Senior Manager - HR Systems - HR Tech

Position Summary:

The Senior Manager, Technology - HR Systems owns the technology platforms that power the associate lifecycle - core HR, payroll, time and attendance, talent acquisition, benefits, learning, and workforce management - across Catalyst Brands' multi-brand portfolio.

This role sits at the intersection of HR and Technology and carries end-to-end accountability for the HR systems portfolio: strategy, delivery, run-state operations, compliance, and vendor relationships. The Senior Manager will keep critical HR platforms stable through high-volume cycles such as seasonal hiring, open enrollment, merit, and year-end payroll, while leading the modernization of the HR technology landscape. The role leads a team of analysts, leads, and engineers across onshore and offshore locations, operates as the senior technology voice in HR leadership forums, and brings a practical command of modern technologies - including AI and automation - to improve associate experience, data accuracy, and process efficiency.

Primary Responsibilities:

Platform Strategy, Roadmap & Implementation:

- Own the multi-year strategy, delivery roadmap, and release calendar for HR systems supporting core HR, payroll, time and attendance, talent acquisition, onboarding, benefits, learning, and performance.

- Translate HR business priorities into a sequenced portfolio of work with clear owners, dependencies, and dates, balancing stability of incumbent platforms with progressive modernization across brands.

- Lead HR SaaS implementations and module rollouts end to end, partnering with HR Operations, Payroll, Total Rewards, and Talent Acquisition to align configuration with actual workflows and to drive process standardization across the portfolio.

- Own vendor selection and evaluation, data conversion, testing, cutover, hypercare, and adoption; drive post-go-live stabilization and continuous improvement to maximize ROI.

- Govern vendor release cycles, regression testing, and adoption of new platform features.

Application Operations, Compliance & Controls:

- Provide operational leadership for HR applications critical to the business, including incident management, root-cause analysis, and problem resolution; serve as senior escalation point for major incidents.

- Drive system reliability during high-volume cycles - seasonal and peak hiring, open enrollment, merit and bonus cycles, quarter-end and year-end payroll, and W-2 processing - ensuring minimal disruption and strong incident response.

- Own the integration landscape between HR platforms and downstream systems (payroll, benefits carriers, LMS, workforce management, identity and access provisioning, finance), including monitoring, error handling, and reconciliation.

- Ensure HR systems and processes meet SOX, privacy (PII), and applicable employment and payroll regulatory requirements, with disciplined access governance, segregation of duties, and audit readiness.

- Partner with HR and Analytics to improve workforce data quality, reporting, and integrity of the system of record; set and execute the technical debt strategy for enhancement, coexistence, or retirement.

Team & Financial Leadership:

- Build and lead a global team of HR systems analysts, configuration specialists, leads, and engineers, including managed-service and offshore resources.

- Own hiring, performance management, succession planning, and development; create clear career progression paths and develop the next layer of technical and people leaders.

- Foster a culture of accountability, ownership, and associate-centric thinking.

- Own the operating and capital budget for HR technologies, including SaaS subscriptions, vendor spend, and internal and contract labor.

- Lead business case development, cost optimization, license rationalization, and contract and vendor negotiations, ensuring investments deliver measurable value to HR operations and the associate experience.

Innovation & Emerging Technology:

- Champion the practical use of AI-enabled tools, analytics, and automation to improve service delivery - candidate and associate self-service, policy and benefits inquiry handling, case deflection, onboarding orchestration, and data quality monitoring.

- Stay current on HR technology trends and translate innovation into scalable, governed solutions.

- Encourage experimentation and continuous improvement while maintaining operational discipline.