Senior Director, Payroll , NY

• Department:
  Regional Support and Leadership

About KIPP NYC:
Founded in 1995, KIPP NYC Public Schools is a non-profit network of 18 free, public charter schools located in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. We partner with families and communities to create joyful, academically excellent schools where every child grows up free to create the future they want for themselves and their communities.

From our first middle school, KIPP Academy in the Bronx, to today’s network of eight elementary schools, nine middle schools, and one high school, KIPP NYC provides students with engaging academics, arts, athletics, and social–emotional learning that prepare them for college, career, and beyond.

Our commitment doesn’t end ough KIPP Forward, we continue to support our alumni as they navigate college, career, and life, helping them define success on their own terms and pursue the paths that align with their goals and sense of purpose.

Together, we serve more than 9,400 students, support 4,700 alumni, and employ over 1,100 dedicated team members who bring passion, expertise, and commitment to our mission every day.

Position Overview:

The Senior Director, Payroll is a key leader within KIPP NYC's Finance Team, responsible for setting the vision and leading the strategy, systems, and operations for a complex payroll function serving employees across multiple legal entities, schools, and programs.

Reporting to Finance leadership, the Senior Director will lead a cross-functional approach to payroll in close partnership with People Operations, Accounting, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), school and program leaders, and external partners. This leader will establish the systems, controls, processes, and accountability structures needed to deliver accurate, timely, compliant, and employee-centered payroll services across KIPP NYC.

The Senior Director leads and develops a payroll team consisting of an Assistant Director of Payroll and two Payroll Clerks and serves as KIPP NYC's senior payroll subject-matter expert. The role is responsible for strengthening internal controls, optimizing UKG and related payroll systems, managing external vendors, ensuring regulatory compliance, and continuously improving the employee payroll experience.

This role requires a strategic and collaborative leader with deep technical payroll expertise who can build sustainable systems while remaining close enough to the work to understand operational details, identify risks, solve complex problems, and provide direct leadership and operational coverage when needed.

This is a full-time position with a hybrid schedule, requiring a minimum of three in-person days per week based out of our KIPP NYC Midtown Manhattan office. The role also includes travel to KIPP NYC campuses across the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. The cadence and frequency of school visits will be determined by your leadership team. This position may require work on some company holidays as required by the payroll calendar to ensure employees are paid accurately and on time.

Duties and Responsibilities:

General responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

Payroll Leadership & Operations

• Lead KIPP NYC’s payroll function operations to effectively support employees, schools, programs, and organizational priorities.
• Lead the accurate and timely processing of regular, supplemental, and off-cycle payrolls across multiple legal entities and employee populations.
• Establish and continuously improve payroll processes, procedures, calendars, controls, service standards, and operating rhythms.
• Provide strategic oversight of payroll preparation, validation, review, approval, submission, corrections, and related activities.
• Develop and monitor key…