Payroll Clerk

CHAOS Industries•El Segundo, CA

10d•$37 - $44•Onsite

About The Position

CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with a multi-product portfolio that gives the ultimate advantage—domain dominance. The company's products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats. CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised a total of $1 billion in funding from leading investors, including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and London. For more information, please visit www.chaosinc.com. Role Overview: We're looking for a detail-oriented Payroll Clerk that excels in dynamic, fast-paced environments. This role will be integral in supporting day-to-day payroll operations. The ideal candidate thrives in navigating ambiguity and balancing competing priorities while maintaining a consistently high standard for accuracy and precision.

Requirements

3-5 years of payroll processing experience (multi-state a plus)
Familiarity with payroll/HRIS platforms (Rippling experience strongly preferred)
Working knowledge of payroll fundamentals: wage and hour law, tax withholding basics, deduction priority ordering
Strong Excel skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, basic data cleanup)
High attention to detail and comfort working with sensitive, confidential data
Clear written communication skills for employee-facing correspondence
Ability to work independently while flagging issues proactively

Nice To Haves

Exposure to international or EOR payroll
Experience with NetSuite
Experience with Rippling
Interest in data analysis or BI tools (Power BI, SQL)

Responsibilities

Support processing of biweekly/semi-monthly payroll runs across multiple U.S. states and entities using Rippling, ensuring accuracy of hours, earnings, deductions, and tax withholdings
Support onboarding of new hires into the payroll system, including manual processing for edge cases (e.g., onboarding blocks, new-market entries) when needed
Assist with timecard review and non-compliance follow-up, escalating patterns to the Payroll Manager with supporting documentation
Help maintain compliance across ~19 U.S. states plus U.K. and EOR jurisdictions, including staying current on state-specific wage and hour rules (e.g., California flat-sum bonus overtime recalculation, PFL withholding)
Support reconciliation of payroll data across systems (Rippling, Greenhouse, NetSuite) to support accurate GL postings and downstream reporting
Support benefits and deduction administration, including FSA/HSA elections and termination-related final pay calculations
Respond to employee payroll inquiries with professionalism and discretion
Assist with special projects, including data cleanup and formatting for reporting/data warehouse initiatives
Maintain organized, audit-ready payroll documentation and records