Payroll & Senior Accounting Specialist

Compensation

$42.25 - $45.68 / hour (DOE)

Status

Full-time, Non-exempt, Year-round

Location

Richmond, CA

About the role

You’ll be the financial heartbeat of our school operations. This is a non-management, highly execution-focused position where your passion for precision and your ability to connect with people come together. You’ll manage the day-to-day business office mechanics, ensuring our 150+ team members are paid accurately and on time, while maintaining a rock-solid general ledger.

Responsibilities

• Execute full-cycle bi-weekly payroll for over 150+ employees, meticulously verifying timesheets and tracking data.
• Manage specialized deductions including garnishments, stipends, and teacher summer hold-back payments.
• Streamline operations by maintaining internal checklists, workflows, and zero-defect systems.
• Protect compliance by calculating precise final paychecks and PTO payouts under strict California labor timelines.
• Partner deeply with People Operations/HR to maintain flawless data flow, managing retirement plan enrollments and distributing tracking reports (overtime, leave balances, headcount).
• Drive month-end and year-end closing tasks, posting journal entries and processing accruals for restricted/unrestricted funds.
• Prepare and post bi-weekly payroll journals directly into Sage Intacct.
• Reconcile and clear specific payroll-related balance sheet accounts (FSA, life insurance).
• Audit expense data by supporting the accurate coding of vendor invoices and employee reimbursements against approved budgets.
• Monitor daily cash positions and feed clean data to the finance team for cash flow projections.

Requirements

• 3+ years of hands-on, full-cycle payroll processing for an organization with 150+ employees.
• 2+ years of general ledger accounting experience, including journal entries, month-end accruals, and balance sheet reconciliations.
• Strong command of California Wage & Hour rules (overtime, final check timelines, meal/rest break rules).
• Advanced tech literacy, including mid-to-enterprise accounting/payroll software (e.g., Sage Intacct, Rippling, Concur) and advanced Excel skills (VLOOKUPs, Pivot Tables).

Qualifications

• Experience in a fast-paced public school, charter school, or non-profit environment.
• Prior familiarity with California school systems like CalSTRS, SACS guidelines, or the CDE GMART/ConApp portals.

Skills

• Tech-forward
• Highly analytical
• Systems-thinker
• Customer-service oriented

Benefits

Equal Employment Opportunity

Employment eligibility will include fingerprints/Live Scan, TB screen, and other employment clearance.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our school.