Senior People Operations Manager, Americas

We are SLR Consulting, a 1200+ team of advisory, environmental/engineering, and regulatory professionals across Canada and the United States.  We deliver environmental and sustainability services to our clients through the integration of over 30 advisory, technical environmental, and engineering disciplines to help clients address some of their most complex challenges around sustainability. We are Making Sustainability Happen.

The Role

We are seeking a highly organized, process-driven people leader to manage our Americas People Operations function, delivering a consistent and efficient service.  You will be directly responsible for a team operating across North America and indirectly responsible for supporting a team in LATAM (Chile).

This role is pivotal in leading and improving people processes across the Americas region, making the most effective use of technology and ensuring fair and effective allocation of work. You'll work in close partnership with the Senior People Business Partner for the Americas, as well as in-region People Partners and global Centres of Expertise to deliver a high-collaborative, compliant and responsive people service for the region.

Key Accountabilities

Service Management

• Lead and manage the People Operations team to deliver consistent, accurate, and timely People Operations and Payroll services for the Americas region.
• Drive Operational Excellence, optimizing the use of systems, tools and processes to improve efficiency and deliver service outcomes.
• Ensure compliance and accuracy in all employee lifecycle processes (onboarding, changes, leavers, etc).
• Play a key role in supporting acquisition integration, ensuring People Operations services are fully prepared to absorb new employees with minimal disruption.

Payroll Management

• Oversight of payroll activity including processing and reconciliation of payroll to maintain compliance with contractual and statutory obligations and ensure accuracy to include year-end processes.
• Ensure timely and accurate responses to enquiries from employees and stakeholders.
• Manage a proactive payroll advisory service, working closely with the payroll team to refine and improve processes and procedures.
• Checking and auditing the validity of payroll data in line with government regulations.
• Developing and refining existing payroll procedures.
• Support payroll integration activities for acquisitions, including data validation, parallel runs where required, and alignment with statutory and contractual requirements.

Benefits Administration

• Provide timely and accurate employee benefit information and guidance.
• Oversee annual benefit enrolment activity, working with the Reward CoE, Benefit Broker and benefit providers.
• Identify improvements through the deployment of additional technology to streamline the benefits administration process.
• Coordinate benefits integration for acquired employees, ensuring accurate enrolment, clear communication, and a smooth transition into company benefit programs.

HR Advisory Support

• Provide oversight of first line people support for employee and manager queries, including leave and absence, performance management and people policy guidance.
• Ensure People Operations teams are equipped and informed to support acquisition-related employee queries during transition periods.

Workday & Systems

• Champion the effective use of Workday, identifying opportunities to streamline processes and improve data accuracy.
• Develop and support the team in getting the best out of the system.Lead People Operations system readiness for acquisitions, including Workday configuration, data migration support, and process alignment across payroll and benefits.

Team Leadership & Collaboration

• Provide day-to-day leadership and coaching to the Americas People Operations team
• Work collaboratively on global activities and projects with peers from other regions.
• Work with People Partners and CoE’s to deliver a coherent “one team” people service to the Americas region.
• Foster a culture of accountability, service excellence, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure the team is operationally prepared for acquisition activity and close partnership with the People Business Partnering team.

Working @ SLR

With SLR, there is no doubt you’ll grow your subject-matter expertise and industry knowledge. We care about investing in our employees for the long-run, and if you ask our team, they will tell you that is just one of the many benefits of working here. We want to be a place where you can experience career growth and satisfaction for many years.

Here’s what else you’ll enjoy as part of our team:

• Competitive total compensation plan including a base salary in the $120,000-135,000 range, industry competitive benefits (vacation, benefits, and a suite of wellness initiatives).
• Full-time, permanent role with flexible scheduling available (core hours are Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm)
• Opportunities for professional growth and advancement

Qualifications, Skills, and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related discipline is preferred, or equivalent practical experience.
• Post-graduate certificate in Human Resources Management is ideal.
• Professional HR qualification such as SHRM or HRCI (PHR/SPHR) for US candidates, CHRP for Canadian candidates, or CIPD or an equivalent international qualification is desirable.
• Proven experience in People operations, shared services, or advisory roles, with demonstrated accountability for delivering consistent, accurate, and timely services across the full employee lifecycle.
• Experience of working in high paced high expectation, high volume environment, ideally within professional services or a similarly complex matrixed organization, with the ability to balance speed, quality, and the needs of the business and employees.
• Excellent knowledge of Workday or a comparable HRIS. Including hands-on experience using systems to improve data quality, streamline processes, and enable scalable People Operations and payroll delivery.
• Strong understanding of people administration, advisory and payroll delivery in a large (1,000+ headcount) multi country environment. with a clear appreciation of compliance, risk, and local regulatory requirements.
• Experience of managing and leading multi country teams including setting clear expectations, building capability, and driving consistent service standards across geographies and time zones.
• Demonstrated commitment to ongoing professional development and staying current with US and Canadian employment legislation, payroll practices, and HR systems is expected.
• Payroll certification or formal payroll training is considered an asset.
• Ability and willingness to travel across SLR Americas region as needed

This job posting is for an existing vacancy.

Artificial intelligence is not being used to screen, assess, or select applicants.

SLR strives to build diverse teams that reflect the communities we work in, and encourages applications from traditionally underrepresented groups including women, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, people identifying as 2SLGBTQI+, veterans, and people with disabilities.