Payroll Manager

Payroll Manager

Our company is seeking an experienced Payroll Manager to lead multi-state payroll operations while serving as the primary administrator of the company's HRIS platform. This individual will own payroll compliance, payroll tax administration, system optimization, reporting, and process improvement initiatives while leading a small team and partnering closely with HR and Finance leadership. This is a highly visible role that combines deep payroll expertise with HR technology administration and process leadership.

Key responsibilities include managing full-cycle payroll processing across multiple states, ensuring compliance with federal, state, and local payroll regulations, overseeing payroll tax filings, reconciliations, registrations, and year-end activities, managing garnishments, child support orders, and court-ordered deductions, conducting payroll audits and resolving payroll discrepancies, developing and maintaining payroll controls, policies, and procedures, serving as the organization's payroll compliance expert, acting as primary administrator of the HRIS platform, managing system configuration, security roles, workflows, and integrations, leading HRIS upgrades, implementations, testing, and enhancement projects, partnering with HR and Finance to ensure data integrity and reporting accuracy, identifying automation opportunities and process improvements, and supervising, coaching, and developing payroll team members.

The ideal candidate background includes 5+ years of progressive payroll experience, 3+ years processing multi-state payroll, 3+ years of HRIS administration experience, strong knowledge of payroll tax compliance and wage-and-hour regulations, experience managing payroll for a mid-to-large employee population, experience handling multi-jurisdiction tax registrations and garnishments, supervisory or team leadership experience, advanced Excel skills, strong analytical and systems-thinking capabilities, and experience with payroll implementations or system conversions.

Preferred qualifications include a bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, or related field, manufacturing industry experience, ADP expertise, and CPP (Certified Payroll Professional) designation.

Selling points include a high-impact role with ownership of both payroll operations and HR technology, opportunity to lead payroll modernization and automation initiatives, strong cross-functional exposure with HR and Finance leadership, direct influence on compliance, efficiency, and employee experience, and leadership responsibilities with team development opportunities.

Candidates may come from manufacturing companies, distribution organizations, multi-state employers, ADP Workforce Now environments, payroll managers, senior payroll managers, payroll and HRIS managers, payroll operations leaders, and senior payroll specialists ready for management.

Recruiter intake questions include how many employees are currently processing payroll for, how many states are included in the payroll operation, what payroll system(s) have been used, whether the candidate has administered an HRIS platform, managed payroll tax filings and registrations, handled garnishments and multi-state compliance, supervised payroll staff, led a payroll conversion or HRIS implementation, and current and target compensation.

Based on the scope, I would benchmark this role around $110K–$145K base salary, with stronger candidates (ADP, manufacturing, CPP, large multi-state payroll) potentially commanding $150K+ depending on market and location.