Senior Payroll Specialist

Senior Payroll Specialist

Location: Bethesda, MD (Hybrid - 4 days in office, 1 day remote)
Schedule: Monday-Friday

Overview

We are partnering with a well-established and growing organization to identify a Senior Payroll Specialist to take full ownership of the payroll function.

This is a unique opportunity to step into a stable environment with strong tenure and support. The prior payroll lead recently retired after a long tenure and will remain involved temporarily to ensure a smooth transition and training.

The ideal candidate is someone who can operate independently, think critically, and confidently manage payroll end-to-end while serving as a trusted resource for employees and leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and manage the end-to-end payroll process for approximately 150+ employees on a bi-weekly cycle
• Process payroll in-house (no third-party provider), ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance
• Handle multi-state payroll across a small number of jurisdictions
• Administer payroll-related deductions including benefits, taxes, and other withholdings
• Support job costing and labor allocations tied to project-based work
• Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local payroll regulations
• Manage limited certified payroll / prevailing wage requirements
• Serve as the primary point of contact for employee payroll inquiries and resolve issues with professionalism and discretion
• Oversee related programs such as allowances, expense reimbursements, and company card administration
• Identify opportunities to improve payroll processes, workflows, and reporting
• Partner with HR and accounting on cross-functional initiatives and process improvements

Qualifications

Required

• 5+ years of full-cycle payroll experience
• Experience processing payroll for 100-500 employees
• Strong understanding of multi-state payroll compliance
• Exposure to or working knowledge of certified payroll / prevailing wage concepts
• Demonstrated ability to own payroll independently (not purely data entry or support-level work)
• Strong communication skills with the ability to handle sensitive employee conversations
• Highly detail-oriented with strong problem-solving and critical thinking ability
• Experience using payroll/ERP systems (experience with integrated systems is a plus)

Preferred

• Experience in construction or project-based environments
• Familiarity with timekeeping systems and payroll integrations
• Experience identifying and implementing process improvements
• CPP certification (nice to have, not required)

Compensation & Benefits

• Base salary: $95,000 - $110,000
• Hybrid work schedule (1 day remote per week)
• Strong, collaborative culture with long-tenured employees
• Stable environment with growth and process improvement opportunities

What Makes This Role Unique

• Opportunity to fully own and run payroll in-house
• Built-in transition support from a long-tenured payroll leader
• Balanced workload with additional opportunity to contribute to process improvement initiatives
• High visibility role with interaction across accounting, HR, and operations