Payroll Analyst
Location: Hybrid
Schedule: Full-Time | Standard Business Hours
Type: Contract / Contract-to-Hire
Overview
Our client is seeking an experienced Payroll Analyst to support payroll operations, compliance, reporting, and process improvement initiatives. This role is ideal for someone with strong hands-on payroll processing experience, excellent analytical skills, and the ability to work cross-functionally with HR, Finance, Benefits, and IT teams.
The ideal candidate will have experience managing end-to-end payroll operations in a complex, multi-state environment and be comfortable troubleshooting payroll issues, performing audits, and driving operational improvements.
Responsibilities
- Process and validate end-to-end payroll cycles, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance
- Maintain payroll earnings, deductions, tax setups, and payroll-related workflows
- Perform payroll audits, reconciliations, and issue resolution to ensure data integrity
- Support payroll reporting, analytics, and ad hoc financial analysis
- Monitor payroll data transfers, vendor files, and system interfaces to ensure accurate processing
- Assist with year-end payroll activities, tax reporting, and compliance requirements
- Partner with HR, Finance, Benefits, IT, and external vendors to resolve payroll-related issues
- Identify process improvement opportunities to enhance payroll efficiency and accuracy
- Support payroll system updates, testing, and ongoing enhancements
- Maintain compliance with federal, state, and local payroll regulations
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, or related field (or equivalent experience)
- 5+ years of payroll experience in a complex environment
- Strong understanding of payroll compliance, tax regulations, and payroll best practices
- Experience with payroll audits, reconciliations, and reporting
- Advanced Excel skills (Pivot Tables, VLOOKUP, reporting analysis)
- Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills
- Experience working with payroll systems/HRIS platforms
- Ability to work cross-functionally with multiple departments and stakeholders
