Manager, Payroll

Relativity Space • Long Beach, CA

7d

About The Position

At Relativity Space, we’re building rockets to serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s breakthroughs. Our Terran R vehicle will deliver customer payloads to orbit, meeting the growing demand for launch capacity. But that’s just the start. Achieving commercial success with Terran R will unlock new opportunities to advance science, exploration, and innovation, pioneering progress that reaches beyond the known. Joining Relativity means becoming part of something where autonomy, ownership, and impact exist at every level. Here, you're not just executing tasks; you're solving problems that haven’t been solved before, helping develop a rocket, a factory, and a business from the ground up. Whether you’re in propulsion, manufacturing, software, avionics, or a corporate function, you’ll collaborate across teams, shape decisions, and see your work come to life in record time. Relativity is a place where creativity and technical rigor go hand in hand, and your voice will help define the stories we’re writing together. Now is a unique moment in time where it’s early enough to leave your mark on the product, the process, and the culture, but far enough along that Terran R is tangible and picking up momentum. The most meaningful work of your career is waiting. Join us. About the Team: The Accounting team at Relativity spans tax and compliance, financial operations, general ledger, and business data strategy. While each group brings unique insights, they are united by a shared goal of protecting the financial integrity of Relativity, while also enabling smarter, faster decisions to help the company scale. You’ll collaborate deeply with teams across the business, ask the right questions, and become a trusted partner, not just a processor. With a focus on enabling growth, you’ll bring both structure and creativity to a highly dynamic environment. About the Role: Own accurate payroll processing: Responsible for the end-to-end execution of multi-state, semi-monthly payroll, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance. This includes hands-on oversight of payroll inputs, reviews, and approvals, as well as proactive issue resolution to ensure employees are paid correctly and on time. Deliver timely and accurate reporting to business partners across the Accounting, Finance, and People organizations. Drive system and process improvements: In partnership with Accounting, People, and HRIS, you will identify and implement opportunities to improve payroll system efficiency, strengthen internal controls, and scale processes to support continued company growth. You will play a key role in shaping the payroll roadmap and ensuring systems and processes evolve alongside the business. Lead month, quarter, and year-end processes & regulatory and tax compliance: Own all year-end payroll activities including W-2 processing, 401k audit support, and other payroll administration processes, ensuring full compliance with federal, state, and local regulations. Complete monthly and quarterly payroll reconciliations and assist in answering queries from stakeholder teams. Familiarity with SOX controls, ability to adhere to new and existing regulatory requirements, and experience supporting audit activities (EDD audits, workers comp audit, etc.) is beneficial. Foster cross-functional partnerships: Serve as a trusted payroll partner to Accounting, People, HRIS, and Finance leadership – as well as all company employees – to enable strong communication, alignment, and accountability across teams. Through these partnerships, you will help resolve complex payroll issues, support reporting and audits, and improve the overall employee experience.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher, preferably in accounting, HR, or a related field plus 6–9+ years of progressive, hands-on payroll experience in a fast-paced, multi-state environment
• Strong working knowledge of federal, state, and local wage & hour and payroll tax regulations
• Proven experience executing payroll in Workday and OneSource Virtual (OSV) or similar enterprise payroll systems; ability to drive system-leveraged results and automations
• Advanced attention to detail with a strong sense of ownership and accountability
• Highly collaborative with the ability to partner effectively across Accounting, HR, and HRIS
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and process improvement skills and the ability to operate independently and autonomously

Nice To Haves

• Previous system implementation and/or integration experience
• Experience supporting payroll in high-growth, start-up environment; preferably in manufacturing or aerospace

Responsibilities

• Responsible for the end-to-end execution of multi-state, semi-monthly payroll, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance.
• Deliver timely and accurate reporting to business partners across the Accounting, Finance, and People organizations.
• Identify and implement opportunities to improve payroll system efficiency, strengthen internal controls, and scale processes to support continued company growth.
• Own all year-end payroll activities including W-2 processing, 401k audit support, and other payroll administration processes, ensuring full compliance with federal, state, and local regulations.
• Complete monthly and quarterly payroll reconciliations and assist in answering queries from stakeholder teams.
• Serve as a trusted payroll partner to Accounting, People, HRIS, and Finance leadership – as well as all company employees – to enable strong communication, alignment, and accountability across teams.

Benefits

• Relativity Space offers competitive salary and equity, a generous PTO and sick leave policy, parental leave, an annual learning and development stipend, and more!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees