Payroll Manager

About the role

We are looking for a Payroll Manager to take charge of all payroll operations and controls. This position involves ensuring accurate, timely, and compliant payroll processing while developing scalable processes, reconciliations, reporting, and controls to support the company's continued expansion. The ideal candidate will be a hands-on payroll expert who can manage detailed tasks, identify risks, improve controls, and collaborate across departments.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Manage the complete payroll process for all exempt and non-exempt employees across multiple states.
• Oversee the payroll calendar, inputting payroll data, obtaining approvals, handling exceptions, and submitting payroll.
• Work with managers to confirm accurate and timely completion of timecards, missed punches, corrections, and approvals.
• Process all regular and special payroll adjustments, including various bonuses, commissions, relocation payments, retroactive pay, final payments, corrections, and reimbursements.
• Handle garnishments, tax levies, wage orders, and related communications with employees or agencies.
• Support year-end payroll tasks, such as W-2 review, taxable fringe benefits, imputed income, corrections, and amendments.
• Serve as the primary contact for employee questions about their pay.
• Ensure payroll practices adhere to federal, state, and local payroll, tax, and wage and hour laws, with a strong focus on California compliance.
• Manage multi-state payroll tax compliance, including new state registrations, agency setup, quarterly filings, notices, withholding, SUI, and local taxes.
• Collaborate with Accounting and Finance on payroll close activities, including journal entries and accrual support for different pay and deduction codes.
• Partner with People Operations, Legal, Accounting, Finance, payroll vendors, and tax agencies to resolve audits, employee inquiries, agency notices, registration issues, and compliance matters.
• Work with People Operations on payroll system configuration, pay rules, workflows, integrations, reporting, and system changes within Rippling.
• Create and maintain scalable payroll reports, dashboards, and operational metrics.
• Develop and maintain scalable standard operating procedures for payroll.

Requirements

• 5+ years of increasing experience in payroll, ideally in a rapidly growing company.
• Significant experience processing payroll for both exempt and non-exempt employees.
• Deep understanding of California wage and hour regulations, including overtime, meal/rest premiums, final pay, sick time, wage statements, and regular rate of pay calculations.
• Experience with multi-state payroll tax registrations, filings, agency notices, and compliance.
• Strong grasp of payroll accounting, reconciliations, liabilities, accruals, and month-end close procedures.
• Experience auditing payroll-related deductions, retirement contributions, imputed income, taxable fringe benefits, or similar items.
• Strong analytical skills and comfort working with payroll data, reports, reconciliations, and exception analysis.
• High attention to detail, sound judgment, and ability to manage confidential information discreetly.
• Capability to work independently while effectively collaborating with People, Accounting, Finance, Legal, and business teams.
• Experience establishing payroll processes, standard operating procedures, controls, and scalable operational rhythms.
• U.S. Person status is required to access export-controlled data.

Nice to have

• Experience in manufacturing, aerospace, defense, hardware, or similar environments with both exempt and non-exempt workforces.
• Experience with multi-shift, 24/7 labor schedules.
• Experience supporting payroll during periods of rapid headcount growth.
• Familiarity with processing commissions, bonuses, relocation, referral, and other variable compensation.
• Experience with payroll audits, workers' compensation audits, 401(k) audits, benefits audits, or financial statement support.
• Experience partnering with external payroll vendors, tax agencies, benefits brokers, auditors, and accounting teams.

Skills & tools

• Rippling (preferred)
• Modern HRIS/payroll systems
• CPP or FPC certification (preferred)

Practical notes

• Benefits include 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision for employees and dependents, $100k life insurance, 15+ days vacation, 10 paid holidays, 401(k) with generous matching, 8 weeks paid parental leave, and childcare reimbursement for work travel.
• Daily catered lunch and unlimited snacks are provided.
• The company offers equity in Apex.