Unit: Human Capital Group Industry: Financial Services, Investment Banking, Global Corporate Advisory
Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) is a leading global investment bank, delivering unparalleled strategic and financial advisory services to corporations, financial sponsors, and governments. We combine deep industry expertise, broad international reach, and a client-centric partnership approach to deliver innovative, integrated solutions across mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, financial restructuring, and financial advisory.
With a track record of executing unmatched transaction volumes, Houlihan Lokey provides data-driven insights and tailored solutions to help clients achieve their most critical goals.
About the Role
Houlihan Lokey (HL) is seeking a proactive, highly organized, and detail-oriented Global Payroll Implementation Project Manager for a 2-year fixed-term assignment within our Human Capital Group (HCG). This pivotal role will drive the global implementation and rollout of Strada Global Payroll integrated with our Workday HCM platform, partnership oversight across multiple countries, languages, and time zones, and seamless coordination between internal teams (Payroll, HR, Legal, IT, Finance), vendors (PWC, Papaya, Strada), and business stakeholders.
This is a hybrid working role requiring a minimum of 2 in-office days per week at our designated location.
Key objectives:
- Lead end-to-end global payroll system implementations while ensuring compliance, data integrity, and scalability.
- Support Houlihan Lokey’s expanding infrastructure to enable sustainable business growth.
- Act as the primary liaison between HCG operations, strategic stakeholders, and external partners.
Scoping & Expected Impact
The ideal candidate will:
- Upscale Houlihan Lokey’s global payroll capabilities through a transformative digital integration.
- Foster cross-functional collaboration to mitigate risks, optimize workflows, and adhere to multi-jurisdictional regulatory standards.
- Ensure timely delivery, operational excellence, and cost efficiencies in a fast-paced, high-impact transaction-heavy firm.
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Key Responsibilities
1. Project Planning, Governance & Execution
- Collaborate with the VP Global Payroll & Strategic Initiatives, IT leadership, and Strada project teams to design and execute multi-country Strada Global Payroll deployments.
- Develop detailed project plans, timelines, resource allocations, and KPIs per region, partnering with Strada’s Program Manager and Country Implementation Teams.
- Monitor milestone adherence, scope integrity, and risk escalation, while designing mitigation strategies for developed threats.
- Reporting: Provide regular status updates to senior HCG stakeholders and Global Payroll leadership, addressing challenges proactively.
- Lead project escalations with timely, data-driven decision-making to align strategic and operational priorities.
2. System Integration & Data Migration
- Coordinate Workday HCM and Strada system integrations with internal IT teams, ensuring seamless interoperability.
- Oversee data migration forecasting, cleansing, testing, and validation, including parallel payroll testing runs.
- Monitor qualitative and quantitative data integrity to prevent errors and ensure zero-defect payroll executions.
3. Stakeholder, Vendor & Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Serve as the primary liaison between HCG teams, IT, Finance, Internal Audit, customers, and vendors (PWC, Papaya Global, Strada Global Payroll).
- Negotiate and align Strada vendor performance with contractual SLAs and deadlines.
- Navigate multi-jurisdiction complexities, bridging local statutory labour laws with global payroll standards.
4. Change Management & Post-Implementation Support
- Develop SOPs, system requirements, and training documentation to facilitate post-go-live outcomes.
- Lead hypercare support during the 120-day trial period, troubleshooting deployments before operation handovers.
- Process feedback loop mechanisms to improve long-term efficiency and scalability.
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Qualifications
Basic Qualifications
- A Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Human Resource Management, Management Information Systems, or related fields.
- 5+ years of project management or operational implementation experience, with a focus on global payroll transitions, System migrations, or HRIS deployments.
- Familiarity with Workday HCM Global Payroll implementations (scaled, complex environments).
- Experience in multi-jurisdictional programme management, or multi-language/time-zone facing roles.
- Proficiency in project tools (e.g., Asana, Jira, SmartSheet, Microsoft Project).
- Exemplary written/verbal communication, including storytelling for complex technical timelines to diverse stakeholders.
- Independently analyze issues, prioritize needs, and adapt to high-pressure, evolving scenarios.
Preferred Qualifications
- Project Management Certifications (PMP, CAPM, PRINCE2, or Scaled Agile).
- Professional background in financial services,Big Law, or similarly regulated global entities.
- Key familiarity with Asana, SmartSheets, and ** governance best practices.
Houlihan Lokay’s Commitments
This role recognizes all applicants regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veterans, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Houlihan Lokey fosters diversity, collaboration, and inclusive leadership. Learn more about our culture and mission: www.HL.com
This job description is inclusive but subject to change. Other terms and responsibilities may be necessary.
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