Sr. Payroll Specialist

About the Role:

We are searching for a highly skilled Senior Payroll Specialist to own the accuracy, validation, and execution of our biweekly payroll functions. As a fast-paced, high-growth company, our payroll environment requires someone who is exceptionally detail-oriented, confident working with complex data, and proactive in identifying and resolving issues before they impact employees.

Reporting to the Senior Payroll Manager, you'll lead end-to-end payroll processing, validate all employee changes and system inputs for bi-weekly payroll processing, become a subject matter expert on our payroll operations, seek out areas of improvement, and represent the Accounting department in a collaborative and positive manner across the Company.

Requirements and responsibilities:

• Process and validate all payroll-impacting data (new hire & termination information, salary changes, one-time payments, bonuses, commissions, liens, garnishments, and timecards) against source documents and HRIS records; proactively resolve discrepancies before payroll runs.
• Perform detailed pre- and post-payroll audits, including reconciling payroll registers to internal reports, validating completeness of employee populations, and confirming accurate tax/deduction calculations.
• Own the preparation and processing of bi-weeklyl payroll for exempt and non-exempt employees, ensuring compliance with federal, state, and local regulations and maintaining auditable supporting workpapers.
• Ensure 100% compliance with timekeeping requirements by reviewing timecard records, validating accuracy, and securing all required approvals. Cultivate positive relationships with managers for quick timesheet approvals.
• Own off-cycle ACH requests end-to-end, ensuring all requests are validated against approved documentation, calculated accurately, and processed with a sense of urgency and precision.
• Partner with the People Team to ensure all benefits and withholding elections (401K, FSA, HSA, etc), are accurately captured in payroll, and own the monthly reconciliation of benefit vendor bills to payroll records.
• Serve as the directly responsible individual for employee payroll inquiries, delivering timely, accurate resolutions and representing Engine with a collaborative and team-oriented approach.
• Support payroll-related audits such as 401k & workers compensation, ad-hoc analyses, and special projects as needed.

Qualifications:

• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) or Certified Payroll Specialist (CPS), strongly preferred
• Minimum 3 years of payroll experience in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, required
• Strong Excel user, including prior experience with large data sets, required
• Exceptional communication skills, both written & verbal, required
• Strong sense of speed with precision, required
• Experience with UKG, HiBob or Workday, strongly preferred
• Self-directed worker with the ability to be proactive in trying to resolve issues, but also asks appropriate questions as needed