Customer Support Specialist - Payroll

mercury; United States; On-site; USD 53,100 - 71,600; Full time

Job summary

Mercury is hiring a Payroll Support specialist to help startups scale their payroll operations. You will manage pay runs, direct deposits, garnishments, onboarding, and tax filings while delivering clear guidance to customers.

Ideal candidates have 1–2 years in payroll support and 3+ years in customer service within SaaS or fintech, with a solid understanding of payroll fundamentals and a knack for simplifying complex regulatory topics.

Qualifications

• 1–2 years of experience in payroll support or payroll operations.
• 3+ years of experience in customer support or customer experience, ideally at a SaaS, fintech, or HR/payroll software company.
• Solid understanding of payroll fundamentals: pay schedules, payroll corrections, employer & employee support, HRIS management, and payroll ancillary services.
• Ability to communicate clearly and humanly about complex regulatory and financial topics – you can explain a 941 mismatch without making someone feel dumb
• Calm under pressure, especially when the stakes are high (and in payroll support, they often are)
• Organized, thorough, and comfortable managing multiple open cases at varying levels of urgency
• Familiarity with startup environments – our customers move fast and expect support that keeps up
• Experience writing help documentation or contributing to a knowledge base
• A love for process improvement and the instinct to automate whatever can be automated

Responsibilities

• Handle payroll support: pay runs, direct deposits, garnishments, new hire onboarding, off-cycle payments, and tax filing corrections (W‑2s, 1099s, and the rest of the fun stuff)
• Diagnose and resolve payroll issues with urgency and accuracy, knowing that a missed payroll isn't just an inconvenience—it affects real people's lives
• Guide customers through Mercury's payroll product with patience and clarity, translating compliance requirements and technical concepts into plain language
• Turn patterns into product improvements—when you see the same question three times, you don't just answer it a third time, you flag it, document it, and help us fix it
• Work closely with your lead and peers to escape bugs, surface edge cases, and close the loop on systemic issues
• Stay current on federal and state payroll tax regulations, filing deadlines, and compliance changes so you can give customers reliable, accurate guidance
• Write and maintain help articles, internal playbooks, and FAQs that make the whole team smarter and customers more self‑sufficient
• Help build and improve internal tooling and processes that make payroll support faster, more consistent, and more scalable as Mercury's customer base grows

Skills

Payroll knowledge

Customer communication

Documentation writing

Process improvement

Tools

HRIS software

Payroll software

Job description

Mercury is building the complete finance stack for startups, one where founders spend less time thinking about money infrastructure and more time building their companies. We've spent years earning the trust of over 300,000 businesses on the banking side. Now, with our 2026 acquisition of Central, a payroll platform purpose-built for startups, we're extending that trust into payroll. The goal is the same as it's always been: make something complex feel effortless.

*Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

What You Will Do:

• Handle payroll support, covering pay runs, direct deposit, garnishments, new hire onboarding, off‑cycle payments, and tax filing corrections (W‑2s, 1099s, and the rest of the fun stuff)
• Diagnose and resolve payroll issues with urgency and accuracy, knowing that a missed payroll isn't just an inconvenience—it affects real people's lives
• Guide customers through Mercury's payroll product with patience and clarity, translating compliance requirements and technical concepts into plain language
• Turn patterns into product improvements—when you see the same question three times, you don't just answer it a third time, you flag it, document it, and help us fix it
• Work closely with your lead and peers to escape bugs, surface edge cases, and close the loop on systemic issues
• Stay current on federal and state payroll tax regulations, filing deadlines, and compliance changes so you can give customers reliable, accurate guidance
• Write and maintain help articles, internal playbooks, and FAQs that make the whole team smarter and customers more self‑sufficient
• Help build and improve internal tooling and processes that make payroll support faster, more consistent, and more scalable as Mercury's customer base grows

What You Should Bring:

1. 1 – 2 years of experience in a payroll support, payroll processing, or payroll operations role. You should be genuinely comfortable with how payroll works end‑to‑end
2. 3+ years of experience in customer support or customer experience, ideally at a SaaS, fintech, or HR/payroll software company
3. Solid understanding of payroll fundamentals: pay schedules, payroll corrections, employer & employee support, HRIS management, and payroll ancillary services
4. Ability to communicate clearly and humanly about complex regulatory and financial topics – you can explain a 941 mismatch without making someone feel dumb
5. Calm under pressure, especially when the stakes are high (and in payroll support, they often are)
6. Organized, thorough, and comfortable managing multiple open cases at varying levels of urgency
7. Familiarity with startup environments – our customers move fast and expect support that keeps up
8. Experience writing help documentation or contributing to a knowledge base
9. A love for process improvement and the instinct to automate whatever can be automated

Our target new hire base salary ranges for this role:

• US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $58,900 – $71,600 USD
• US employees outside of New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $53,100 – $64,400 USD

Mercury values diversity & bearing and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All individuals seeking employment at Mercury are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities or special needs.