Sr Payroll Tax Analyst

Our client is located in Northwest Houston and looking to add a Sr Payroll Tax Analyst to their team on a 6 month contract to hire basis. The Sr Payroll Tax Professional is the subject matter expert for US payroll taxes, responsible for end-to-end ownership of payroll tax compliance, reporting, and governance across federal, state, and local jurisdictions.

This role plays a key part in the organization’s ERP transformation, ensuring payroll tax requirements are clearly defined, tested, and embedded into new systems and processes.

The position goes beyond processing. Reporting to the US Payroll Manager and acting as a key support, the role drives tax accuracy, leads training and capability building within the payroll team, supports complex employee scenarios (including expatriates and gross-ups), and acts as the primary point of contact for employee tax queries.

No C2C, no third-party.

Hybrid: 2-3 days onsite

Responsibilities:

Payroll Tax Ownership & Compliance

• Own and execute all US payroll tax activities including federal, state, and local filings (941, 940, W-2, W-3)
• Manage quarterly and year-end processes, amendments, and corrections
• Ensure compliance across all jurisdictions
• Reconcile payroll tax balances and align with General Ledger
• Manage tax notices and agency correspondence
• ADP SmartCompliance

Subject Matter Expertise & Advisory

• Act as the go-to expert for payroll tax matters
• Provide guidance on complex scenarios and regulatory changes
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of tax legislation

Employee Support & Complex Cases

• Respond to employee payroll tax queries
• Manage expat taxation, gross-ups, and multi-state taxation issues
• Partner with HR, Employment Tax and Global Mobility teams

Training & Capability Building

• Train and upskill payroll team members
• Develop SOPs and training materials
• Act as escalation point for tax-related issues

ERP & Transformation

• Act as payroll tax SME for ERP implementation (e.g., Oracle Fusion, PeopleSoft)
• Define tax requirements and ensure accurate system configuration
• Support testing, validation, and issue resolution
• Partner with project teams to ensure compliant payroll tax processes in the new system

Process Improvement & Controls

• Drive continuous improvement in processes and controls
• Perform audits and enhance documentation
• Support system changes and enhancements

Stakeholder Management

• Collaborate with Payroll, HR, Accounting, Tax, Legal, and Audit teams
• Partner with external providers (e.g., Dayforce)
• Support reporting for leadership

Operational Payroll Support

• Support payroll processing as required
• Ensure accuracy of inputs and outputs

REQUIRED:

• High school diploma, General Education Degree (GED), Accounting degree and/or an associate’s degree preferred.
• 7+ years of knowledge and work experience of payroll and tax
• Ability to prepare and file payroll tax returns and reports, including Federal Forms 941,940, W-2, W-3, State and Local filings.
• Extensive multi-state and multi-jurisdictional payroll tax compliance experience.
• PeopleSoft/Oracle Software experience.