Lead, Payroll Tax

FINRA•Rockville, MD

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Lead, Payroll Tax independently manages payroll tax compliance and related deliverables across federal, state, and local jurisdictions in a multi-state hybrid work environment. The role serves as the Payroll team’s primary resource and first escalation point for moderately complex employment tax matters. It applies strong knowledge and judgment to resolve issues, identify compliance risks, recommend improvements, and coordinate solutions with internal stakeholders, third-party providers, and taxing authorities. Novel, high-risk, or policy-setting matters are escalated to Payroll management. The role also supports corporate tax and general payroll work, including compensation-related analysis and regulatory reporting, payroll processing, tax-focused projects and system upgrades, process and control improvements, financial reporting, and audit requests. It provides technical guidance and work support to payroll team members but has no formal people-management responsibility. The position is hybrid, with defined in-person presence requirements. Extended hours may be needed. The posting lists location-specific salary ranges from $83,900 to $180,400, depending on work location. Employees may also be eligible for a discretionary bonus and overtime pay where applicable. FINRA offers comprehensive health, dental, vision, and other insurance; retirement contributions; tuition reimbursement; commuter benefits; adoption and family-care assistance; wellness programs; and paid time off and leave.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Six years of directly applicable multi-jurisdictional payroll and payroll tax compliance experience.
Advanced knowledge of federal, state, and local employment tax requirements, multi-jurisdictional withholding, payroll tax compliance, and related operational practices.
Workday Payroll processing experience.
Strong analytical, research, and problem-solving skills, including the ability to conduct thorough tax research and communicate findings and recommendations.
Exemplary verbal and written communication and customer service skills.
Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, and electronic tax research tools.
Ability to self-direct and manage multiple priorities simultaneously in a deadline-driven environment.
Ability to meet defined in-person presence requirements in a hybrid work environment and work extended hours as needed.

Nice To Haves

ADP/Smart Compliance experience is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Independently manage federal, state, and local payroll tax compliance, including withholding, unemployment, tax accounts, employee tax treatment, and multi-state and local tax setups.
Validate payroll tax files, resolve exceptions, ensure accurate and timely remittance and filing, and coordinate required funding with the Cash team.
Manage payroll tax correspondence, registrations, agency notices, compliance follow-up, and complex employee tax inquiries through resolution.
Analyze and resolve moderately complex payroll tax issues, including multi-jurisdictional withholding, employee work-location changes, tax exceptions, agency discrepancies, and system configuration concerns.
Perform variance analysis, compliance reviews, Workday tax adjustments, and root-cause research; escalate novel, high-risk, or precedent-setting matters to Payroll leadership.
Monitor payroll tax law changes, assess impacts to FINRA employees and operations, recommend configuration or process updates, and coordinate approved changes with Payroll management and stakeholders.
Own quarter-end and year-end payroll tax activities, including reconciliations, ADP/Smart Compliance coordination, reciprocity review, fringe benefit analysis, W-2 processing, and W-2-C corrections.
Coordinate annual payroll tax filings and serve as the primary Payroll resource for tax-related audit requests, resolving routine matters and escalating material issues.
Manage compensation-related analysis and reporting, including Form 990, Form 4720, taxable fringe benefit analysis, and related imputation adjustments.
Analyze employee data and perform state and local regulatory reporting and filings, including environmental impact and parking cash-out programs.
Analyze biweekly multi-state payroll results and support processing activities with tax impacts, including retroactive transactions, employee changes, and exception review.
Lead defined payroll-tax projects and the payroll-tax workstream for system upgrades, enhancements, and user acceptance testing, including evaluation of tax configuration, reporting, controls, and compliance impacts.
Manage payroll-tax SOPs and identify, recommend, and implement approved improvements to processes, controls, reporting, and system configurations.
Provide backup payroll support as needed.
Provide technical guidance, training, and work support to payroll team members on payroll tax procedures, compliance requirements, and issue resolution, without formal people-management responsibility.
Prepare payroll GL reconciliations and journal entries, respond to ad hoc payroll tax data requests, and support ICM control testing.
Coordinate payroll-tax audit requests, validate supporting documentation, resolve routine inquiries, track responses through completion, and escalate material findings to Payroll management.
Demonstrate FINRA’s values and collaborate in person and virtually in furtherance of its mission of investor protection and market integrity.

Benefits

Discretionary bonus eligibility.
Overtime pay for non-exempt employees in accordance with applicable law.
Comprehensive health insurance.
Dental insurance.
Vision insurance.
Basic life, accidental death and dismemberment, supplemental life, spouse/domestic partner and dependent life, and spouse/domestic partner and dependent accidental death and dismemberment insurance.
Short- and long-term disability insurance.
Long-term care insurance.
Business travel accident insurance.
Legal insurance.
401(k) plan with immediate participation and vesting and company match.
Eligibility to participate in an additional FINRA-funded retirement contribution.
Tuition reimbursement.
Commuter benefits.
Adoption assistance.
Backup family care.
Surrogacy benefits.
Employee assistance and wellness programs.
Paid time off starting at 15 days and increasing with years of service up to 25 days.
Five personal days and nine sick days, prorated in the first year where applicable.
Two volunteer service days based on a full-time schedule.
Military, jury duty, bereavement, voting and election official, care of a family member, childbirth, and parental leave.
Nine paid holidays for full-time employees.