Payroll Analyst

About the role

We are looking for an experienced Payroll Analyst to support payroll issue analysis, testing coordination, and resolution efforts in San Ramon, California. This is a Long-term Contract position within the healthcare sector, suited for a hands-on, detail-oriented individual who can investigate discrepancies, interpret payroll results, and work effectively across multiple systems. The role calls for someone who can manage competing priorities, communicate clearly with stakeholders, and help drive payroll defects through to closure in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Investigate payroll exceptions and system-related issues by reviewing outputs, tracing root causes, and documenting findings clearly for resolution teams.
• Support payroll environment setup activities, data conversion validation, and catch-up transaction review to help maintain accuracy across impacted processes.
• Compare payroll test and parallel results, reconcile variances, and recommend corrective actions based on identified calculation or data issues.
• Manage defect intake by assessing priority, monitoring status, and escalating critical risks or blockers that may affect payroll delivery.
• Coordinate testing activities across teams, including planning schedules, validating process flows, and confirming issue remediation through retesting.
• Partner with internal stakeholders and external vendors to address integration-related issues affecting payroll data exchange and downstream processing.
• Track recurring problems and defect patterns, then provide practical insights to project leaders to support decision-making and risk mitigation.
• Prepare reports, summaries, and dashboards that highlight testing progress, defect trends, open issues, and completed corrective actions.
• Maintain organized records of test outcomes, resolutions, key decisions, and lessons learned to support future payroll validation efforts.

Requirements

• At least 3 years of payroll experience, including end-to-end payroll processing in complex business environments.

Qualifications

• Practical knowledge of multi-state payroll administration and payroll operations for large employee populations exceeding 500 workers.
• Hands-on experience with payroll platforms such as ADP Workforce Now and UKG Pro.
• Strong understanding of payroll calculations, deductions, taxation, and gross-to-net processing concepts.

Skills

• Ability to analyze discrepancies across systems, identify root causes, and resolve issues with minimal supervision.
• Comfortable working in a client-facing setting with shifting priorities, tight timelines, and multiple concurrent tasks.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to collaborate across cross-functional teams and vendors.

Benefits

• Medical, vision, dental, and life and disability insurance available to contract/temporary professionals.
• Eligibility to enroll in the company 401(k) plan for hired contract/temporary professionals.