HR & Finance Specialist (Temporary)

What to Expect

Wonderist Agency is a full-service marketing agency that supports 1,200+ dentists around the country. We pride ourselves on ditching the old fashioned marketing model of stock photos and templated sites. We strive to tell our clients' stories with bespoke brands, impactful photo and video shoots, and stunning website design (Here is a great example of our work:

We're a team of over 90+ passionate marketers with our headquarters nestled in sunny San Diego. We are walking distance from local hangouts, bars, and the famed Liberty Station. While many companies simply check the required boxes when it comes to culture, a well-balanced team and positive office culture has been the core of our success from the start. We are a social team at heart, and that is one constant that hasn't changed with all the movement this economy and industry has seen. We have embraced a hybrid work model where local team members come in at least two days a week. This allows us to work from home and have flexibility, without altogether forgoing the excitement and moments of collaboration and inspiration you can only get from in-person time. Not to mention, we also genuinely enjoy spending time together and socializing.

We celebrate new ideas and prioritize a culture of trust and respect where team members can grow and take risks. Each quarter we host events under our four cultural pillars; health & wellness, personal & professional development, social good, and social. We are proud to have been named: San Diego Business Journal's Best Places to Work in: 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023, Inc 5000 Regionals Fastest Growing Companies in: 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025, and 2026, San Diego Business Journal's Fastest Growing Private Companies list in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024, Inc Best Workplaces list in: 2024 and 2025, and Inc. 5000 for the last 6 years (2019-2025)!

If you work at Wonderist, you likely enjoy a challenge, appreciate autonomy, actually care about clients, and are looking for a team that you can enjoy being part of.

Job Description

Wonderist Agency is seeking a strategic and detail-driven HR & Finance Specialist to own the day-to-day people operations and financial administration that keeps our team running. If you are passionate about payroll accuracy, building great employee experiences, and keeping operations running like clockwork, then we want to hear from you!

Key Responsibilities

Daily/Weekly

• Process and audit payroll for salaried, hourly, and global team members across two entities (Wonderist Agency and Nomos Marketing)
• Monitor payroll alerts from BenefitsForYou and verify that benefits deductions and 401(k) match are accurate each pay period
• Manage the Rippling ATS, review candidate pipelines, and coordinate next steps with hiring managers
• Prepare offer decks and conduct offer calls with selected candidates
• Set up new hires in Rippling, including system access, benefits enrollment, and compliance documentation
• Follow the onboarding process in joint Employee Monday Board
• Process terminations in Rippling, calculate final paychecks, remove system access, and close out all offboarding tasks within 24 hours
• Respond to employee inquiries related to payroll, HR policies, benefits, and software access/updates
• Maintain and update SOPs as processes evolve

Monthly

• Run sales commission calculations and include them in the first payroll of each month
• Pull and compile insurance invoices from Kaiser, Blue Shield, and Principal for the accounting team's month-end report
• Pull team Workplace Utilization report from Brivo (attendance)
• Prepare and deliver commission journal entries to accounting
• Run CSM calculations and distribute results to relevant stakeholders
• Reconcile the Rippling Spend account - ensure all receipts and memos are submitted by traveling team members and transactions are synced to the GL by month end

Quarterly

• Configure and launch the annual performance review cycle in Rippling, including setting up downward and self-review structures, drafting the schedule, and sending employee communications
• Audit benefits enrollments and payroll deductions for accuracy
• Register the company in new states as the team grows, including setting up SUI accounts and employer tax accounts
• Assist with compliance filings across all business entities
• Coordinate open enrollment preparation and vendor communication with NAVA (health benefits) and TruStage (401k)

