Senior Vendor Relationship Manager (Payroll and Compliance)

From the listing

About the role

What you'll do

• Act as the Subject Matter Expert and primary operational and commercial owner for Oyster's strategic multi-country payroll partners worldwide.
• Maintain deep operational mastery of end-to-end payroll delivery workflows, cut-off calendars, variance analysis, Gross-to-Net (GTN) calculations, statutory filings, and failure modes across key markets.
• Partner with internal Pay & Payroll operations teams to monitor partner SLA compliance, data payload delivery, and payroll cut-off adherence.
• Proactively evaluate vendor capacity, operational readiness, and processing controls ahead of peak payroll cycles and expansion into new markets.
• Define partner strategy, governance, scorecards, review cadences, escalation thresholds, and improvement plans.
• Hold partners accountable for payroll accuracy, timeliness, statutory compliance, compliance tracking, responsiveness, controls, and customer outcomes.
• Manage the full vendor relationship lifecycle, from partner selection and onboarding through transition, consolidation, or exit decisions.
• Evaluate partner capabilities, market coverage, operational maturity, security/compliance posture, and scalability.
• Build and maintain expertise in multi-country payroll delivery, regulatory dependencies, and contractual trade-offs.
• Establish baselines and monitor vendor performance through KPIs, SLAs, scorecards, and remediation plans.
• Lead recurring executive business reviews and performance discussions with partner leadership teams.
• Translate payroll-partner performance data into recommendations for Operations, Product, Finance, Legal, Customer teams, and leadership.

What they're looking for

• 5+ years of direct experience managing multi-country Payroll Vendors and Compliance/Health & Safety partners in a global environment.
• Strong technical understanding of end-to-end payroll processing cycles, Gross-to-Net (GTN) calculations, statutory filings, and payroll controls.
• Significant experience owning strategic payroll and compliance vendor relationships in a global or multi-country environment.
• Deep understanding of payroll operations, compliance tracking, risk assessments, statutory controls, regulatory monitoring, and global legal standards.
• Evidence of improving vendor performance and regulatory alignment through KPIs, SLAs, vendor compliance audits, governance, remediation, and executive business reviews.
• Commercial negotiation and contract-management capability, including pricing, service levels, remedies, renewals, and trade-offs.
• Highly strategic thinker with the ability to balance operational detail with long-term business goals.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to use data to drive decisions and improvements.
• Commercially minded and solutions-oriented, with a pragmatic approach to operational challenges.
• Exceptional relationship-building and influencing skills across internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong ownership mindset with the ability to operate autonomously in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience managing complex escalations and driving resolution across multiple stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Experience working with global vendors across multiple regions (APAC, EMEA, LATAM, AMER).
• Experience building or scaling vendor governance programs and operational frameworks.
• Additional languages.
• Have worked in a fast-paced, scaling startup or global tech environment.
• Experience implementing AI tools or automation workflows to improve workflows and vendor management.

Benefits, as listed