Part-Time HR & Payroll Administrator

Three things will tell you quickly whether to keep reading:

1. You have personally run payroll start to finish for at least 20 employees, in a real system, with a mix of hourly and salaried staff.
2. You can commit to fixed payroll close windows, the 3rd through 5th and the 18th through 20th of every month.
3. You are comfortable owning clean execution while compliance determinations sit with our CPA and our outside HR firm.

If all three are yes, we want to hear from you.

Team Esface is a premium youth basketball academy in Redwood City serving over 300 families a year. We run club teams, a developmental league, college prep travel programs, camps, and private training. We are a small, fast-moving organization with roughly 30 staff across full-time HQ, part-time coaching, and seasonal roles, and we are about to open our own multi-court facility, which will grow that number.

We work hard, we hold a high standard, and we do not do sloppy. That applies to the court and it applies to the back office.

We are hiring a Part-Time HR and Payroll Administrator to own the day-to-day execution of payroll, onboarding, and employee records. Right now this work is split between our CPA and our Director of Operations, which is the wrong use of both. We want one person who owns the record, runs the cycle, and keeps it clean.

This is an execution and documentation role. It is not a policy role. You will have real ownership of the process and real support from professionals who handle the judgment calls.

Payroll

• Run semi-monthly payroll on the 5th and the 20th, accurately and on time
• Manage timekeeping, PTO accruals, deductions, stipends, and pay changes in the system
• Chase managers for timecard and approval deadlines before they become a problem
• Prepare payroll reports and assist with month-end reconciliation
• Maintain the phone stipend reimbursement setup for full-time and part-time staff

People operations

• Run new-hire onboarding end to end: offer paperwork, I-9 and W-4, background checks, system setup, first-day logistics
• Maintain complete and confidential employee records, compensation history, and classification documentation
• Track required trainings to completion, including California sexual harassment prevention certificates
• Roll out and collect signed acknowledgments for our employee handbook
• Handle offboarding paperwork and final pay requirements
• Be the first stop for staff questions about pay, hours, PTO, and paperwork

System

• Serve as the day-to-day owner of our HRIS and payroll platform
• Support a possible platform migration in the first half of your tenure, including data cleanup, configuration, testing, and staff training
• Help implement staff clock-in and clock-out in the new year

We are being direct about this because it protects you and it protects us.

• You do not make compliance determinations. Our outside HR partner does.
• You do not set pay rates, classifications, or policy. Ownership sits with our CEO and CPA.
• You do not sign off on payroll. Our CPA retains final review.

Your job is to execute the standard cleanly, keep the record airtight, and raise your hand fast when something looks off. Flagging an issue early is a win here, not a failure.

You are walking into real work, not a maintenance seat. Expect to:

• Take over the payroll cycle and run it independently
• Complete a handbook rollout and collect signed acknowledgments from all staff
• Get every employee through required California harassment prevention training and file the certificates
• Audit and clean up employee records ahead of a possible system migration
• Build the onboarding checklist we will use for the hiring wave that comes with our new facility

You will report to our Director of Operations and work closely with our CPA on payroll and our outside HR firm on compliance. You will have direct access to both. You will not be figuring this out alone.

Required

• 2 or more years of hands-on payroll and HR administration experience
• You have personally processed payroll, not just supported someone who did
• Working knowledge of California wage and hour basics: meal and rest breaks, sick leave accrual, final pay timing
• Comfortable in any modern HRIS and payroll platform, and able to learn a new one quickly
• Strong Excel skills
• Genuine discretion with confidential compensation and personnel information
• Detail-oriented to the point that other people notice
• Able to work independently and manage your own deadlines

Nice to have

• Experience with Paycor, Paychex, Gusto, or BambooHR
• You have been part of a payroll or HRIS migration and know what breaks
• Experience in a small business where you wore more than one hat
• Youth sports, education, or another environment with a large part-time and seasonal workforce

Not required

• An HR degree or certification
• Experience at a large company. Some of our best people came from small teams

• Weekly hours: approximately 15 to 20 hours per week in steady state, up to 25 during payroll close, onboarding waves, and system implementation
• Tentative schedule: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, roughly 5 to 7 hours per day. Daily start and end times are set with your manager and we are open to discussing which days work best for you.
• Fixed commitments: payroll close is not movable. You must be available the 3rd through 5th and the 18th through 20th of each month, regardless of which days of the week they fall on.
• Onsite: one of your weekly days is onsite at our Redwood City office. The other days can be remote.

• Title: Part-Time HR and Payroll Administrator
• Location: Hybrid, Redwood City, CA
• Compensation: $38 to $45 per hour. The top of the band is for candidates who have run a payroll or HRIS migration.
• Employment type: Part-time, non-exempt, W-2
• Background check: Required. Every Team Esface employee is background checked.

Send your resume along with short answers to the three questions below. A short paragraph each is plenty. We use these to understand the depth and scope of your experience, so be specific.

1. Describe the payroll you run or most recently ran. How many employees, what pay frequency, what mix of hourly and salaried, which system, and which parts of the process you personally owned versus what someone else handled.
2. Walk us through your process for taking a payroll from open to submitted. Where are your checkpoints, and what kind of error have you actually caught at each one?
3. Describe the most complex California wage and hour situation you have handled. What was the issue, what did you do, and who did you involve?

We read every application. If your answers are specific and thoughtful, you will hear from us.

Stay Hungry.

Esfac'e, Inc. dba Team Esface Basketball Academy is an equal opportunity employer.