Senior Payroll Specialist

Equitable Bank; Toronto; On-site; CAD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Equitable Bank in Canada is seeking a Senior Payroll Specialist to lead end-to-end payroll across multiple Canadian entities in a modern, lean payroll operating model. You will own processing, validation, and compliance with a high degree of autonomy, partnering with Finance, HR, Tax, Benefits, vendors, and leadership.

The role emphasizes end-to-end payroll execution, payroll accounting, audit readiness, and continuous process improvement to prevent issues and strengthen governance.

Qualifications

• Extensive payroll processing experience across multi-entity Canadian payrolls
• Knowledge of federal and provincial payroll legislation and compliance
• Ability to identify risks and drive process improvements

Responsibilities

• Process end-to-end payroll for multiple legal entities and populations
• Run bi-weekly and off-cycle payrolls in line with calendars and policies
• Validate payroll data from HR, Benefits, Finance, and vendors before finalizing
• Review payroll outputs for trends, anomalies and potential errors
• Own complex payroll calculations, taxation, and accounting impacts
• Ensure accurate payroll accounting and audit readiness

Job description

Join a Challenger

At EQ, we're remaking banking so every Canadian gets ahead, every day. Serving nearly 4 million Canadians from coast to coast, we offer a wide variety of financial services from banking and lending, to trust and credit union solutions.

We've been at this since 1970, challenging the conventions of traditional banking with smarter, faster, and more connected financial experiences.

What's kept us moving? The people behind it all: challengers who ask better questions, push back on old assumptions, and look for a better way forward.

If you're driven to help reshape how banking works for Canadians and the businesses that power our economy, this could be your next big opportunity.

We can’t wait to get to know you!

Purpose of the role

The Senior Payroll Specialist is a senior individual contributor and payroll operations lead responsible for delivering accurate, compliant, and well-controlled payroll across multiple Canadian legal entities in a modern, lean payroll operating model. This role goes beyond payroll processing. The incumbent is accountable for end-to-end payroll execution, payroll accounting, statutory compliance, audit readiness, control effectiveness, issue prevention, and continuous improvement. Operating with a high degree of autonomy, the Senior Payroll Specialist serves as the escalation point for complex payroll matters and partners closely with Finance, HR, Tax, Benefits, vendors, and leadership. The role is expected to identify risks before they result in payroll errors, perform root cause analysis when issues arise, implement sustainable corrective actions, and strengthen payroll processes through documentation, controls, automation, and proactive governance.

The Work !

Payroll Operations

Independently process, validate, and oversee end-to-end payroll for multiple legal entities and payroll populations.

Execute bi-weekly and off-cycle payrolls in alignment with payroll calendars, service commitments, company policies, employment standards, and legislative requirements.

Review and validate payroll transactions including new hires, terminations, leaves of absence, salary changes, incentive payments, equity transactions, taxable benefits, pension/savings deductions, and other complex payroll events.

Validate upstream data from HR, Benefits, Finance, vendors, and system integrations before payroll is finalized.

Review payroll outputs with a risk-based lens to identify unusual trends, exceptions, or potential errors before employee impact occurs.

Own complex payroll calculations and adjustments, including appropriate treatment, taxation, and accounting impact.

Payroll Compliance & Statutory Reporting

Ensure compliance with federal and provincial payroll legislation,