Implementation Lead - Payroll (d/f/m)

About Personio

Personio's intelligent HR platform helps small and medium-sized organizations unlock the power of people by making complicated, time-consuming tasks simple and efficient. Our team of 1,500 Personios is building user-friendly products that delight our 15,000+ customers and their 1.5 million employees. Ready to make an impact from day one?

The Role

This role requires 3 days a week in the office and is based in Munich or you can be fully remote. Our Customer Experience team thrives on collaboration, working closely with teams across Personio to ensure that customer voices are at the heart of everything we do. We are dedicated to understanding and advocating for our customers, using data-driven insights to shape our customer experience strategies and influence what we build.

As Implementation Lead – Payroll, you own a personal book of business while leading a team of Payroll Implementation Consultants to deliver predictable, high-quality payroll implementations for our small business customers — optimising for time-to-go-live and on time go live, while maintaining a strong customer experience.

Building a new capability

This role will be a foundational hire for a newly formed payroll implementation pod. You will help build the team from the ground up: shaping ways of working, defining role expectations, creating enablement, and supporting hiring/onboarding as the team grows.

What You’ll Do

• Book of Business Ownership (Player/Coach): Own a portfolio of customer implementation projects, ensuring timely go-live and activation.
• Oversee and support the books of business managed by each Implementation Specialist, ensuring consistent standards and outcomes across the team.
• Maintain a clear overview of project statuses, risks, and success metrics for both personal and team portfolios.
• Performance Management & Forecasting: Set clear, measurable expectations for each team member, ensuring alignment with team and company KPIs.
• Conduct regular 1:1 check-ins to review progress, address risks, and support ICs with action plans for at-risk accounts.
• Use data and dashboards to monitor performance, identify issues early, and drive timely interventions.
• Address underperformance promptly through feedback, coaching, and, when needed, formal performance improvement plans when needed.
• Operational Excellence (Delivery predictability, escalations, continuous improvement): Monitor team performance metrics (e.g., on-time go-live, CSAT) and implement strategies to improve outcomes using data-driven decisions.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for critical implementation issues, ensuring timely resolution and customer satisfaction.
• Drive process improvements by identifying inefficiencies and implementing changes that enhance team efficiency and reduce time-to-go-live while improving go live percentages.
• Contribute consistent, reliable input to capacity planning based on project lead times, durations, and skill coverage across the team.
• Customer Satisfaction & Customer Experience: Ensure high levels of customer satisfaction throughout the implementation process, measured by CSAT or other feedback mechanisms.
• Support ICs in delivering a positive, solution-oriented customer experience, addressing concerns early and championing customer needs internally.
• Balance operational efficiency with a commitment to delivering real value for customers, ensuring both go-live/activation and satisfaction targets are met.
• Coaching, Enablement & Skill Coverage (Payroll implementation readiness): Coach team members on project management best practices, customer engagement, and implementation execution skills (including shadowing calls and giving actionable feedback).
• Measure proficiency against role baselines, identify improvement areas, and track competence coverage to reduce delivery risk and protect continuity.
• Develop and implement training/enablement to strengthen team capability and readiness for future challenges.
• Foster a culture of accountability, development, resilience, and continuous improvement.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Partner with key stakeholders to remove roadblocks and align on shared goals impacting delivery outcomes.
• Partner cross-functionally to address systemic challenges, align on priorities, and improve implementation processes end-to-end.
• Represent the Payroll Implementation perspective in leadership discussions, sharing insights and advocating for team needs.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• Significant experience in customer-facing SaaS/B2B roles (e.g., implementation, consulting, CSM) and people leadership experience.
• Experience owning and delivering a portfolio of customer projects with predictable outcomes.
• Payroll domain: Proven hands-on German payroll implementation experience and a solid understanding of end-to-end payroll processes (Germany is required; additional countries are a plus).
• Ability to lead payroll software implementations end-to-end, combining strategic oversight with hands-on execution to unblock the team and de-risk delivery.
• Strong capability to translate payroll requirements into implementation decisions with a focus on automation and process optimisation, while ensuring accuracy and compliance outcomes.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with local payroll experts and cross-functional teams where country-specific payroll requirements impact delivery.
• Skills & Behaviours: Strong project management skills.
• Strong coaching and feedback capability; ability to develop others through mentoring and practical support.
• Excellent communication, conflict resolution, and ability to simplify complex topics and build trust.
• Resilient, adaptable, comfortable with ambiguity and change; growth mindset leadership style.

Success measures (KPIs)

• Primary (your Priority Outcomes): Go-live and activation rates (team-level).
• Forecast accuracy and proactive risk management across the team portfolio.
• Quality & customer outcomes (guardrails): Customer satisfaction (CSAT or equivalent).
• On-time go-live rate target.
• Time to activation.
• Team capability & sustainability: Close skill/profile gaps via internal development and hiring.
• Team engagement and strong feedback from ICs and cross-functional partners.

Why Personio?

Personio is an equal opportunities employer, committed to building an integrative culture where everyone feels welcomed and supported. We embrace uniqueness and understand that our diverse, values-driven culture makes us stronger. We are proud to have an inclusive workplace environment that will foster your development no matter your gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, education level, or race.

At Personio, we value in-person collaboration while also offering flexibility. This role is office-based, with 3 days a week required in your contracted office location. The remaining days can be worked from home or in the office if you prefer. In addition, you’ll have 20 Flex Days per year to work remotely from other locations.

Aside from our people, culture, and mission, check out some of the other benefits that make Personio a great place to work:

• Receive a competitive reward package – reevaluated each year – that includes salary, benefits, and pre-IPO equity.
• Enjoy 28 days of paid vacation, plus an additional day after 2 and 4 years.
• Make an impact on the environment and society with 1 (fully paid) Impact Day.
• Receive generous family leave, child support, mental health support, and sabbatical opportunities.
• We enjoy gathering for meals, cultural initiatives, and events like local Summer Sessions and year-end celebrations. There's also healthy snacks, drinks, and a weekly catered lunch.

Key skills/competency

• Payroll Implementation
• Team Leadership
• Customer Success
• SaaS/B2B Experience
• Project Management
• German Payroll
• Process Improvement
• Customer Satisfaction
• Cross-functional Collaboration
• Coaching and Mentoring