Payroll Staff Accountant

About the Role

Sift is hiring a Staff Accountant to own end-to-end payroll operations for a multi-state and global employee population. This role sits within the Finance & Accounting organization and is designed for a detail-oriented payroll professional who can run bi-weekly and monthly payroll cycles with precision, maintain accounting accuracy through timely journal entries and reconciliations, and partner cross-functionally with Finance and HR to support a growing organization.

The ideal candidate brings deep multi-state payroll experience, comfort with ADP, and a continuous improvement mindset — someone who's as focused on building better processes as they are on getting every cycle right.

• Process bi-weekly payroll for a multi-state employee population and monthly payroll for a global employee population, including pay calculations, validations, audits, and finalization
• Maintain payroll accuracy for earnings, deductions, garnishments, taxes, retro adjustments, leave pay, and off-cycle payments
• Support year-end activities including W-2 preparation, audits, and payroll calendar planning

• Post payroll-related journal entries to the General Ledger and perform payroll reconciliations, resolving variances in a timely manner
• Partner with Finance on payroll reporting and balancing
• Review, code, and approve employee expense reports and corporate card transactions; post related journal entries and perform reconciliations

• Create and enhance payroll reports and dashboards to support operational needs, trend analysis, and leadership requests
• Support system enhancements, testing, and implementations, including upgrades, configuration changes, process documentation, and user support

• Maintain documentation, SOPs, and internal controls aligned with company policy and audit expectations
• Assist with continuous improvement initiatives that streamline payroll workflows, strengthen controls, and improve the employee experience
• Take on ad hoc projects and requests as assigned

• 3–5 years of hands-on payroll processing experience, including bi-weekly payroll cycles
• Multi-state payroll experience with a proven ability to research and apply changing payroll laws and regulations
• Experience with ADP Workforce Now
• Strong Excel skills, including lookups, pivot tables, and data validation
• High attention to detail, strong sense of ownership, and a commitment to accuracy and confidentiality
• Ability to manage competing priorities and meet payroll cutoff timelines
• Collaborative, service-oriented communicator who can explain payroll topics clearly to non-payroll stakeholders
• Continuous improvement mindset with comfort learning new tools and processes

• ERP experience, Netsuite preferred
• Expense Software experience (Navan, Expensify, Brex)