Customer Support Specialist - Payroll

Mercury•Portland, OR

6d•$53,100 - $71,600

About The Position

Mercury is building the complete finance stack for startups, one where founders spend less time thinking about money infrastructure and more time building their companies. We've spent years earning the trust of over 300,000 businesses on the banking side. Now, with our 2026 acquisition of Central, a payroll platform purpose-built for startups, we're extending that trust into payroll. The goal is the same as it's always been: make something complex feel effortless. That's easier said than done, and that's where you come in. We're building a payroll support team, the human layer that makes the effortless experience actually possible. This isn't a generic support role. It's a role for someone who finds payroll genuinely interesting, who gets a quiet satisfaction from untangling complexity, and who understands that on the other side of every support ticket is a founder trying to make sure their team gets paid. You'll bring the depth of a payroll expert and the instincts of an exceptional support professional. And because this team is new, you'll have an unusual influence over how it takes shape. The processes you design, the help content you write, and the product feedback you surface will have a direct and lasting impact on how Mercury's payroll experience evolves. Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

Requirements

1 - 2 years of experience in a payroll support, payroll processing, or payroll operations role. You should be genuinely comfortable with how payroll works end-to-end
3+ years of experience in customer support or customer experience, ideally at a SaaS, fintech, or HR/payroll software company
Solid understanding of payroll fundamentals: pay schedules, payroll corrections, employer & employee support, HRIS management, and Payroll ancillary services
Ability to communicate clearly and humanly about complex regulatory and financial topics - you can explain a 941 mismatch without making someone feel dumb
Calm under pressure, especially when the stakes are high (and in payroll support, they often are)
Organized, thorough, and comfortable managing multiple open cases at varying levels of urgency
Familiarity with startup environments - our customers move fast and expect support that keeps up

Nice To Haves

Experience writing help documentation or contributing to a knowledge base
A love for process improvement and the instinct to automate whatever can be automated

Responsibilities

Handle payroll support, covering pay runs, direct deposit, garnishments, new hire onboarding, off-cycle payments, and tax filing corrections (W-2s, 1099s, and the rest of the fun stuff)
Diagnose and resolve payroll issues with urgency and accuracy, knowing that a missed payroll isn't just an inconvenience, it affects real people's lives
Guide customers through Mercury's payroll product with patience and clarity, translating compliance requirements and technical concepts into plain language
Turn patterns into product improvements - when you see the same question three times, you don't just answer it a third time, you flag it, document it, and help us fix it
Work closely with your lead and peers to escalate bugs, surface edge cases, and close the loop on systemic issues
Stay current on federal and state payroll tax regulations, filing deadlines, and compliance changes so you can give customers reliable, accurate guidance
Write and maintain help articles, internal playbooks, and FAQs that make the whole team smarter and customers more self-sufficient
Help build and improve internal tooling and processes that make payroll support faster, more consistent, and more scalable as Mercury's customer base grows