Payroll Reconciliation & Controls Manager

IHG•Atlanta, GA

11h•$100,000 - $130,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Payroll Reconciliation & Controls Manager is a hands-on working manager responsible for strengthening payroll accuracy, integrity, and control discipline across the organization. This role leads the development and execution of reconciliation routines, control checkpoints, and exception-management processes across the payroll lifecycle; with a strong early focus on tax and garnishment monitoring through ADP SmartCompliance. The role partners closely with Payroll Operations, Finance, HR, and vendor teams to ensure alignment, transparency, and issue resolution, while building scalable, repeatable control routines that support a mature and well-governed payroll operating model.

Requirements

7+ years of progressive payroll operations or payroll controls experience in a complex, multi-state environment
Demonstrated experience with reconciliation, variance analysis, and exception resolution
Hands-on experience with ADP SmartCompliance or similar tax and garnishment platforms
Strong analytical skills with ability to trace data, identify root causes, and document remediation
Experience supporting audit, compliance, or control testing activities
High attention to detail with a strong controls and integrity mindset
Proficiency in Excel and reporting / analysis tools
Hands-on, execution-focused leader who can do the work while building sustainable processes
Collaborative, disciplined, and accountability-oriented
Strong communicator who works effectively across Payroll, Finance, HR, and vendor partners

Nice To Haves

Experience working in a vendor-supported payroll operating model
Prior involvement in process standardization or operational transformation initiatives
Exposure to interface mapping, downstream feed validation, or control framework development

Responsibilities

Establish and execute per-pay, monthly, quarterly, and annual reconciliation routines across payroll results, funding activity, tax and garnishment items, and downstream interfaces.
Monitor and manage client-responsibility items in ADP SmartCompliance, including exceptions, notices, amendments, registrations, and agency correspondence.
Perform data-alignment and mapping validation across payroll results, downstream financial feeds, and regulatory outputs (e.g., W-2s) to ensure accuracy and control integrity.
Research and resolve complex discrepancies through root-cause analysis, documentation, and preventive control recommendations.
Develop and maintain control documentation, evidence artifacts, reconciliation schedules, and exception logs to support audit readiness and consistency.
Partner with Payroll Operations, Finance, HR, and vendors to align processes, reduce exceptions, and strengthen data integrity.
Mature reconciliation and monitoring routines from manual execution to standardized and increasingly automated processes over time.
Produce clear reconciliation summaries and exception reporting to support leadership visibility and decision-making.