Director, Payroll Operations

Position Summary 

The Payroll Director is responsible for leading and overseeing end-to-end payroll and related financial operations across multi-entity, multi-state organizations. This role ensures accurate, timely, and compliant payroll processing while driving system implementations, process improvements, financial reporting accuracy, and payroll integration efforts related to growth and M&A activity. The Payroll Director serves as a subject matter expert (SME) on payroll best practices, tax compliance, financial controls, and payroll systems, while leading and developing high-performing teams.

Key Responsibilities 

 Payroll Operations & Leadership 

• Oversee full-cycle payroll processing for multi-state organizations with weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly pay frequencies. 
• Manage payroll operations across multiple companies, branch locations, and FEINs, supporting large employee populations (8,000+ employees). 
• Lead, mentor, and develop payroll team members, fostering continuous improvement and professional growth. 
• Drive accuracy and timeliness in payroll execution with a focus on achieving near 100% compliance and precision. 

 Compliance & Tax Management 

• Ensure compliance with all federal, state, and local payroll laws and regulations. 
• Oversee multi-state tax compliance, including state withholding, state unemployment taxes, and tax ID registrations. 
• Manage payroll tax reporting and filings including W-2s, 1095-Cs, and quarterly/annual returns. 
• Conduct comprehensive payroll audits covering employee data, time and attendance, overtime calculations, misclassifications, and system discrepancies. 

 Finance & General Ledger Responsibilities 

• Ensure accurate and timely recording and recoding of payroll-related General Ledger (GL) activity. 
• Manage payroll journal entries and validate alignment with financial reporting requirements. 
• Perform monthly and quarterly account reconciliations for payroll, benefits, taxes, and related liabilities. 
• Partner with Finance and Accounting teams to ensure proper cost allocation across entities, departments, and cost centers. 
• Analyze payroll expense trends and variances, providing reporting and insights to senior leadership. 
• Support month-end and year-end close processes, ensuring payroll data integrity and compliance with internal controls. 
• Strengthen financial controls surrounding payroll processes to mitigate risk and ensure audit readiness. 

Qualifications 

• Extensive experience managing multi-state payroll operations for large, complex organizations. 
• Strong knowledge of payroll accounting, GL processes, reconciliations, and financial reporting. 
• Proven leadership experience managing and developing payroll teams. 
• Deep knowledge of federal, state, and local payroll tax regulations and compliance requirements. 
• Hands-on experience implementing and optimizing payroll systems, including Workday and ADP SmartCompliance. 
• Strong analytical, financial reporting, and problem-solving skills. 
• High attention to detail with a commitment to accuracy, compliance, and internal controls. 
• CPP Certification
• Bachelor’s degree

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GPC conducts its business without regard to sex, race, creed, color, religion, marital status, national origin, citizenship status, age, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability, military status, status as a veteran, or any other protected characteristic. GPC's policy is to recruit, hire, train, promote, assign, transfer and terminate employees based on their own ability, achievement, experience and conduct and other legitimate business reasons.