Workday Systems Payroll- HCM Manager

 At Carta, our employees set out on a mission to unlock the power of equity ownership for more people in more places. We believe that the problems we solve today unlock the opportunities of tomorrow. The challenges we solve today unlock the opportunities of tomorrow. As our Workday Payroll/HCM Manager, you’ll shape how 2,000 employees experience Workday across the globe, ensuring pay is accurate, compliant, and delivered without friction. You’ll take ownership of the Payroll module’s configuration, from day-to-day accuracy and compliance to building scalable integration into other parts of Workday, while owning the stakeholder relationship and acting as the primary liaison to the People team. As a Workday HCM -Payroll Manager, you’ll work to: 

• Own Payroll Configuration: Lead the configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting of the Workday Payroll module, ensuring accurate and compliant calculations, earnings, deductions, and pay results every pay cycle
• Build Scalable Integration: Design payroll configuration that integrates cleanly and scalably with Core HCM, Time Tracking, Absence, Compensation, and Benefits, partnering with HRIS and Integrations teams as needed
• Own the Stakeholder Relationship: Serve as the primary liaison between Payroll and People teams, owning the payroll stakeholder relationship and translating business needs into Workday configuration
• Anchor in Core HCM: Maintain a strong working knowledge of Core HCM — organizations, business processes, and staffing — to ensure Payroll decisions align with the broader HCM foundation
• Drive Testing & Releases: Lead payroll-impact analysis, regression testing, and validation for Workday releases and configuration changes before they reach production
• Troubleshoot & Resolve: Serve as the escalation point for payroll configuration issues, partnering with Payroll Operations to diagnose root causes and implement fixes
• Document & Govern: Maintain clear configuration documentation and governance practices so payroll setup stays auditable, consistent, and easy to hand off

You’ll be joining our People Systems Team. The People Systems Team at Carta works collaboratively within and beyond the People Team to design and scale organizational workflows, processes, structures and strategies that support 2,000+ Cartans globally. Our team is all about making it easy to be a Cartan by driving process and system improvements that improve the employee experience, increase the efficiency of every Cartan, and improve the quality of our People data.

Workday People Systems Manager will own global configuration and optimization of Time Tracking, Absence Management, and Payroll functionality in Workday. You will ensure our systems are compliant, efficient, and regionally adapted — beginning with the US and expanding across EMEA and LATAM.

You’ll lead full-cycle implementation, administration, and scaling for timecards, paid time off, leave types, overtime rules, and payroll input workflows that ensure pay is timely, accurate, and legally compliant.

• 6-8+ years of hands-on Workday Payroll configuration experience
• Strong background in Core HCM, including organizations, staffing, and business process configuration
• Solid understanding of payroll fundamentals: earnings, deductions, tax setup, and pay calculation
• Experience partnering with cross-functional stakeholders, especially the People/HR team, to translate business needs into system configuration
• Comfortable managing configuration changes through testing, validation, and release cycles
• Strong attention to detail and a compliance-first mindset
• Proficient in core payroll mechanisms, including earning and deduction setups, tax configurations, and pay calculations.
• Proven experience collaborating with cross-functional partners, particularly HR/People teams, to translate business requirements into technical system settings.
• A detail-oriented professional with a strong commitment to regulatory compliance.
• Adept at guiding configuration updates across testing, validation, and release deployment phases.

Preferred but Not Required:

• Hands-on experience with Time Tracking and/or Absence Management configuration
• Exposure to Workday integrations (EIB, Core Connectors) and how Payroll configuration feeds downstream systems

At Carta, you’re not just an employee. You’re a builder who is creating  infrastructure that accelerates innovation and empowers more ownership. Cartans are helpful, relentless, unconventional and kind; representing Carta’s Identity Traits. They work collaboratively and cross functionally  to challenge the status quo; working towards a common goal of creating more owners in the private markets. 

Carta’s compensation package includes a market competitive salary, equity for all full time roles, exceptional benefits, and, for applicable roles, commissions plans. Our cash compensation (salary) range for this role is: 

• $160,000 - $190,000  in New York and San Francisco
• $153,000 - $180,000  in Seattle

Final offers may vary from the amount listed based on geography, candidate experience and expertise, and other factors.