The Senior Payroll Analyst will lead complex Canada payroll operations, provide functional expertise, and support process governance, system changes, and stakeholder engagement. This role acts as a subject matter expert (SME) for payroll processes and statutory compliance.
Key Responsibilities
- Own and manage end-to-end Canada payroll processing with minimal supervision
- Serve as SME for Canada payroll, providing guidance to analysts and cross‑functional teams
- Handle complex payroll scenarios including retro calculations, relocations, special payments, and audits
- Ensure compliance with federal and provincial payroll regulations, CRA requirements, and year-end activities
- Review payroll outputs, reconciliations, and variance analyses
- Lead year-end payroll activities including T4/T4A processing, amendments, and audits
- Drive continuous improvement, process standardization, and automation initiatives
- Partner closely with HR and ticket requester for any queries
- Manage escalations and resolve high-impact employee payroll issues
- Ensure documentation, SOP updates, and audit readiness
- Provide coaching, knowledge transfer, and operational support to junior team members
Systems & Tools
- Strong working experience in SAP Payroll (Canada)
- Workday Payroll / HCM experience highly preferred
- Advanced Excel and payroll reporting skills
Qualifications & Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Commerce, Accounting, HR, or related discipline
- 5–8 years of experience in Canada payroll operations
- In-depth knowledge of CRA regulations, CPP, EI, provincial taxes, and compliance
- Experience in payroll transitions, system upgrades, or shared services
- Strong analytical, leadership, and stakeholder management skills
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines independently
About Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto is a leading global mining and materials company. We operate in 35 countries where we produce iron ore, copper, aluminium, critical minerals, and other materials needed for the global energy transition and for people, communities, and nations to thrive.
We have been mining for 150 years and operate with knowledge built up across generations and continents. Our purpose is finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs – striving for innovation and continuous improvement to produce materials with low emissions and to the right environmental, social and governance standards. But we can’t do it on our own, so we’re focused on creating partnerships to solve problems, create win-win situations and meet opportunities.
Respect and Inclusion
At Rio Tinto, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQIA+ community, mature workers, people with disabilities and people from different cultural backgrounds.
We are committed to an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable to be themselves. We want our people to feel that all voices are heard, all cultures respected and that a variety of perspectives are not only welcome – they are essential to our success. We treat each other fairly and with dignity regardless of race, gender, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation or anything else that makes us different.
