Senior Payroll Specialist in Indianapolis, Indiana

Senior Payroll Specialist

The Heritage Group is a fourth-generation, family-owned business focused on construction and materials, environmental services and specialty chemicals. Over the last 90+ years, the Heritage portfolio has grown to include more than 50 companies that employ more than 6,000 people. Reporting to the Manager, Enterprise Payroll, the Senior Payroll Specialist is a key subject matter expert responsible for ensuring accurate, timely, and compliant payroll processing.

This role acts as a strategic partner between HR, Finance, and IT to drive continuous process improvements, automate administrative workflows for payroll, and maintain flawless payroll tax compliance across all jurisdictions, as well as protecting employee confidentiality and maintaining data integrity and internal controls.

This role is primarily remote with occasional travel into our Indianapolis, IN offices. Qualified candidates must reside within 75 miles of the Indianapolis, IN area.

• 70% Payroll Processing and Administration
• Maintains knowledge of applicable state and federal payroll and related tax regulations, legislation and guidelines including, but not limited to writs of garnishment, child support, levies, and subpoenas
• Reviews, analyzes, audits, and verifies payroll reports and backup documents for accuracy
• Completes the Payroll Variance Report for all payrolls, and explains discrepancies 5% or more
• Acts as a liaison with staff and managers in answering questions, providing alternatives, and facilitating decision-making. Cross-collaboration across other HRSS teams is essential.
• Execute end-to-end biweekly/weekly multi-state payroll cycles for all employees within Workday and Viewpoint, with regards to Federal compliance. Integrate time tracking and pay data from Viewpoint construction management software and Workday HCM to process payroll in Workday and Viewpoint seamlessly.
• Oversee the processing of complex pay elements including retroactive pay, bonuses, garnishments, and equity compensation
• Prioritizes and plans day-to-day work activities effectively to utilize time
• Administers employee wage garnishments and child support deductions and setups
• Completes monthly union check requests, reports and coordinates system updates, tax update testing, etc.
• Assists in researching and resolving employee pay issues
• Responds to employee requests for written employment verification, wage verification, etc.
• Balances and submits ACH, tax, benefit, and Third-Party files
• Demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness and ensures quality of work
• Creates monthly reports to maintain data integrity and compliance while limiting liability and risk
• Acts as a subject matter resource to team members in payroll processing and trains new employees
• 10% Tax Compliance & Reporting
• Maintain comprehensive knowledge of federal, state, and local payroll tax regulations.
• Assist in reconciling quarterly and annual tax filings, including W-2 and W-2c data processing, and resolve any discrepancies with tax agencies.
• Review tax vendor reports and help manage internal Workday tax configuration and testing for any releases.
• 10% Process Improvement & System Enhancement
• Continuously evaluate existing payroll workflows to identify bottlenecks and manual entry flaws, implementing improvements that increase accuracy and reduce processing time, using AI as a tool to assist.
• Partner with HRIS and IT teams to architect, troubleshoot, and optimize file feeds between Workday and Viewpoint.
• Design and document standardized payroll procedures, build automated reporting dashboards, and promote the use of employee self-service tools.
• Participates in the development of new procedures and policies related to payroll operations; coordinates approved changes within payroll processing system; updates policy and procedure manual
• Initiate quality assurance reviews and identify problematic processes
• Test system configuration updates prior to migration into the production environment to ensure changes have an accurate impact, especially tax updates, patches, new configuration, etc.
• Strives to develop efficiencies and processes to limit manual transactions
• Maintains confidentiality and the highest degree of integrity
• Assists in any special payroll projects, audit data requests and year end process
• 10% Auditing & Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Perform pre- and post-payroll audits, resolve discrepancies, and reconcile all Payroll General Ledger (GL) accounts.
• Assist internal/external auditors with payroll documentation, SOX compliance, and fiscal year reporting requirements.
• Serve as an escalation point for complex payroll and tax inquiries, ensuring excellent customer service for all employees

• Additional duties and responsibilities as assigned, including but not limited to continuously growing in alignment with the Company's core values, competencies, and skills.

• Required High School or Equivalent and a Bachelors degree in accounting, finance, human resources, or business…