Lead, Payroll Manager

About the role

This position owns the complete payroll lifecycle for a large, rapidly expanding charter school network located in New York. You will serve as the central expert ensuring accurate, compliant, and timely payment for over 3,000 employees across complex semi-monthly and bi-weekly cycles. The role demands a partnership with finance, human resources, and benefits teams within a high-volume, deadline-driven operational environment. You will act as the critical link connecting day-to-day payroll processing with broader system transformation and process optimization initiatives. Success in this role requires a proactive change agent who can navigate an entrepreneurial, fast-paced, and high-operations setting while maintaining strict accuracy. You will manage external vendor relationships with brokers and 403(b) advisors, ensuring seamless integration and compliance within the benefits ecosystem. The position requires strong emotional intelligence to influence stakeholders and deliver exceptional internal customer service. Ultimately, this role ensures the integrity of payroll data and compliance with all Federal, State, and Local laws, including FLSA.

Key facts

What you'll do

Processing for 3,000+ employees across semi-monthly and bi-weekly cycles runs accurately and on schedule to meet regulatory standards.

Integration between HRIS and payroll processing systems is maintained, optimized, and led to support reliable operations.

Partnership with Benefits, HR, FP&A, and Accounting is managed, while external vendor relationships with brokers and 403(b) advisors are coordinated.

Requirements

A Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field is mandatory.

Active Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) or Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC) is required.

8+ years of progressive payroll experience includes at least 2 years in a supervisory or leadership capacity.

ADP experience is required, and Workday experience is strongly preferred.

Advanced Excel skills, including multi-function formulas, pivot tables, and sophisticated data formatting, are required.

Comprehensive knowledge of Federal, State, and Local laws, including FLSA, is required.

The ability to act as a change agent in an entrepreneurial, high-volume, and high-operations environment is demonstrated.

Influencing stakeholders and delivering exceptional internal customer service are supported by refined emotional intelligence.

A hands-on problem-solving mindset balances granular detail with big-picture process improvement.

Practical notes

This role operates in New York under full-time employment.

The compensation range is $150,000 to $180,000 and does not include bonus eligibility.

Success Academy Charter Schools is an equal opportunity employer.

Typical interview steps

Finance interviews usually include technical questions on accounting or modeling, a case study, and behavioral rounds. Candidates may be asked to build a forecast or explain a variance. Spreadsheet skills are tested in most loops. Accuracy and clear explanations matter. Interviewers may give a real dataset and ask for a quick analysis. Showing your work and explaining assumptions matters as much as the final number.

Good to know

Payroll roles in large organizations focus on accuracy, compliance, and timely execution.

Payroll professionals use HRIS and specialized payroll platforms to manage complex tax and benefit rules.

Succession planning and change management are common in growing charter school networks.

Data integrity and automation reduce manual work and improve regulatory compliance.

Questions to ask

Worth asking in any interview: how the team measures success, who the role works with daily, what the onboarding looks like, and what the company is trying to achieve this year. Asking what past hires did well is a strong final question. Keep the list short and pick the questions that matter most to you.

Career growth

Finance careers move from analyst to senior analyst, manager, and controller or FP&A director levels. Some people earn certifications such as CPA or CFA. Cross-functional work with operations and leadership grows with seniority. Finance careers reward precision early and business partnership later. Learning the operations of the company beyond the numbers accelerates growth.