Senior Director, Payroll & Benefits

Senior Director, Payroll & Benefits

HighLevel is an AI powered, all-in-one white-label sales & marketing platform that empowers agencies, entrepreneurs, and businesses to elevate their digital presence and drive growth. We are proud to support a global and growing community of over 2 million businesses, comprised of agencies, consultants, and businesses of all sizes and industries. HighLevel empowers users with all the tools needed to capture, nurture, and close new leads into repeat customers. As of mid 2025, HighLevel processes over 15 billion API hits and handles more than 2.5 billion message events every day. Our platform manages over 470 terabytes of data distributed across five databases, operates with a network of over 250 microservices, and supports over 1 million domain names.

With over 1,500 team members across 15+ countries, we operate in a global, remote-first environment. We are building more than software; we are building a global community rooted in creativity, collaboration, and impact. We take pride in cultivating a culture where innovation thrives, ideas are celebrated, and people come first, no matter where they call home.

Every month, our platform powers over 1.5 billion messages, helps generate over 200 million leads, and facilitates over 20 million conversations for the more than 2 million businesses we serve. Behind those numbers are real people growing their companies, connecting with customers, and making their mark - and we get to help make that happen.

We're hiring a Senior Director, Payroll & Benefits to lead our payroll and benefits function as we scale globally. This is a high-impact, strategy and execution-focused role reporting to the Chief People Officer (CPO), with full ownership of payroll and benefits operations in the U.S. and India, oversight of EoR vendors globally, and accountability for all compliance related to payroll and benefits.

This role is about building a public-company-ready function that is accurate, audit-ready, and designed to scale. You'll lead a global team, partner cross-functionally with Finance and Legal, and ensure systems, vendors, and processes are optimized to deliver both a great employee experience and investor-grade controls.

Payroll & Benefits Operations (U.S. & India)

Lead end-to-end payroll processing and benefits strategy and programs for U.S. and India-based employees.

Ensure accurate execution of payroll, benefits enrollment, tax filings, and time tracking, particularly for non-exempt roles.

Drive service delivery excellence through automation, documentation, and continuous process improvement.

Global Oversight & Vendor Management

Oversee employee of record (EoR) vendors supporting employees across 8+ countries and growing.

Ensure accurate payroll delivery, consistent benefits experience, and compliance alignmentwithout owning day-to-day operations in those countries.

Serve as the primary point of accountability for global payroll / benefits policy alignment and vendor performance across all programs.

Compliance (Payroll & Benefits Only)

Own all compliance, controls, and reporting related to payroll and benefits across countries.

Build and maintain SOX-ready processes, documentation, and audit trails to support IPO preparation.

Partner closely with Legal and Finance to mitigate risk, ensure tax and benefits compliance, and support all audit and regulatory inquiries.

Team Leadership

Lead and grow a distributed team (currently 5 people across the U.S. and India).

Set a culture of accountability, continuous learning, and operational excellence.

Foster strong collaboration with People Ops, Finance, Legal, and internal support teams.

Systems, Tools & Reporting

Optimize and manage key payroll and benefits platforms (e.g., ADP, Darwinbox).

Establish regular reporting cadences for payroll accuracy, benefit utilization, and compliance health.

Leverage systems to increase visibility, automation, and scale across processes.

Have 12+ years of experience in payroll, benefits, or total rewards, including 5+ years in a senior leadership role at a U.S. public company.

Have worked with diverse and multicultural teams (Global teams) Bring deep expertise in U.S. payroll, multi-state operations, and statutory benefits.

Understand India payroll and benefits programs, and have worked with international EoR vendors and distributed teams.

Experience with migrating US payroll to ADP Have owned or partnered on SOX and audit prep for payroll / benefits functions.

Are comfortable overseeing EoR vendors, without needing to manage payroll in every country.

Use AI to experiment with tools that streamline workflows, unlock insights, and enhance decision-making.

Are detail-oriented, calm under pressure, and fluent in both operational execution and executive reporting.

Know how to turn complexity into clarity through processes, systems, and scalable frameworks.

This is a rare opportunity to :

Build and lead a mission-critical function as we prepare for IPO

Operate at the intersection of Finance, Legal, and People to deliver investor-ready accuracy and employee trust

Scale a function that balances compliance, service, and automation

Join a high-growth, remote-first team where execution and ownership are celebrated

The company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. As an employer subject to affirmative action regulations, we invite you to voluntarily provide the following demographic information. This information is used solely for compliance with government recordkeeping, reporting, and other legal requirements. Providing this information is voluntary and refusal to do so will not affect your application status. This data will be kept separate from your application and will not be used in the hiring decision.