Senior Payroll Specialist - Term

Join the City of Airdrie and provide advanced payroll expertise in a complex payroll environment. This role is responsible for payroll processing, reconciliations, compliance, year‑end activities, and supporting payroll operations while delivering exceptional service and accuracy.

As one of the fastest growing cities in Alberta, the City of Airdrie is a recognized leader in building a vibrant and sustainable community through innovation.

At the City of Airdrie, incredible opportunities happen every day in a flexible work environment that is tailored to each department. Our inclusive culture and values create a workplace where we welcome aspiring, driven and creative individuals to help us accomplish our business and community goals. We are supportive of one another, and we have fun while we serve our community.

We are passionate about improving the lives of our residents through care and respect; that is the foundation of our organization. At the City of Airdrie, we learn, grow and accomplish great things together. We’re proud to foster a workplace culture built on dedication, teamwork, and genuine care. Our commitment to creating a positive environment is reflected in our employee feedback from the 2025 Employee Engagement Survey, with 92.8% of employees saying they enjoy their work, and 92.6% feeling equipped with the resources they need to stay safe on the job.

If you have a passion for building a better community and are ready to join the excitement, we’d love to hear from you!

The Senior Payroll Specialist provides advanced payroll processing expertise to ensure accurate, timely, and compliant payroll processing within a complex payroll environment. This role focuses primarily on the execution and review of complex payroll transactions, payroll balancing, payroll reconciliations, year‑end processing, and issue resolution. Working within established policies, procedures, collective agreements, and direction set by the Team Leader, Payroll, the Senior Payroll Specialist applies expert knowledge of payroll legislation and payroll practices to ensure all payroll transactions meet legislative and organisational requirements.

This role serves as a senior technical resource to Payroll Advisors and Payroll Specialists by providing guidance on complex transactions, calculations, compliance requirements, and issue resolution, while not having formal people‑management accountability.

The position plays a key operational role in payroll quality assurance through the review of payroll transactions, validation of payroll data, audit preparation, reconciliations, and statutory reporting. The Senior Payroll Specialist identifies payroll discrepancies, compliance risks, process gaps, and system issues, resolving or escalating matters as appropriate. The role also contributes to continuous improvement initiatives, payroll projects, testing activities, system enhancements, and documentation updates that support payroll accuracy, operational efficiency, strong internal controls, and service excellence.

• Execute and support complex payroll processing activities, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and adherence to established policies, collective agreements, and legislative requirements.
• Execute and coordinate year‑end payroll processing and reconciliations, including T4 preparation, pension and benefit reconciliations, WCB reporting, and statutory filings, ensuring accuracy and audit readiness.
• Coordinate and perform complex payroll processing activities, payroll balancing, payroll quality reviews, and payroll reconciliations, ensuring accurate and timely payroll results while maintaining compliance with legislative and organisational requirements.
• Perform payroll quality assurance activities, including auditing payroll transactions, reviewing time entry irregularities, validating payroll calculations, and ensuring payroll data integrity. Support internal and external audit activities through documentation preparation, reconciliation analysis, and audit response activities.
• Independently investigate, analyse, and resolve complex or high‑risk payroll issues of a technical and…