Payroll Manager

About the role

In this role, you will own end-to-end payroll operations for our 500+ person, multi-state workforce, serving as the trusted bridge between Finance and the People team. You’ll manage full-cycle payroll processing, multi-state compliance, and vendor relationships, while partnering with Finance on month-end reporting and headcount planning. We’re looking for someone with hands-on Rippling HCM experience and deep multi-state payroll compliance knowledge who’s comfortable operating as a trusted liaison across teams.

Responsibilities

• Own and execute the full payroll cycle for all US and international employees and contractors, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with federal, state, and local requirements.
• Administer and maintain payroll operations within Rippling HCM, including pay runs, tax setup, deductions, and employee data integrity.
• Review timecards for 300+ hourly employees each pay cycle to identify meal and rest break violations, split shift triggers, and reporting time obligations; calculate and enter all owed penalties, premiums, and top-ups; and audit system-calculated overtime — including California daily/weekly and seventh-day rules and other state variations — before payroll closes.
• Act as the primary liaison between the People and Finance teams, ensuring payroll-related information (new hires, terminations, pay changes, leaves, commission/bonus data, wage garnishments, court-mandated deductions) flows accurately with no gaps or delays.
• Partner with department and business unit leaders to process commission and bonus payouts, ensuring calculations, approvals, and timing align with plan documents and policy.
• Lead payroll compliance across all US states and applicable federal requirements, including wage and hour law, tax and unemployment insurance obligations, unclaimed property, and benefits-related payroll reporting.
• Serve as subject matter expert on multi-state payroll compliance, with particular depth in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New York, Nevada, and Minnesota.
• Monitor payroll tax deposits and filings across all jurisdictions; triage and resolve incoming tax notices with the payroll platform and relevant agencies; maintain payroll records per federal and state retention requirements.
• Investigate and resolve pay discrepancies and employee payroll inquiries accurately and promptly.
• Maintain and improve payroll policies, procedures, and internal controls; identify opportunities to automate or streamline processes.
• Partner with Finance to explain and reconcile payroll expense changes at month-end close, providing variance context and supporting documentation, and support Strategic Finance on headcount planning with payroll cost data, forecasts, and scenario modeling as needed.
• Support internal and external audits related to payroll, tax, and compliance, and other ad hoc payroll projects as needed.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of multi-state payroll experience, ideally for a remote workforce of 600+ employees, including non-exempt and exempt employees and commission, bonus, and incentive compensation structures.
• Deep expertise in wage and hour compliance: meal and rest breaks, split shift, reporting time, and state-specific overtime regulations.
• Worked with Rippling Payroll and Rippling Time & Attendance.
• Strong, hands-on knowledge of payroll compliance in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New York, Nevada, and Minnesota.
• Experienced processing all pay types, regular and off-cycle runs, bonuses, commissions, leave top-ups, and termination pay, and familiar with state and local payroll tax registration across jurisdictions.
• Experience working cross-functionally between People/HR and Finance teams, with excellent stakeholder communication skills and a solid understanding of how payroll expenses flow into month-end close.
• Strong Excel and/or Google Sheets skills, with experience building and maintaining reconciliation and payroll data reports.
• Highly detail-oriented, organized, with a track record of high-accuracy, on-time delivery, and comfortable managing competing deadlines in a fast-paced, high-growth, remote-first environment.
• Experience supporting headcount planning or workforce cost forecasting with a Strategic Finance/FP&A team, and/or a CPP certification are all a plus.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary - $85,000 - $100,000
• Premium Medical, Dental, & Vision Coverage – options for you and your family, with 100% of premiums covered for some plans – well above industry benchmarks.
• Wellness/Mental Health – shared benefits to be used among employees and families.
• Flexible Paid Time Off – allowing employees to find balance in their lives.
• Options of Equity – we know our success is nothing without our team.
• Access to a 401k through Guideline.
• A home office setup and a monthly stipend to offset internet and phone costs.