What You'll Do:

The Global Payroll Director is responsible for delivering a high-quality, compliant, and

scalable payroll experience for Criteo employees across a complex global footprint of over

20 countries.

This is a hands-on leadership role with end-to-end accountability for global

payroll strategy, operations, governance, controls, vendor management, and continuous

improvement.

This leader will oversee the accurate and timely execution of payroll across multiple

regions while building sustainable processes, strengthening the internal control

environment, and driving operational excellence.

The role also plays a critical part in the

design, implementation, and optimization of payroll systems, service models, and cross-

functional processes to support business growth, risk management, and employee

experience.

The Global Payroll Director partners closely with People, Total Rewards, People Operations,

HRIS, Finance, Accounting, Tax, Treasury, Internal Audit, Legal, Procurement, and IT to

ensure payroll operations align with corporate objectives, compliance requirements, and

best practices.

This role requires a strong operator and people leader who can balance

strategic direction with day-to-day execution, lead through change, and influence

stakeholders across all levels of the organization.

The Global Payroll Director reports to the Vice President, People Services & Solutions.

What You Will Do

Leadership and team management

• Lead the global payroll function and ensure payroll is processed accurately, timely,

and in compliance with country regulations, tax requirements, internal policies, and

control standards

• Provide day-to-day leadership, coaching, and development to the payroll team,

creating clear accountability, strong engagement, and high performance

• Build team capability across global payroll operations, compliance, stakeholder

management, systems, and project execution

• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, priorities, and performance expectations

across the payroll organization

• Promote a collaborative, transparent, and solutions-oriented team culture aligned

with Criteo values• Ensure the team is appropriately structured and resourced to support current

operations and future business needs

Payroll operations and compliance

• Oversee end-to-end payroll operations across all countries in scope, including

regular payroll, off-cycle payroll, year-end activities, statutory reporting,

reconciliations, and employee payments where applicable

• Ensure payroll practices comply with local legislation, tax regulations, labor

requirements, data privacy obligations, SOX/internal control standards, and

company policies

• Maintain a robust internal control framework for payroll,



including process

documentation, key controls, review mechanisms, and issue remediation

• Monitor operational performance, risks, service levels, and recurring issues, and

drive corrective and preventive actions

• Partner with Accounting, Finance, and Treasury to ensure payroll funding,

reconciliation, journal entries, accruals, and reporting are executed accurately

• Support internal and external audits by ensuring complete, accurate, and timely

payroll documentation and responses

Strategy and process improvement

• Critically review and analyze current payroll processes, policies, and service models

to identify opportunities for standardization, automation, scalability, and stronger

controls

• Design and implement best practices across the global payroll landscape while

balancing local requirements and business needs

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives that improve payroll accuracy, cycle

efficiency, employee experience, and operational resilience

• Define and track key payroll metrics, service levels, and operational dashboards to

provide meaningful visibility to leadership

• Develop and execute payroll strategies aligned with corporate objectives,

organizational change, and growth priorities

• Anticipate risks and evolving business requirements and translate them into payroll

operating model improvementsSystems, transformation, and projects

• Lead payroll-related transformation initiatives, including payroll vendor transitions,

implementation of new integral payroll solutions, process redesign, and systems

optimization

• Partner with HRIS, IT, and external vendors on integration strategy, data flows,

security, access management, and change management

• Make recommendations for systems enhancements and process automation to

improve efficiency, accuracy, reporting, and user experience

• Oversee payroll readiness for organizational changes such as acquisitions,

restructures, entity changes, or new country expansion

• Ensure strong project governance, milestone management, stakeholder alignment,

and issue resolution across payroll-related initiatives

Cross-functional partnership and vendor management

• Partner proactively with internal stakeholders including HR Operations, Total

Rewards, Equity, HRIS, Accounting, Finance, Tax, Treasury, Legal, Procurement, and





IT to manage cross-functional impacts and resolve issues effectively

• Serve as the senior payroll subject matter expert to leadership, providing clear

recommendations, risk assessments, and decision support

• Manage payroll vendors and service providers to ensure accountability,

performance, service quality, and contractual compliance

• Foster strong supplier relationships that enable collaboration while holding

providers accountable for delivery, issue resolution, and continuous improvement

• Lead escalation management for critical payroll, compliance, and service issues

across internal and external partners

Who You Are:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Finance, Accounting, Business, or a related

field preferred

• 10+ years of progressive payroll experience, including significant people leadership

responsibility in a complex, multinational environment

• Deep expertise in global payroll operations, payroll compliance, controls, and best

practices• Strong knowledge of payroll governance, audit readiness, and internal control

environments

• Demonstrated experience leading payroll process improvement, transformation,

and systems-related initiatives

• Experience operating in a hands-on leadership role with the ability to move between

strategic planning and detailed execution

• Proven ability to lead teams through complexity, change, and ambiguity

• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills and experience working in matrixed,

international organizations

• Excellent verbal, written, presentation, and stakeholder management skills

• Ability to clearly articulate risks, tradeoffs, and opportunities to audiences at all

levels of the organization

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to use data and

judgment to drive decisions

• Demonstrated ability to influence outcomes through credibility, storytelling, and

fact-based recommendations

• Strong work ethic, ownership mindset, and willingness to roll up sleeves as needed

• Experience with payroll vendor management, global payroll implementations, and

service delivery governance strongly preferred

• CPP, FPC, or relevant international payroll certification is a plus

Success in This Role

Success in this role will be measured by the ability to deliver compliant and accurate

payroll operations globally, strengthen the control environment, improve scalability and

efficiency, build a high-performing team, and serve as a trusted strategic partner to the

business.

The ideal candidate combines operational rigor, strong people leadership, global

perspective, and a continuous improvement mindset.

Required Skill Profession

Operations Specialties Managers

📌 Global Payroll Director (Barcelona)
🏢 Criteo
📍 Barcelona