Payroll Manager

Job Description

We are looking for an experienced Payroll Manager to lead payroll operations for a contract to hire position. This role is responsible for delivering accurate biweekly payroll across multiple states while maintaining compliance with tax, wage, and hour regulations. The ideal candidate will bring strong leadership skills, deep payroll expertise, and the ability to work closely with Accounting, Finance, and other internal partners to support a reliable and well-controlled payroll function.

Responsibilities:

• Direct end-to-end biweekly payroll activities for a large multi-state employee population, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance across jurisdictions.

• Review and approve payroll inputs such as time records, earnings, bonus and commission payments, deductions, garnishments, off-cycle runs, adjustments, and final compensation.

• Prepare scheduled payroll reports and analyses for internal and external stakeholders, including certified payroll documentation when required.

• Evaluate customer and job-specific pay obligations, apply prevailing wage requirements where applicable, and confirm employees are compensated in accordance with governing regulations.

• Provide monthly payroll data to customers that require workers' compensation reporting for contracted labor.

• Lead, mentor, and support a team of payroll administrators by setting priorities, distributing work, and reinforcing quality and service expectations.

• Act as the primary escalation point for complex payroll matters involving taxation, retroactive changes, multi-state issues, over payments, and withholding discrepancies.

• Oversee payroll tax filings, reconciliations, year-end reporting, and interactions with tax vendors, auditors, and government agencies to address notices and resolve issues.

• Maintain payroll controls and conduct regular audits to protect data accuracy, confidentiality, and adherence to federal, state, and local wage and hour laws.

• Collaborate with Human Resources and Finance on employee classifications, pay changes, leave impacts, incentive payments, account reconciliations, and other compensation-related transactions.

• 7+ years of payroll experience, including leadership responsibility within a high-volume payroll environment.

• Demonstrated expertise managing full-cycle, biweekly, multi-state payroll for employee populations of 500 or more.

• Strong working knowledge of payroll tax regulations, FLSA requirements, wage and hour compliance, deductions, garnishments, and final pay rules.

• Hands-on experience with payroll systems such as ADP Workforce Now and Paycom.

• Ability to reconcile payroll registers, tax liabilities, and general ledger activity with a high level of accuracy.

• Experience interpreting complex payroll situations involving prevailing wage, employee status changes, retroactive pay, and tax withholding matters.

• Proven capability to supervise, coach, and develop payroll staff while maintaining deadlines and service quality.