Senior Manager, Payroll

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Take ownership and manage all U.S. payroll cycles—including weekly, biweekly, and semi-monthly—with a strict zero-error policy.

• Supervise and mentor one direct report, cultivating a culture of accountability, growth, and operational excellence.

• Act as the internal expert on payroll, addressing employee inquiries with promptness and precision.

• Maintain thorough payroll documentation and records to support audits, compliance reviews, and internal reporting needs.

• Ensure adherence to all relevant federal, state, and local payroll laws and regulations in every jurisdiction where Commure operates.

• Keep a comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of California labor laws, including wage and hour regulations, overtime rules, pay stub compliance, and final pay obligations.

• Proactively track regulatory changes and implement necessary policy or process adjustments to ensure compliance ahead of deadlines.

• Collaborate with Legal and HR to address complex leave situations, garnishments, equity-related payroll events, and other atypical payroll issues.

• Develop a top-tier People <> Payroll integration by closely partnering with the People team to enhance workflows around onboarding, offboarding, leaves of absence, compensation changes, and benefits deductions.

• Propel process standardization to minimize manual interventions and enhance accuracy of payroll inputs from People systems.

• Advocate for a seamless employee payroll experience, ensuring transparency, punctuality, and trust with each paycheck.

• Work alongside the Accounting team to guarantee timely and accurate payroll journal entries, account reconciliations, and period-end closing activities.

• Assist with payroll-related audit requests and ensure the integrity of payroll data entering the general ledger.

• Collaborate with FP&A on headcount forecasting, accruals, and variance analysis related to compensation and benefits.

• Lead or co-lead the assessment, selection, and implementation of a new global HRIS and payroll management system, acting as the primary payroll representative during vendor evaluations and implementation phases.

• Define and document requirements for payroll system integrations, data flows, and reporting structures that are scalable for a multinational workforce.

• Continuously seek out and apply process enhancements and automation to boost efficiency, lessen manual efforts, and improve data accuracy within payroll operations.

⛳️ Requirements

• 7+ years of progressive payroll experience, ideally within a high-growth, mid-stage startup or similar fast-paced environment.

• Proven experience managing multi-state and multinational payroll operations, with full ownership throughout the payroll lifecycle.

• Previous experience overseeing or mentoring direct reports in payroll or HR operations.

• A strong history of navigating complex environments and establishing scalable payroll infrastructure from the ground up.

• Extensive, practical knowledge of California labor laws—including wage and hour regulations, final pay rules, pay stub requirements, and leave management.

• Robust understanding of federal and multi-state payroll compliance requirements, tax withholding, and reporting obligations (W-2s, 1099s, etc.).

• High proficiency in Rippling is preferred.

• Familiarity with payroll accounting principles, journal entries, and reconciliation processes within ERP systems (NetSuite experience is a plus).

• Experience leading or significantly contributing to an HRIS or payroll platform implementation is a considerable advantage.

• Comfortable assessing, scoping, and collaborating on the introduction of new systems in a dynamic, resource-limited environment.

• Practical experience with payroll integrations and data mapping across HRIS, ERP, and benefits platforms.

🏝️ Benefits

• Offers Equity