Director of Payroll

Howard Hughes Medical Institute is one of the nation's largest private biomedical research philanthropies, employing roughly 2,600 people across three distinct populations: headquarters staff in Chevy Chase, Maryland; the Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia; and host-site scientists and staff embedded at more than 100 universities nationwide. HHMI is the employer of record for everyone, owning payroll, benefits, and visa sponsorship directly, which makes payroll a genuinely complex operation spanning multiple states and worker types. The Director of Payroll leads the payroll team and owns the function end to end, from day-to-day accuracy to the systems and processes behind it. 

Why This Role Matters 

HHMI is not looking for someone to keep the current payroll process running as is. The mandate is to take it apart and rebuild it from first principles into a Workday-native, AI-first operation that reflects the best available technology rather than inherited habit. Where a step survives only because it has always existed, this role is expected to say so, and where a better tool or model exists, to make the case and build toward it. Payroll also sits at the seam between Finance and People & Culture, so the role only works if that partnership holds, with People & Culture trusting this person to get pay right, explain hard tradeoffs plainly, and bring them along on change rather than spring it on them. 

What You Will Actually Do 

• Redesigns the payroll process from first principles. Maps how payroll works today by finding what is slow, manual, error-prone, or simply unexamined. Then rebuilds it around best practice. Treats the current process as a starting point to question, not a constraint to preserve.

• Owns the payroll function end to end, including compliance and controls. Runs accurate, on-time, compliant pay across all HHMI populations, including foreign nationals, and the states and tax jurisdictions in which they work, while leading the payroll team to that standard. Keeps payroll compliant across multi-state tax, wage and hour, foreign national withholding, and reporting obligations, and partners with ADP, which prepares W-2s and remits state payroll taxes. Also builds controls that catch problems early and documents the process, so it does not live in one person's head.

• Makes Workday do the work. Drives payroll deeper into Workday, including configuration, automation, controls, and reporting. Cut the workarounds and spreadsheets that sit alongside the system and replace them with the system itself.

• Puts AI to real use. Uses current AI tools to reduce manual effort, catch errors before they reach an employee's paycheck, and free the team for higher-value work. Decides where AI genuinely helps, where it does not, and builds accordingly.

• Builds customer service into the design. Builds the new process around the people it serves, so employees can get a clear, fast, accurate answer about their pay. Treats responsiveness and accuracy as design goals rather than afterthoughts.

• Partners with P&C and Science, and briefs executive leadership. Works hand in glove with People & Culture and Science on everything that touches pay, including onboarding, leaves, terminations, comp changes, time keeping, and benefits deductions. Also translates payroll strategy, risk, and tradeoffs into clear terms for the President, the COO, and the General Counsel, bringing recommendations rather than status.

• Leads the team. Sets direction for the payroll staff, develops their skills toward a more automated operation, and communicates clearly through change, so the team is brought along rather than left behind.

What We Are Looking For 

• Deep payroll expertise. Knows payroll at a level few people do, including multi-state tax, wage and hour, garnishments, off-cycle and retro pay, year-end, and the full mechanics. Has designed payroll processes, not just operated them.

• Workday command. Knows Workday payroll well enough to redesign around it, including how to configure it, automate it, and stop fighting it. Can tell the difference between a system limitation and a process the organization never bothered to fix.

• Fluent in current AI. Uses today's AI tools in real work and has opinions about where they help. Can spot the manual steps a model should be doing and is comfortable building toward that.

• Not bound by the status quo and current on the field. Says so when a step exists only out of habit and is willing to consider and implement change rather than defend the inherited way. Stays current on the best practices, tools, and operating models at the leading edge of payroll, and brings that outside view rather than designing only from what HHMI has done before.

• Thinks strategically and owns the seam. Sees payroll as a system to be designed, not a task list to be completed, while still getting this Friday's pay run right. When something falls between Finance and P&C, keeps it moving until pay is correct and on time rather than waiting to find out whose job it is.

• Strong with two audiences and a real partner to P&C and Science. Can go deep with the team on the mechanics and then brief the President, COO, or General Counsel at the right altitude. Treats People & Culture and Science as partners rather than a counterparty, brings them in early, and earns their trust to get pay right.

• Depth over tenure. HHMI is not counting years for this role. What matters is genuine subject-matter mastery of payroll and payroll process design, real command of Workday, and fluency with current AI tools.

Nice to Have 

• Benefits experience. Experience working with and understanding of benefits, gained from working closely with a benefits team. 

What This Role Is Not 

• Not a role for someone who wants to run the existing process well and leave it there. The job is to redesign it.

• Not a pure compliance or processing role. The mechanics matter, but the point is to rethink how the function works, not just execute it.

• Not a role for someone who needs the status quo defended. This is not the seat for someone most comfortable when nothing changes.

• Not a back-office role removed from leadership. This role briefs the President, COO, and General Counsel and partners with P&C leadership directly.

Practical Details 

This is a full-time, permanent HHMI position based at headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with a hybrid schedule. The Director of Payroll reports to the Chief Financial Officer and partners closely with People & Culture. Please direct inquiries to the Office of People & Culture. 

We encourage qualified candidates who are eligible to work in the United States to apply. Please note, we are not able to sponsor a visa for this position at this time. 

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