Payroll & Benefits Lead

Overview

The organization is seeking a Payroll & Benefits Lead to provide strategic and operational leadership, governance, and execution for payroll, benefits, compensation, leave administration, and retirement programs. This role serves as the subject matter expert for Total Rewards, including compensation philosophy, payroll operations, benefits strategy, regulatory compliance, and HR technology processes related to payroll and benefits administration.

This position leads a team responsible for multi-state payroll, benefits administration, retirement programs, leave management, and related HR systems, while driving continuous process improvement, compliance, and employee experience.

Location

• Remote – Flexible location
• Work is primarily performed remotely; when possible and necessary, teams meet in person to conduct business and build team relationships.
• Ability to travel approximately 20%

Compensation & Benefits

• Estimated hiring compensation range: $95,000 - $115,000
• Final offers will be based on geographic location, consider career experience, and may vary from this range due to these and other factors.

Benefits include

• Considerable Paid Time Off Plan
• Paid Holidays
• 401k Retirement Savings Plan with Society match
• Commuter Benefit Plan

Comprehensive Health & Welfare Benefits including

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• Flex Spending Accounts
• Life Insurance
• Disability Coverage
• Spring Health Membership offering free therapy and professional coaching, as well as additional voluntary benefit offerings

Responsibilities

Payroll Leadership & Operations

• Provide strategic and operational oversight of multi-state (35-50 states) payroll administration, ensuring accurate, timely, and compliant payroll processing.
• Lead payroll and benefits reporting and analytics, identifying trends, developing recommendations, and providing insights that support business decision-making.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local payroll, tax, benefits, retirement, and employment regulations; lead annual audits and FLSA reviews.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex payroll matters including taxation, compliance, audits, and regulatory requirements.
• Establish and maintain payroll policies, controls, and processes that support operational excellence and risk mitigation while enabling strategic and mission priorities.

Benefits & Retirement Programs

• Lead the strategy, design, and administration of health, welfare, retirement, and wellness programs in partnership with the Benefits Partner.
• Evaluate program effectiveness and recommend enhancements that enable the Workplace Philosophy and ensure market competitiveness within fiscal realities.
• Lead vendor relationships, contract performance, and service delivery for benefits and retirement providers.
• Assess market trends and benchmark programs to develop recommendations for benefit, policy, and process enhancements.

Total Rewards Strategy & Compensation

• Own the organization’s compensation philosophy for C-2 employees (all roles below Officer level) and Total Rewards strategy, ensuring alignment with business objectives and talent priorities within fiscal realities.
• Lead the design, evaluation, and administration of compensation programs, salary structures, market pricing, and pay practices.
• Provide recommendations to executive leadership regarding compensation trends, workforce investments, and executive compensation matters.
• Support the CEO and Human Capital and Compensation Committee on executive compensation matters.

HR Technology & Process Improvement

• Own and lead payroll, benefits, and related Workday processes and functionality.
• Serve as the lead for system enhancements, configuration changes, testing efforts, and process optimization initiatives across Workday and ADP.
• Lead requirements gathering, vendor evaluations, implementation planning, and governance activities related to new systems and technology solutions.
• Drive continuous improvement efforts that improve efficiency, data integrity, compliance, and the employee experience.

Staff Supervision

• Lead, coach, and develop payroll and benefits partners, fostering high performance, accountability, continuous improvement, hospitality, and integrity.
• Partner directly with the C-suite and senior leadership to provide strategic guidance on Total Rewards, workforce investments, and organizational initiatives.
• Balance strategic leadership responsibilities with hands-on support and execution when business needs require operational involvement.

Cross-Functional Support

• Partner closely with Finance & Accounting and Information Technology teams on HR, payroll, reporting, security, and system integration initiatives.
• Ensure accurate recording, reconciliation, and reporting of payroll, benefits, and retirement transactions within the general ledger while maintaining strong internal controls.
• Collaborate with Finance on monthly, quarterly, and annual close processes, budgeting, forecasting, workforce planning, and compensation, benefits, and headcount analysis.
• Coordinate with Finance, external auditors, and regulatory agencies to support financial statement audits, Form 990 reporting, retirement plan audits, and other compliance requirements.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Finance, Accounting, or related field.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in payroll, benefits, compensation, or Total Rewards.
• 5+ years of leadership experience.
• Strong hands-on experience leading payroll and benefits administration within Workday and ADP Payroll environments.
• Experience supporting organizations of approximately 1,000 to 5,000 employees.
• Extensive experience managing multi-state or nationwide payroll operations.
• Experience leading HR systems enhancements, implementations, or business process changes.
• Proven ability to partner directly with executive and senior leadership teams.
• Strong knowledge of payroll taxation, benefits administration, retirement programs, and employment regulations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting integrations between HR, payroll, benefits, finance, and enterprise technology platforms.
• Familiarity with Snowflake, Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, or similar analytics and reporting platforms.
• Experience partnering with Information Technology teams on identity and access management processes, including Entra ID, Active Directory, SSO, and role-based access management.
• Experience supporting HR workflows within ServiceNow, Jira ITSM, or similar service management platforms.