Payroll Manager

Overview

The organization is seeking a Payroll Manager to lead payroll operations across the organization and its affiliated entities. This role reports to the Director, Compensation & Benefits, and serves as the primary subject matter expert for payroll.

This position owns payroll operations strategy and execution—from day-to-day processing to compliance, systems administration, and process improvement. The Payroll Manager will help maintain internal controls, ensure regulatory compliance across multiple states and jurisdictions, and deliver a consistent, reliable payroll experience for employees. Collaboration with the People Team, Corporate Finance, Legal, and external vendors is required to scale payroll as the organization grows.

Responsibilities

• Own and manage bi-weekly and semi-monthly payroll operations for the company and affiliated entities, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and company policies.
• Ensure accurate payroll calculations for wages, overtime, benefits, taxes, deductions, reimbursements, commissions, and bonus payments.
• Review and audit payroll data prior to processing to identify and resolve discrepancies, exceptions, and compliance concerns.
• Oversee employee lifecycle payroll events, including new hires, promotions, compensation changes, transfers, leaves of absence, and terminations.
• Serve as the organization’s primary payroll subject matter expert and escalation point for complex payroll matters.
• Administer and maintain payroll data within UKG Pro and other integrated systems, ensuring data integrity, consistency, and compliance.
• Manage relationships with payroll, tax, and benefits vendors to ensure service levels, issue resolution, and compliance requirements are met.
• Oversee multi-state payroll tax compliance, including tax registrations, filings, payments, account maintenance, and resolution of tax notices and inquiries.
• Lead quarterly and annual payroll compliance activities, including W-2 preparation, reconciliation, distribution, and year-end reporting.
• Administer wage garnishments, child support orders, tax levies, and other involuntary deductions in accordance with federal and state requirements.
• Partner with Corporate Finance to support payroll reconciliations, general ledger activity, journal entries, accruals, and month-end close processes.
• Collaborate with the Benefits team to ensure accurate payroll deductions, 401(k) contributions, loan repayments, HSA funding, and benefit plan administration.
• Support internal and external audits, including payroll tax audits, workers’ compensation audits, retirement plan audits, financial audits, and compliance reviews.
• Develop, maintain, and analyze payroll-related reports, dashboards, and metrics.
• Lead payroll system implementations, enhancements, testing, and process improvement initiatives.
• Establish and maintain payroll procedures, documentation, and internal controls to support organizational growth and mitigate risk.
• Investigate, resolve, and implement corrective actions for payroll discrepancies, compliance concerns, and process gaps.
• Identify opportunities to improve payroll processes, strengthen controls, increase efficiency, and enhance the employee experience.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field; equivalent experience will be considered.
• Demonstrated experience managing multi-state payroll operations, payroll tax compliance, and end-to-end payroll administration within a complex organization.
• Experience using UKG Pro or another enterprise payroll system such as ADP, Workday, or Oracle.
• Strong understanding of federal, state, and local payroll tax regulations and compliance requirements.
• Experience supporting payroll accounting activities, including reconciliations, accruals, journal entries, and audit support.
• Experience managing payroll vendors, tax service providers, and third-party payroll relationships.
• Experience supporting payroll audits, tax inquiries, compliance reviews, and year-end payroll activities.
• Strong Excel skills, including data validation, reconciliation, reporting, and analysis.
• Experience developing payroll processes, documentation, controls, and operational improvements.
• Ability to manage confidential and sensitive employee information with discretion and professionalism.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills with exceptional attention to detail.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to effectively support employees and business partners at all levels.
• High level of integrity, professionalism, and accountability.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) certification (strongly preferred).

Location

This role supports a distributed workforce across multiple offices in: Fairfield, CA; Mountain View, CA; Cheshire, CT; Jacksonville, FL; Tallahassee, FL; Tampa, FL; Chicago, IL; Jersey City, NJ; Marlton, NJ; Cincinnati, OH; Houston, TX; Sheboygan, WI.

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation and benefits details are not provided in the job description.