Payroll & Benefits Supervisor

Location: Belle Plaine

Job Description:

At Cambria, the Payroll and Benefits Supervisor oversees and coordinates the daily operations of the payroll department, ensuring accurate, compliant, and timely payroll processing for employees across multiple jurisdictions in both the United States and Canada. This role is also responsible for performing a variety of audits relating to the payment of employee’s wages and benefit enrollment.

This role requires an accounting background to manage payroll reconciliations, general ledger (GL) mapping, reporting and research as needed. Acting as a subject matter expert, the Payroll and Benefits Supervisor will leverage Workday Payroll to optimize workflows, lead the payroll specialists, and ensure strict adherence to federal, state, provincial, and local payroll and tax regulations.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Payroll Administration:
Supervise the end-to-end processing of multi-state US and multi-provincial Canadian payrolls, ensuring compliance with all local tax laws and labor standards

Benefit Processing:
Review and approve benefit elections based on qualifying life events and eligibility rules, reconcile benefit deductions and conduct benefit audits to ensure enrollment accuracy between Workday, payroll deductions and vendor systems

System Optimization:
Serve as the primary super-user for Workday Payroll, troubleshooting system errors, and driving process automation

Financial Reconciliation:
Perform complex payroll-to-GL reconciliations, review labor costing questions, and partner closely with the Accounting team to ensure accurate payroll GL reporting. Ensure reconciliations are in place to make sure all deductions in Workday are remitted accurately to the vendors where appropriate for garnishments, retirement deductions, union dues, etc.

Compliance & Tax Management:
Partner with the Payroll Tax team to participate in quarterly and year-end tax filings (including W-2s in the US and T4s/RL-1s in Canada). Perform tax adjustments as needed. Stay current on shifting payroll legislation across all applicable jurisdictions and ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and internal policies

Team Leadership:
Guide, mentor, and evaluate the performance of payroll specialists, fostering a culture of accuracy, confidentiality, and excellent customer service

Audit & Reporting:
Participate in internal and external payroll audits (e.g., worker's compensation, 401k/RRSP compliance, tax authority audits) and generate ad-hoc reporting for leadership

Issue Resolution:
Act as the escalation point for complex payroll inquiries from employees, managers and HR partners

Additional Duties:
Perform additional duties and projects as assigned by management

Qualifications & Skills:

Cross-Border Expertise:
Deep understanding of payroll regulations, tax structures, and compliance requirements in both the US and Canada (multi-jurisdictional knowledge is required)
Technical Proficiency:
Advanced, hands-on experience utilizing Workday Payroll and Time Tracking modules. Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel (VLOOKUPs, pivot tables, complex formulas) is essential

Analytical & Accounting Acumen:
Strong numeracy skills with a proven ability to reconcile financial data, identify variances, and resolve general ledger discrepancies

Communication:
Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain complex payroll or tax concepts to non-technical stakeholders

Confidentiality:
Absolute commitment to maintaining the highest level of confidentiality regarding sensitive employee and financial data Urgency:
Demonstrates a high sense of urgency and ability to adapt to a quickly changing environment

Time Management:
Excellent time management and organizational skills and the ability to use independent judgment in prioritizing tasks to meet deadlines

Accuracy:
Strong attention to detail with efficient and accurate ability to prepare detailed reports

Minimum Requirements:

Education:

Associate’s or Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources, Business, Accounting, Finance or related field or equivalent experience

Experience:

Minimum of 5+ years of progressive payroll processing experience, with a…