Global Payroll Lead

About Mercor Mercor’s mission is to organize human intelligence for the AI economy. We build the infrastructure that enables frontier AI labs and enterprises to train, evaluate, and improve AI on real-world professional work. More than five million experts have joined our network, and we pay out over $5 million daily for their knowledge and expertise. We built our training and evaluation infrastructure alongside the world’s leading AI labs. Now, we’re bringing those capabilities to enterprises across industries, enabling them to train, evaluate, and improve AI using their own expertise and standards. Our APEX benchmarks measure how AI performs on economically valuable work, while our enterprise evaluations and post-training capabilities turn those insights into measurable improvements across real-world workflows. Our work sits at the intersection of frontier AI, human expertise, and real-world application. We’re solving problems few companies have encountered, with the opportunity to influence what the world’s most advanced AI systems become capable of doing. We’re looking for people who bring different perspectives, take ownership, exercise sound judgment, and hold themselves to an exceptionally high standard. You’ll have the opportunity to do consequential work alongside talented colleagues who challenge one another, collaborate openly, and share a commitment to excellence. Mercor is profitable and recently raised a $750 million Series D at a $20 billion valuation. We work in person five days a week in San Francisco, New York, and London. About the Role Mercor is seeking a high-execution payroll leader to spearhead global payroll delivery while scaling our underlying operational infrastructure. In this role, you will hold end-to-end accountability for payroll execution schedules, vendor governance, internal controls, general ledger reconciliations, and complex issue resolution, all while driving high-impact automation initiatives. Additionally, you will orchestrate the seamless transition of acquired talent onto Mercor's unified payroll architecture. Working cross-functionally, you will collaborate closely with Accounting, People Ops, Finance Systems, Legal, and international payroll partners. This position demands a mix of strategic oversight and hands-on execution—diving deep into operational mechanics, driving swift decision-making within structured framework guidelines, and proactively flagging operational bottlenecks to executive leadership. What You'll Do Run employee payroll cycles across assigned countries, coordinating inputs, validations, approvals, funding deadlines, and provider processing so employees are paid accurately and on time. Review new hires, departures, compensation changes, bonuses, benefits, deductions, and equity-related payroll inputs with functional owners; investigate exceptions before approval. Reconcile payroll outputs to approved inputs, funding, and accounting records. Partner with Accounting on journals, accruals, balance sheet reconciliations, and month-end close. Maintain country calendars and evidence of required filings and remittances, working with providers and local advisers to resolve issues and complete year-end activities. Lead payroll workstreams for acquisitions and new-country launches, including data mapping, cutover planning, testing, parallel runs where appropriate, and post-launch reconciliation. Improve HRIS-to-payroll data flows, approval workflows, and reporting. Deliver scoped implementations and vendor transitions with documented requirements and acceptance criteria. Build operating procedures, backup coverage, access controls, and audit evidence, maintaining separate preparation and approval responsibilities for payroll and payments. Resolve employee pay questions clearly and promptly. Track accuracy, on-time delivery, reconciliation aging, and issue resolution, and address recurring causes. Automate repeatable checks and reporting using approved tools, with validation, human review, and appropriate protection of employee data. What We're Looking For 7+ years of progressive payroll experience in high-growth tech startups Hands-on ownership of US payroll and experience delivering payroll in additional countries through local teams or providers. Strong understanding of payroll processing, reconciliations, statutory deadlines, controls, and year-end reporting, with judgment about when to involve local tax or legal specialists. Experience delivering a payroll optimization, vendor transition, acquisition integration, or new-country launch from planning through stabilization. Practical experience with an enterprise HRIS and payroll platform, including data validation, reporting, testing, and troubleshooting. Rippling or comparable systems experience is valuable. Strong analytical skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage competing deadlines and influence partners without direct authority. Clear communication, sound judgment with confidential information, and willingness to stay close to operational work. A degree in Accounting, Finance, HR, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Nice to Have EMEA or APAC payroll Equity or mobility payroll Hourly payroll and timekeeping CPP or comparable certification Benefits: Generous equity grant vested over 4 years Health, dental, and vision insurance 401(k) with company match Unlimited paid vacation and sick days Parental leave for birthing and non-birthing parents Free mental health services $200 monthly wellness reimbursement $1.5K monthly meal stipend $200 monthly laundry reimbursement Free Equinox membership Up to $15K relocation bonus Mercor is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to providing equal opportunity to all employees and applicants. Mercor does not discriminate based on actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions and lactation), gender identity or gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, military service and veteran status, disability, protected medical condition as defined by California or local law, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, California, or local laws and ordinances. Further, Mercor prohibits discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on any combination of protected characteristics. This Policy applies to all areas of employment, including recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, compensation, benefits, discipline, termination, and all other privileges, terms, and conditions of employment. This Policy and the law prohibit employment discrimination against any employee or applicant based on any legally protected status.