Overview
This full-time payroll role is remote within the United States. The position reports to the Head of Finance and is part of the Finance team.
The employer runs payroll across multiple entities, pay schedules, and states for salaried staff, hourly and seasonal instructors, and fellows in an instructor-to-fellow program. Growth in the number of fellows increases payroll complexity, moving from six payroll cycles per month to at least ten.
Responsibilities
- Payroll processing: Run assigned payroll cycles for exempt and non-exempt employees, including overtime, regular-rate premiums, bonuses, commissions, and off-cycle and correction runs. Maintain pay rates, worksite assignments, deductions, and direct deposit in the organization’s PEO platform.
- Employee changes and timekeeping: Process new hires, terminations, and pay changes with HR. Review timecards, drive supervisor approvals on schedule, and flag when a new hire’s state requires a new pay schedule or tax setup.
- Retroactive pay: Verify approvals, confirm hours have not already been paid, maintain the retro pay tracker and support, and surface root causes of recurring retro pay requests.
- Accounting and reconciliation: Prepare payroll journal entries coded to the correct entity, program, and account. Reconcile wages payable, tax withholdings, benefit deductions, accrued PTO, and clearing accounts. Research and resolve payroll-to-GL variances and own payroll accruals for month-end close.
- Compliance: Apply federal, state, and local rules on withholding, taxable wages, pay frequency, and final pay. Support multi-state tax filings, respond to state tax notices, and process wage garnishments and support orders.
- Audit readiness: Keep documentation traceable from timecard to approval, payment, and journal entry throughout the year. Prepare reconciliations, schedules, and sample support for financial statement and benefit plan audits.
- Process improvement: Document procedures, keep supervisor FAQs and decision guides current, and use AI and automation to reduce manual work and errors.
What Success Looks Like
- 30 days: Independently run at least one full payroll cycle (from timecard close through reconciliation) while learning entities, states, systems, and the retro pay process.
- 60 days: Own all assigned payroll cycles and reconciliations independently, with written procedures. Be prepared to run the Accounting Manager’s cycles solo during planned or unplanned absences, and establish an on-time timecard approval process.
- 90 days: Meet every deadline with fully reconciled cycles, own payroll’s part of month-end close, absorb new program-related payroll cycles, flag compliance risks before they reach a paycheck, and implement process fixes for recurring issues.
- One year: Serve as the primary payroll owner across all entities and states, lead improvements that allow payroll to scale without adding headcount, and support clean financial and benefit plan audits.
Qualifications
Required
- Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
- 3+ years owning full-cycle payroll processing, including multi-state payroll for exempt and non-exempt employees (overtime and regular rate, bonuses, commissions, off-cycle payments), wage garnishments, child support orders, and benefit deductions.
- Working knowledge of federal, state, and local payroll tax and wage-and-hour compliance, including withholding, SUI/SDI, state pay-frequency and final-pay rules, and the taxable treatment of earnings and pre- and post-tax deductions.
- First-hand experience with payroll reconciliation: payroll register to GL, payroll liability and clearing accounts, tax withholdings, benefit deductions, and accruals; track record of resolving variances and maintaining audit-ready documentation that traces from timecard to payment to journal entry.
- Foundational GAAP knowledge (debits and credits, accrual accounting, preparing payroll journal entries) and experience with Sage Intacct or a comparable general ledger system (experience beyond QuickBooks is expected).
- Strong spreadsheet skills in Google Sheets or Excel (lookups, pivot tables) for reconciliations and variance analysis.
- Precision under recurring deadlines, adaptability in a fast-scaling environment, and emotional intelligence to handle sensitive pay questions with employees and managers.
Preferred
- Current FPC or CPP certification.
- Hands-on experience across multiple HR and payroll platforms (e.g., ADP, UKG, Paychex, or a PEO such as a PEO platform).
- Proven experience owning payroll for various worker classifications (salaried exempt, hourly non-exempt, part-time, seasonal, and program fellows).
- Practical experience in multi-entity, fund, or grant-funded accounting, including cost allocation across entities and programs and clearing accounts for pass-through activity.
- Direct experience with month-end close for payroll accounts and accruals.
- Demonstrated experience supporting financial statement or benefit plan audits, including sample selections and auditor requests.
- Applied experience using AI or automation tools to streamline recurring payroll workflows.
Compensation & Benefits
Pay Range
Full-Time Employee Benefits
- Health & Wellness: Medical, dental, and vision insurance (90% employer-covered for employees and dependents), employer-funded healthcare reimbursement, FSAs, and Employee Assistance Program
- Financial Security: 401(k), employer-paid life & disability insurance, and identity theft protection
- Work-Life Balance: Generous PTO, paid holidays, 10 weeks of fully paid parental leave, and an annual year-end company closure (Dec 24 – Jan 2)
- Professional Growth: $1,000 annual professional development stipend and home office setup support
- Student Loan Forgiveness: Qualifying employer for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
- Additional Perks: Pet wellness plans, legal services, home/auto insurance discounts, and exclusive marketplace savings
Location