Payroll Specialist
About The Position
The Corporate Finance Payroll team is responsible for processing full-cycle, in-house payroll operations across multiple legal entities. We manage payroll for over 5,000 employees across 45+ state jurisdictions, interacting closely with internal partners in Human Resources, Corporate Legal, IT, and various business lines to ensure absolute compliance with company policies and all federal, state, and local payroll laws. As our Payroll Specialist, you will drive critical transactional execution and manage the complete employee payroll lifecycle within Workday. In this role, you will accurately execute off-cycle payrolls, immediate pay state-mandated terminations, ACH rejections, and garnishment data entries. You will serve as the first-line support for managers and associates to resolve unmatched, unsubmitted, or unapproved timecards, while validating the earning proof and audit reports each cycle to verify incentive pay, track unusual pay fluctuations, and ensure all associates are paid correctly. Additionally, you will run pay deductions per pay period to create payment uploads for 401(k), HSA, FSA, parking, and LTD, reconcile monthly vendor benefit invoices for AP payment files, and logically prioritize the shared "Payroll Admin" inbox while serving as the primary operational backup for the Sr. Payroll Specialist.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional work experience.
- 1–3 years of hands-on payroll and timecard processing experience.
- Clear understanding of managing high-volume shared inboxes.
- Deep understanding of payroll practices.
- Mathematical and Excel aptitude (including VLOOKUPs, XLOOKUPs, Pivot Tables, and IF statements).
- Strong communication skills.
- Extreme attention to detail and a "zero-error" mindset.
- Strict discretion to maintain complete data privacy.
Responsibilities
- Accurately execute off-cycle payrolls, immediate pay state-mandated terminations, ACH rejections, and garnishment data entries.
- Serve as the first-line support for managers and associates to resolve unmatched, unsubmitted, or unapproved timecards.
- Validate earning proof and audit reports each cycle to verify incentive pay, track unusual pay fluctuations, and ensure all associates are paid correctly.
- Run pay deductions per pay period to create payment uploads for 401(k), HSA, FSA, parking, and LTD.
- Reconcile monthly vendor benefit invoices for AP payment files.
- Logically prioritize the shared "Payroll Admin" inbox.
- Serve as the primary operational backup for the Sr. Payroll Specialist.
- Use problem-solving skills and deep knowledge of federal, state, and local payroll laws to investigate and resolve complex payroll situations, ensuring tax integrity and Gross-to-Net results.
- Calculate on demand checks, handle prorated or retroactive adjustments, and confidently reconcile monthly vendor benefit invoices against payroll deductions.
- Guide associates and managers through Workday functions, provide policy direction, and explain complex pay discrepancies to frustrated employees in simple, calm, and empathetic terms.
- Ensure data entries, system uploads, and timecards are accurate to meet established deadlines.
- Maintain complete data privacy while handling highly sensitive associate information.
Benefits
- Paid Time Off
- 401(k) matching program
- Annual incentive pay
- Paid holidays
- Comprehensive company sponsored benefit plan including medical, dental, vision, and other insurance coverage
- Health savings accounts
- Flexible spending accounts
- Dependent care accounts
- Adoption assistance
- Employee assistance program
- Fitness reimbursement
- Tuition reimbursement
- Associate wellbeing program
- Associate emergency fund
- Various associate banking benefits
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
