Payroll Tax Engineer

Overview

This role supports payroll tax compliance by performing detailed reviews of employee-level tax data, ensuring correct jurisdiction setup, managing tax registrations, and identifying tax configuration issues. The work requires strong payroll tax expertise, analytical thinking, and a high attention to detail to maintain accuracy across systems, filings, and year-end documents.

Responsibilities

Tax Accuracy Audits

• Conduct audits of employee tax configurations, including address-based jurisdiction assignments and tax rate validations.
• Review new hire records and address changes to ensure correct tax codes are applied.
• Evaluate earnings and deductions to confirm proper taxability and W-2 mapping.

Tax Registration Oversight

• Review client data to identify missing or inactive tax jurisdictions.
• Manage and process tax registrations for state/local withholding, unemployment, and specialty taxes.
• Track registration statuses and proactively prevent disruptions to vendor filings.

Compliance Monitoring & Support

• Monitor system configuration to validate ongoing compliance.
• Partner with Payroll Engineers to ensure client payrolls use accurate tax data.
• Research tax codes, jurisdiction rules, and agency requirements as needed.

Reporting & Year-End Readiness

• Support year-end W-2 balancing and reconciliation.
• Assist with identifying and processing W-2c adjustments when needed.
• Generate client-facing diagnostic reports highlighting risk areas and recommended actions.

Requirements

• 3 or more years of experience in payroll tax, compliance, or payroll system configuration (preferred).
• Deep understanding of U.S. payroll tax structures at federal, state, and local levels.
• Familiarity with tax registration processes and agency communications.
• Strong Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups, conditional formatting, and similar tools.
• Exceptional attention to detail and accuracy.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple clients and competing deadlines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with major payroll systems (Dayforce, ADP, Paylocity, etc.).
• Working knowledge of W-2 structures, W-2c corrections, and payroll year-end processes.
• Experience using Smartsheet, ticketing systems, or process tracking tools.
• Bloomberg Tax, CCH, or other research tool experience (plus).

Compensation & Benefits

• Not specified.

Location

• Remote

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to move up to 15 pounds at times.
• Must be able to participate in video conferences/meetings.

Equal Opportunity

The employer is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or any other protected status under applicable law. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this role.