Senior Payroll Specialist

About the role

The Senior Payroll Specialist owns end-to-end US payroll and enables payroll scalability at Nebius. This role harmonizes, simplifies, and continuously improves payroll execution and accounting across our US entities, states, pay groups, vendors, and systems — so payroll remains accurate, compliant, and trusted as the company grows, without a proportional increase in manual work or risk.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end, multi-state US payroll execution across entities, pay groups, and vendors;
• Define consistent execution standards meeting federal, state, and local requirements;
• Ensure US employment tax compliance across jurisdictions: federal, state, and local withholding, FICA/FUTA/SUI, new-state registrations, quarterly and annual filings (Forms 941/940, W-2/W-2c), amendments, and timely resolution of agency notices;
• Administer regulated pay items accurately: garnishments, child-support orders, 401(k) and benefits deductions, equity income (RSU/option) taxation, imputed income, and taxable fringe benefits;
• Lead root-cause analysis for recurring payroll, accounting, or service failures; design and implement durable fixes;
• Lead payroll execution during transitions (new state or entity launches, vendor changes, system changes, M&A), ensuring continuity and control;
• Define and monitor preventative controls, including SOX-aligned payroll controls; improve evidence pack quality and audit readiness;
• Act as escalation owner for complex or sensitive pay issues; provide authoritative guidance to senior stakeholders;
• Partner with HR Ops, Finance, Legal/Compliance, benefits providers, and payroll vendors to deliver scalable operating models

Requirements

• 5+ years of US payroll experience, including multi-state and multi-entity scope in complex environments;
• Deep working knowledge of US federal, state, and local payroll compliance: wage and hour (FLSA), employment taxes, garnishments, and year-end reporting;
• Strong payroll controllership skills: ability to design controls, enforce SoD/approvals, and ensure audit-ready evidence;
• Proven capability improving payroll processes through standardisation, automation, and reduction of manual effort;
• Strong payroll accounting knowledge and experience working with Finance during close and audits;
• Demonstrated ability to lead transitions (vendor/system/new state or entity) with structured planning and issue resolution;
• Excellent stakeholder management; comfortable acting as an escalation owner and payroll authority

Qualifications

• CPP or FPC certification from PayrollOrg;
• Hands-on experience with major US payroll platforms and their HRIS/GL integrations;
• Experience operating payroll controls in a SOX-compliant, US-listed company environment;
• Experience with payroll operating models and vendor governance (SLAs, KPIs, remediation);
• Project management certification or comparable cross-functional leadership experience