Associate - Payroll

Associate - Payroll

New York, NY

About Clear Street:

Clear Street is modernizing the brokerage ecosystem. Founded in 2018, Clear Street is a diversified financial services firm replacing the legacy infrastructure used across capital markets.

We started from scratch by building a completely cloud-native clearing and custody system designed for today's complex, global market. Clear Street's proprietary prime brokerage platform adds significant efficiency to the market, while focusing on minimizing risk, redundancy, and cost for clients. Our goal is to create a single source-of-truth platform for every asset class, in every country, and in any currency.

By combining highly-skilled product and engineering talent with seasoned finance professionals, we're building the essentials to compete in today's fast-paced markets.

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced Payroll Associate to join our Human Resources team in New York City. This role supports global payroll operations across two distinct tracks: direct, end-to-end processing of U.S. payroll, and coordination and oversight of international payroll administered through our third-party vendor network. The ideal candidate brings 35 years of payroll experience, strong U.S. compliance knowledge, and the cross-functional communication skills to serve as an effective liaison between HR, Finance, and our international payroll providers.

Key Responsibilities

U.S. Payroll Direct Processing

• Execute end-to-end processing of bi-weekly and semi-monthly U.S. payroll for salaried and hourly employees using UKG, Workday, or a comparable HRIS/payroll platform.
• Review and reconcile timekeeping records, ensuring accuracy of hours, overtime, PTO, and leave balances prior to each payroll run.
• Process payroll related benefit updates, coordinate payroll related file submissions with benefit vendors, and assist with payroll related reconciliations.
• Maintain employee payroll records including new hires, terminations, salary changes, garnishments, and tax withholding elections across all U.S. states.
• Ensure compliance with federal, New York State, and New York City wage and hour laws, including FLSA, NYC Paid Safe and Sick Leave, and the NYC Earned Safe and Sick Time Act.
• Deliver quarterly and year-end U.S. payroll activities including W-2 preparation, tax reconciliations, and responses to federal and state tax agency inquiries.
• Administer garnishments, child support orders, tax levies, and wage assignments in accordance with applicable law.

International Payroll Vendor Coordination

• Serve as the primary internal liaison for outsourced international payroll vendors, ensuring accurate and timely submission of payroll inputs each cycle across all countries.
• Collect, validate, and transmit payroll data changes to vendors including new hires, terminations, salary adjustments, allowances, and benefit deductions on a per-cycle basis.
• Review vendor payroll reports and output files prior to funding approval, flagging discrepancies and coordinating corrections as needed.
• Monitor vendor SLAs and escalate performance issues or compliance concerns to the Payroll Manager as appropriate.
• Maintain a calendar of international payroll deadlines and statutory obligations by country to ensure on-time processing globally.
• Partner with HR Team to support onboarding and offboarding of global employees, ensuring payroll setup is completed accurately and on time in each jurisdiction.

Cross-Functional & General

• Support Payroll reconciliation activities including Gross to Net validation, payroll variance analysis, benefit deductions (401k, HSA/FSA, Commuter benefits, and medical deductions), and vendor deduction comparisons
• Respond to employee payroll inquiries across U.S. and international populations regarding pay, deductions, tax forms, and direct deposit.
• Partner with HR and Finance to reconcile deductions, support audits, and contribute to global payroll process improvement initiatives.
• Produce standard and ad hoc global payroll reports for HR leadership, Finance, and internal or external audit purposes.

Required Qualifications

• 35 years of payroll processing experience, ideally within an HR function.
• Hands-on experience with UKG, Deel, and or Workday preferred
• Multi-state U.S. payroll experience required; NYC compliance knowledge strongly preferred.
• Prior experience working with an international payroll vendor or third-party provider.
• Strong knowledge of federal, NYS, and NYC wage and tax laws; general awareness of international payroll and statutory compliance requirements.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills (VLOOKUP, pivot tables, data reconciliation).
• High degree of accuracy, discretion, and confidentiality with sensitive compensation data.
• Associate's or Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Business, HR, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Preferred Qualifications

• FPC or CPP certification.
• Exposure to payroll in EMEA, APAC, or Latin American jurisdictions.
• Exposure to processing equity compensation (RSU/ESPP) through payroll.
• Familiarity with shadow payroll, expatriate payroll, or cross-border mobility programs.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills; comfortable working across time zones with remote employees and vendor contacts.

We Offer:

The Base Salary Range for this role is $90,000-$110,000. This range is representative of the starting base salaries for this role at Clear Street. Where a candidate falls in this range will be based on job related factors such as relevant experience, skills, and location. This range represents Base Salary only, which is just one element of Clear Street's total compensation. The range stated does not include other factors of total compensation such as bonuses or equity.

At Clear Street, we offer competitive compensation packages, company equity, 401k matching, gender neutral parental leave, and full medical, dental and vision insurance. Our belief has always been that we are better as a business when we are all together in person. As such, we are requiring employees to be in the office 4 days per week. In-office benefits include lunch stipends, fully stocked kitchens, happy hours, a great location, and amazing views.

Our top priority is our people. We're continuously investing in a culture that promotes collaboration. We help each other through challenges and celebrate each other's successes. We believe that modern workplaces succeed by virtue of having high-performance workforces that are diverse in ideas, in cultures, and in experiences. We put in the effort to make such a workplace a daily reality and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.