Director, Payroll & Benefits

Landsperg Automotive Group
Edmonton, Alberta | Head Office

Payroll in an automotive group is not simple.

You have hourly employees, salaried employees, commissioned teams, flat-rate technicians, bonuses, draws, guarantees, multiple dealerships, multiple legal entities and different provincial requirements all of it needing to land correctly and on time.

We’re looking for someone who knows how to lead that kind of environment.

Landsperg Automotive Group is hiring a Director, Payroll & Benefits to take ownership of our payroll function across approximately 650 employees in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

This is not a role where you simply inherit a finished payroll department and keep it running.

We need a senior payroll leader who can stabilize what exists, standardize how we work and build a payroll function that can scale with the organization.

The Opportunity

Reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer, you will lead a team of four Payroll Administrators and work closely with our People & Experience and Accounting teams.

You’ll own the payroll operation from end to end while remaining close to the work.

That means leading the team, creating controls and improving processes — but also being able to get into Payworks, troubleshoot a problem, review a complicated pay plan or help the team through a difficult payroll cycle when needed.

You’ll also oversee benefits and workers’ compensation administration and serve as the internal owner of Payworks.

This role has the authority to challenge the process.

If information is incomplete, the math doesn't make sense, documentation is missing or a payroll instruction presents a compliance concern, we expect our Director of Payroll & Benefits to ask questions and push back.

Payroll is one of our most important organizational safeguards.

What You'll Lead

You’ll be responsible for:

- Leading payroll for approximately 650 employees across Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
- Coaching and developing a team of four Payroll Administrators.
- Overseeing multiple payroll cycles, locations and legal entities.
- Managing payroll for hourly, salaried, commissioned and flat-rate employees.
- Administering bonuses, incentives, draws, guarantees, vacation,



statutory pay, taxable benefits, garnishments and other payroll transactions.
- Overseeing new-hire setup, employee changes, compensation changes, transfers, terminations, final pay and ROEs.
- Reviewing payroll for accuracy before processing is completed.
- Establishing payroll calendars, cut-offs, approval requirements and controls.
- Leading payroll reconciliations, journal entries, CRA remittances, T4/T4A processing and year-end.
- Supporting payroll-related accounting and audit requirements.
- Leading employee benefits administration.
- Overseeing WCB/workers’ compensation administration across all three provinces.
- Serving as LAG's internal Payworks owner.
- Managing Payworks configuration, access, workflows, reporting and continuous improvement.
- Helping evaluate and implement future payroll and HR technology.
- Developing standard operating procedures and payroll documentation.
- Building stronger processes between dealerships, Controllers, Payroll, Accounting and People & Experience.
- Identifying payroll risk before it becomes a payroll problem.
- Finding opportunities to automate and simplify manual processes.
- Building a payroll structure capable of supporting LAG as we continue to grow.

What We're Looking For

You know payroll deeply enough to recognize when something doesn't look right.

You’re comfortable leading people, but you haven't moved so far away from payroll operations that you can no longer get into the details.

You understand that a great payroll leader needs both technical credibility and the confidence to have difficult conversations when something isn't right.

Ideally, you bring:

- 7+ years of progressive payroll experience.
- 3+ years leading a payroll team or function.
- Payroll Compliance Professional (PCP) designation, required or strongly preferred.
- Payroll Leadership Professional (PLP) designation is an asset.




- Experience with complex, multi-location payroll.
- Multi-province Canadian payroll experience.
- Strong payroll accounting and reconciliation knowledge.
- Experience with payroll controls, remittances and year-end.
- Benefits administration experience.
- Workers’ compensation administration experience.
- Solid systems and reporting skills.
- The ability to lead, coach and develop a payroll team.

Automotive payroll experience is strongly preferred.

If you’ve worked with commissioned employees, flat-rate technicians, variable compensation, bonuses, draws and guaranteed earnings, you'll understand why.

Experience with Payworks is an asset.

The Kind of Leader Who Will Do Well Here

You bring order to complicated environments.

You don't solve recurring problems with another spreadsheet and hope for the best.

You document the process, fix the root cause and make it easier to do correctly the next time.

You develop your team instead of becoming the only person who knows how everything works.

You’re collaborative, but you’re also comfortable saying, “We can't process this until we have the right information.”

You understand that payroll is about much more than getting people paid. It protects employees, supports the business and creates confidence in the organization.

And while accuracy is non-negotiable, you also understand that we operate dealerships — things move quickly, situations are not always textbook, and the best solutions need to work in the real world.

Why This Role Matters

LAG is continuing to grow.

With that growth comes an opportunity to build a payroll function that is more consistent, more scalable and better connected across our dealerships.

You'll have the opportunity to influence how payroll operates across the entire organization from systems and processes to controls, team development and the employee experience.

We aren't looking for someone to simply maintain payroll.

We're looking for someone to build the function.

Pay: From $80,000.00 per year

Benefits:

- Dental care
- Disability insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Extended health care
- Life insurance
- On-site parking
- Paid time off

Work Location: In person

📌 Director, Payroll & Benefits (Edmonton)
🏢 Landsperg Automotive Group
📍 Edmonton