Payroll Clerk

CHAOS Industries; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 51,000 - 61,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits: medical, dental, and

401k with company match

FSA/HSA

Life insurance

Free daily lunch

Unlimited PTO

Job summary

CHAOS Industries, headquartered in Los Angeles with a growing payroll team, seeks a detail-oriented Payroll Clerk to ensure accurate, compliant biweekly and semi-monthly payroll runs across multiple U.S. states.

You will handle hours, earnings, deductions, and tax withholdings in Rippling and assist with onboarding. The role emphasizes confidentiality, independent work, and collaboration with HRIS; familiarity with Excel and data integrity are essential.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of payroll processing experience (multi-state a plus)
• Familiarity with payroll/HRIS platforms (Rippling experience strongly preferred)
• Working knowledge of payroll fundamentals: wage and hour law, tax withholding basics, deduction priority ordering
• Strong Excel skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, basic data cleanup)
• High attention to detail and confidentiality
• Clear written communication skills for employee-facing correspondence
• Ability to work independently while flagging issues proactively

Responsibilities

• Support processing of biweekly/semi-monthly payroll runs across multiple U.S. states and entities using Rippling, ensuring accuracy of hours, earnings, deductions, and tax withholdings
• Support onboarding of new hires into the payroll system, including manual processing for edge cases
• Assist with timecard review and non-compliance follow-up, escalating patterns to the Payroll Manager with supporting documentation
• Help maintain compliance across ~19 U.S. states plus U.K. and EOR jurisdictions, including wage/hour rules
• Support reconciliation of payroll data across systems (Rippling, Greenhouse, NetSuite) to support GL postings
• Support benefits and deduction administration, including FSA/HSA elections and final pay calculations
• Respond to employee payroll inquiries with professionalism and discretion
• Assist with special projects, including data cleanup and reporting
• Maintain organized, audit-ready payroll documentation and records

Skills

Payroll processing

Multi-state payroll

Excel

Written communication

Independent work

Tools

Rippling

NetSuite

Power BI

SQL

Job description

CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with a multi-product portfolio that gives the ultimate advantage-domain dominance. The company's products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats.

CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised a total of $1 billion in funding from leading investors, including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and London. For more information, please visit www.chaosinc.com.

Role Overview

We're looking for a detail-oriented Payroll Clerk that excels in dynamic, fast-paced environments. This role will be integral in supporting day-to-day payroll operations. The ideal candidate thrives in navigating ambiguity and balancing competing priorities while maintaining a consistently high standard for accuracy and precision.

Responsibilities

• Support processing of biweekly/semi-monthly payroll runs across multiple U.S. states and entities using Rippling, ensuring accuracy of hours, earnings, deductions, and tax withholdings
• Support onboarding of new hires into the payroll system, including manual processing for edge cases (e.g., onboarding blocks, new-market entries) when needed
• Assist with timecard review and non-compliance follow-up, escalating patterns to the Payroll Manager with supporting documentation
• Help maintain compliance across ~19 U.S. states plus U.K. and EOR jurisdictions, including staying current on state-specific wage and hour rules (e.g., California flat-sum bonus overtime recalculation, PFL withholding)
• Support reconciliation of payroll data across systems (Rippling, Greenhouse, NetSuite) to support accurate GL postings and downstream reporting
• Support benefits and deduction administration, including FSA/HSA elections and termination-related final pay calculations
• Respond to employee payroll inquiries with professionalism and discretion
• Assist with special projects, including data cleanup and formatting for reporting/data warehouse initiatives
• Maintain organized, audit-ready payroll documentation and records

Minimum Requirements

• 3-5 years of payroll processing experience (multi-state a plus)
• Familiarity with payroll/HRIS platforms (Rippling experience strongly preferred)
• Working knowledge of payroll fundamentals: wage and hour law, tax withholding basics, deduction priority ordering
• Strong Excel skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, basic data cleanup)
• High attention to detail and comfort working with sensitive, confidential data
• Clear written communication skills for employee-facing correspondence
• Ability to work independently while flagging issues proactively

Preferred Requirements

• Exposure to international or EOR payroll
• Experience with NetSuite
• Experience with Rippling
• Interest in data analysis or BI tools (Power BI, SQL)

Why CHAOS?

• Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
• Additional benefits: 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay), FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more
• Our Perks: Free daily lunch, 'No meeting Fridays', unlimited PTO, casual dress code
• Compensation Components: Competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and (coming soon!) annual bonuses
• Team Growth: 350 employees and counting across 5 global offices

Hourly Rate: $37 - $44/hour

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations.

Recruiting Agencies: CHAOS Industries does not accept unsolicited resumes or outreach. Unsolicited submissions will not be reviewed or compensated.