Senior Director, Global Payroll and Equity Administration
Coupang · Seoul
What The Role Is:
The Senior Director, Global Payroll and Equity Administration will lead worldwide payroll and equity strategy and operations across all countries where Coupang operates. Sitting at the intersection of operational excellence and product innovation, he/she will lead a global team, ensure accurate, timely, and compliant processes, serving as the functional "product owner" to partner with internal tech and engineering teams to build a world-class payroll and equity infrastructure to support Coupang’s global ambitions.
What You’ll Do:
- Strategic Payroll & Equity Architecture & Leadership: Design, build, and execute Coupang's global payroll and equity strategy. Shift the function from a reactive operations group to a proactive, tech-driven strategic partner, ensuring the infrastructure scales into a unified, customized global platform alongside Coupang’s global business objectives.
- Payroll and Equity Operational Leadership: Lead the construction and scaling of the frameworks for end-to-end payroll processing and best-in-class equity administration (including stock options, RSUs, and performance-based awards) for all global Coupang entities. Partner with HR and Legal to design and implement modern global equity programs capable of supporting the company’s strategic goals.
- Process Transformation & Optimization: Act as the primary change agent to identify systemic bottlenecks and completely re-engineer payroll and equity processes. Applying first-principles thinking to craft and design new payroll/equity systems and processes in order to optimize and establish forward looking KPIs that measure transformation rather than just steady-state maintenance.
- Compliance & Risk Architecture: Design, build, and audit robust internal controls globally. Ensure multi-jurisdictional tax logic, labor compliance, and equity regulations are engineered directly into the DNA of our payroll/equity organization.
- Vendor Strategy & Ecosystem Management: Rationalize, consolidate, and manage global relationships with existing external payroll and equity providers. Ensure partners are fully aligned with Coupang's technological requirements, driving maximum value and holding them to strict service level agreements (SLAs).
- Team Leadership: Build, lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing global payroll and equity team. Actively cultivating a “builder” mindset across the organization, fostering a culture that balances rigorous operational accuracy with continuous innovation.
- Data Architecture & Predictive Analytics: Build out the data infrastructure required to deliver regular, actionable insights, cost-trend analysis, and key transformation metrics to senior leadership in Finance, Legal, HR, and IT to align with broader corporate milestones.
Who You Are:
- Educational Foundation: Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field.
- Global Payroll and Equity Scale Expertise: 15+ years of progressive experience in payroll and equity administration, with a proven track record navigating highly complex, high-volume, multi-country environments across large-scale, publicly traded organizations.
- Proprietary/Custom System Delivery: Proven experience acting as the functional owner or key strategic partner in building custom, proprietary, or deeply bespoke internal payroll/equity software from scratch, rather than simply managing off-the-shelf SaaS implementations. Act as the functional "product owner," bridging the gap between payroll/equity compliance and internal engineering/IT teams to design automated, highly scalable system architecture.
- Geographic Regulatory Expertise: Deep operational and compliance expertise across multiple global geographies, with a strong emphasis on Asia-Pacific and North America markets.
- Executive Stakeholder Influence: Elite communication and interpersonal skills, with a demonstrated ability to align and influence cross-functional executives and teams.
- Language Proficiency: Fluency in written and spoken English, with proficiency in a Korean a plus.