Senior Payroll Compliance Manager - Payroll Tax Specialist, US & Canada

Responsibilities

• Partner with leadership to design and build the intake, tracking, and routing systems that standardize how compliance changes are identified, documented, and acted on.
• Serve as the primary intake point for compliance issues reported by the Tax Operations team. Diagnose root cause, prioritize, and route to the correct team for resolution. Identify patterns across issues and proactively propose systemic fixes.
• Monitor agencies for changes specific to forms, filing frequencies, and filing specifications—using authenticated agency portals, direct agency contact, and form comparison tools. Assess the impact of each change on QuickBooks Workforce customers and internal systems and create actionable work items.
• Write clear, technically accurate requirements for engineering teams, including file format specifications, agency contact details, go-live dates, and customer impact. Track implementation through to release and confirm go-live with the agency where needed.
• Own and maintain the master database of all supported tax jurisdictions: filing methods, forms, amendment instructions, account ID requirements, agency contacts, and system update history. Ensure accuracy through regular review cycles, not just point-in-time updates.
• Define and maintain the rules, file formats, and requirements that govern agency data exchange across supported jurisdictions. Evaluate and implement updates as states introduce new data feeds, expand scope, or change requirements.
• Maintain working relationships with contacts at key tax agencies, particularly those with complex or frequently changing requirements. Serve as the compliance escalation point when agency-level notifications require direct engagement on filings, forms, or payment specifications.
• Develop and maintain compliance documentation and artifacts that support audit readiness, regulatory traceability, and shared understanding across the team. Ensure no single person holds critical institutional knowledge alone.
• Explore, experiment with, and adopt AI-powered tools to enhance the breadth, depth, and scale of compliance monitoring, research, and documentation—including AI-assisted inbox triage, regulatory summarization, and jurisdiction coverage expansion.
• Partner with the team to evaluate AI-generated compliance detections, applying regulatory expertise to validate and act on AI-surfaced notifications— and provide feedback that improves the quality of automated monitoring over time.
• Identify recurring manual tasks that are candidates for automation, document them clearly, and partner with engineering to build durable solutions that reduce operational fragility.

Qualifications

• Proven Expertise: 3+ years of experience in payroll tax compliance, tax operations, or a closely related field—ideally at a payroll service provider or financial technology company.
• Working knowledge of payroll tax filing requirements, including multiple deposit frequencies, reconciliation processes, and year-end filing requirements.
• Technical Acumen: Ability to read and interpret tax agency specifications (NACHA format, EFW2, agency-specific file layouts) and translate them into clear requirements for engineering teams. Familiarity with payroll tax processing systems and compliance platforms is a strong plus.
• Data-Driven and AI-First Mindset: Ability to gather, analyze, and utilize data to assess compliance status and drive decisions. Familiarity with AI/ML concepts and how to leverage them in a compliance setting. Hands-on experience using generative AI tools (such as Claude, ChatGPT, or similar) for research, writing, or workflow automation is a plus.
• Exceptional Communicator: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate regulatory requirements clearly for technical and non-technical audiences alike. Comfortable writing detailed requirements, process documentation, agency correspondence, and internal status updates.
• Organized and Detail-Oriented: Strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple concurrent open items across many jurisdictions without missing deadlines. Comfortable working cross-functionally with engineering, product, and operations teams, often without direct authority over the timeline or outcome.
• Education: Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience. Preferred Experience with tax jurisdictions, including varying filing methods, form structures, and agency-specific requirements.
• Familiarity with structured agency data exchange formats such as EFW2, NACHA, or agency-specific file specifications.
• Experience preparing compliance documentation for internal or external audits, including regulatory traceability artifacts.
• Exposure to automation tools and scripting, and an interest in reducing manual work through tooling.
• Experience partnering with engineering or product teams to translate compliance requirements into system implementations.
• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) designation preferred.