Overview
This role is a people manager position within Payroll Tax Operations, leading a team of payroll tax experts responsible for end-to-end resolution of payroll tax issues across four core processes: Notices, Corrections, Amendments, and Pay & File.
The ideal candidate is an experienced payroll tax specialist (not a generalist) who has personally resolved complex state and federal payroll tax notices, amended tax returns across multiple states, and corrected payroll tax errors at the source—and can coach and lead others to do the same. The position requires operational discipline to maintain high standards for performance, quality, and customer outcomes in a high-volume case environment.
Responsibilities
- Translate operational vision into a team strategy that drives day-to-day priorities and a 1+ year operating plan aligned to department goals.
- Own delivery and quality outcomes for the assigned team, ensuring SLA compliance across active cases and eliminating backlogs to reduce customer burden.
- Lead Tax Processors through regular Monthly Check-Ins, structured SBIC feedback, performance coaching, and career development conversations.
- Serve as the final internal escalation point for the most complex IRS and state agency notices, penalty assessments, cross-jurisdictional discrepancies, and multi-quarter audit inquiries—providing a resolution strategy.
- Drive lean management practices, including Daily Huddles, WIP reviews, and performance board management, to surface and solve problems in real time.
- Monitor team WIP daily; identify aging cases, holds, and systemic blockers.
- Enforce intake and closure workflows to ensure no notice, payroll correction, or amended return exceeds agency deadlines without documented action.
- Own SOP and Knowledge Base (KB) governance: direct the team in authoring and validating process documentation; translate IRS and state regulatory updates into team briefings and SOP revisions with effective dates.
- Drive hiring, onboarding, and skills calibration for new team members; proactively build succession depth at the team level.
- Continuously assess and improve processes within team scope; identify upstream and downstream dependencies; recommend and implement improvements that eliminate non-value-added work.
- Demonstrate the ability to lead teams that deliver high-quality customer experiences in a high-volume, high-stakes service environment.
Qualifications
- 5+ years of people management experience in a payroll tax operations or related service environment, with a proven track record of developing others.
- 5+ years of hands-on payroll tax experience focused on notice resolution, amended return preparation, and payroll error correction across multiple states (beyond general payroll administration).
- Proven experience resolving complex IRS and state agency correspondence, including penalty assessments and state balance-due and delinquency notices.
- Demonstrated experience preparing and approving amended Federal (Form 941-X, W-2c) and State payroll tax returns across 10 or more states, including jurisdictions with complex local requirements such as PA, OH, and more.
- Deep knowledge of federal payroll tax law: FICA, FUTA, FITW, employment tax deposit schedules, and related penalty and interest structures.
- Multi-state payroll tax expertise: reciprocal agreements, resident and nonresident taxation, SUI account management, and local tax compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
- Strong analytical skills to identify trends in case data, perform root-cause analysis, and translate findings into corrective actions and process improvements.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to simplify complex payroll tax issues for processors at all levels and for cross-functional partners.
- Proficiency with at least one enterprise payroll platform and experience with case management systems such as Salesforce.
- Prior experience at a payroll service bureau, PEO, or multi-client tax operations center strongly preferred.
- BS/BA in Accounting, Finance, or Business preferred; equivalent experience accepted.
- Active Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) preferred; required within 12 months of hire.
- Enrolled Agent (EA) designation is a strong differentiator; FPC accepted candidates actively pursuing CPP.
Compensation & Benefits
- Competitive compensation package with pay for performance rewards.
- This position may be eligible for a cash bonus, equity rewards, and benefits, in accordance with applicable plans and programs.
- Pay offered is based on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and work location.
- Regular comparisons are conducted across categories of ethnicity and gender to support ongoing fair pay.
Location
Pay offered is based on work location. (No other location details provided in the source description.)