Essential Functions: What You'll Do

• Payroll Administration: Own the full payroll cycle for two entities across all employee types, salaried, hourly, and global, ensuring accuracy every pay period, including commissions, one-off situations, and ongoing 401(k) compliance.
• HR Operations: Hiring & Onboarding: Manage the end-to-end hiring process from ATS pipeline management through offer calls and Day 1 setup in Rippling, ensuring every new hire has a smooth and compliant onboarding experience.
• HR Operations: Offboarding & Terminations: Handle all aspects of employee separations promptly and accurately, including final paycheck calculations, system access removal, and coordination of any outstanding items. All offboarding is closed out within 24 hours.
• Performance Review Administration: Own the logistics and configuration of the annual review cycle for the full organization, including the growing global team, ensuring reviews are set up correctly in Rippling and all stakeholders are informed and on schedule.
• Benefits Administration: Serve as the internal point of contact for employee benefits, managing open enrollment, fielding questions, and ensuring enrollments and deductions are accurate and up to date.
• Compliance & State Registrations: Support the company's compliance obligations across a multi-state and international workforce, including new state registrations, annual filings, and IT and HIPAA compliance as it relates to the employee lifecycle.
• Finance Support & Reporting: Provide reliable, recurring financial operations support to the accounting team, including month-end reporting, commission journal entries, CSM monthly and quarterly accrual calculations, and corporate card reconciliation via Rippling Spend.

Core Competencies: What you'll bring to the role

• Resourceful and Confident Self-Starter: Once you learn the ropes, we'll expect you to own your tasks and hold yourself accountable. You will solve problems every single day, so we need someone with a results-oriented mind.
• Discreet and Trustworthy: You will be working closely with the C-suite team, and that requires a higher level of trust, discretion, and communication. Be confident in working independently with little supervision.
• Process and Deadline Oriented: We want someone who enjoys making processes better, faster, stronger, with an ability to evolve over time. This includes the processes for meeting and adhering to deadlines.
• Organized & Able to Manage Multiple Priorities: Strong task and calendar management across both HR and finance responsibilities. Can context-switch between competing priorities without losing accuracy, because in this role, both sides of the business are always moving at once.
• Solutions Oriented Problem-Solving: Be proactive beyond the call of duty and swiftly reactive when there's a need to right any wrongs. Analyze problems by gathering and organizing relevant information, identify cause-and-effect relationships, and present appropriate solutions.
• Strong Communication: You must be personable, professional, and responsive in relaying complex information clearly to diverse audiences. You will be the point person between employees, vendors, and leadership, managing communications and facilitating updates between stakeholders.
• Ability to Uphold Wonderist Agency's Commitments / Core Values: Takes pride in work and is committed to being an agent of positive change. We need someone who takes any project, big or small, and puts everything they have into it. Mistakes are okay. Sloppiness is not.

Biggest Challenges For This Position

There is little margin for error in payroll and compliance, so the ability to learn fast, ask the right questions early, and build confidence in the role quickly is critical to success.

Performance Metrics

The success of this role will be measured by:

• Payroll processed on time with zero errors every pay period
• Offer calls completed and new hires successfully onboarded
• Employee offboarding completed and closed out within 24 hours
• Month-end finance deliverables submitted to accounting on time
• Benefits enrollment accuracy and timely resolution of discrepancies

Soft Skills

• High degree of discretion with sensitive employee and financial data
• Calm and methodical under deadline pressure
• Strong follow-through. Nothing falls through the cracks.

Hard Skills

• HRIS/Payroll Platforms, Level Advanced
• Google Workspace, Level Intermediate to Advanced
• Excel/Spreadsheets, Level Intermediate
• Benefits Administration, Level Intermediate
• Multi-state Payroll Compliance, Level Intermediate

Minimum Qualifications:

• 3+ years of experience in HR operations, payroll administration, or a combined HR/finance role
• Experience running end-to-end payroll for a multi-entity or multi-state organization
• Experience with a HRIS/payroll platform
• Familiarity with multi-state compliance and global contractor payroll
• Familiarity with benefits administration including open enrollment
• Experience supporting full-cycle hiring and offboarding processes
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to meet recurring, non-negotiable deadlines
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Bonus Points for Applicants With...

(if you don't have these but are organized and want to learn, we want to hear from you!)

• Hands-on experience specifically with Rippling (HRIS, Payroll, ATS, and Spend modules)
• Experience with ATS workflows and recruiting coordination
• Experience in a marketing agency or similarly fast-paced environment
• Familiarity with the dental or healthcare industry