Payroll & HR Operations Specialist

ascendhrcorp; Houston (TX); Remote; USD 36,000 - 52,000; Part time

Job summary

ascendhrcorp in Houston, TX, is seeking a Payroll & HR Operations Specialist to support a portfolio of client companies remotely. The role is part-time (W-2) with 15–25 hours weekly and pay of $26–$38 per hour, with potential for more hours.

You will own payroll end-to-end, multi-state registrations, garnishments, tax filings, onboarding, and HR system setup, working alongside an HR generalist and a compliance specialist to ensure accurate, on-time processing.

Qualifications

• Two or more years running payroll for the Specialist level, five or more for the Senior level.
• Multi-state payroll experience, or a real appetite for learning it quickly.
• Solid on worker classification — exempt vs non-exempt, employee vs contractor.
• Clear on the phone and clear in writing; you are the voice of this company to clients.
• Organized enough to carry a portfolio without anyone chasing you.
• Useful but not required: certified payroll or prevailing wage, Davis-Bacon or SCA work.

Responsibilities

• Run payroll end to end: processing, tax filing and deposits, direct deposit, pay stubs.
• Handle multi-state registration and withholding as clients add employees in new states.
• Manage garnishments, levies and support orders.
• Own quarterly and year-end filings, W-2s and 1099s.
• Run onboarding and offboarding: I-9, E-Verify, new-hire reporting, benefits enrollment.
• Set up and administer each client's HR system and keep the data clean.
• Answer client questions directly; most of your day is client contact.

Skills

Payroll processing

Multi-state payroll

Client communication

Attention to detail

Time management

Tools

BambooHR

Google Workspace

Microsoft Office

Job description

• Job title: Payroll & HR Operations Specialist — Remote (Texas or Virginia preferred)
• Location: Houston, TX — remote enabled
• Type: Part-time, W-2
• Pay: $26–$38 per hour
• Tagline: You will be the dependable voice behind accurate, on-time payroll for a portfolio of client companies.

Description

We run HR and payroll for companies of 10 to 499 employees that do not have an HR department of their own.

You would own the payroll and operations side for a portfolio of them, working alongside an HR generalist and a compliance specialist.

You are not one person doing everything — that is the point of how we are built.

We have been at this since 2009. We started in recruitment and moved into HR because our clients kept needing help keeping the people we found them.

Two levels, one posting.

We are hiring at either level, depending on who we meet:

• Payroll Specialist — $26 to $32 an hour. Two or more years running full-cycle payroll, with multi-state exposure.
• Senior Payroll & HR Operations Specialist — $32 to $38 an hour. Five or more years, including registering employers in new states from scratch, working agency notices, and making classification calls you can defend.

Tell us which one you are and we will be straight with you about where you land. What you would do

• Run payroll end to end: processing, tax filing and deposits, direct deposit, pay stubs
• Handle multi-state registration and withholding as clients add employees in new states
• Manage garnishments, levies and support orders
• Own quarterly and year-end filings, W-2s and 1099s
• Run onboarding and offboarding: I-9, E-Verify, new-hire reporting, benefits enrollment
• Set up and administer each client's HR system and keep the data clean enough to trust
• Answer client questions directly. Most of your day is client contact, not a ticket queue.

Who this is for

You like getting it exactly right, and you like people. Payroll is precise work, but precision is only half the job. The person who runs payroll is usually the first person a business owner calls, and how you answer matters as much as whether the number is correct.

Our clients are owners and office managers who have never had HR support before. They ask basic questions. They deserve a straight answer without being made to feel behind.

What we are looking for

• Two or more years running payroll for the Specialist level, five or more for the Senior level — ideally across more than one company or entity
• Multi-state payroll experience, or a real appetite for learning it quickly
• Solid on worker classification — exempt versus non-exempt, employee versus contractor — and honest about where you would want a second opinion
• Clear on the phone and clear in writing. You will be the voice of this company to several clients at once.
• Organized enough to carry a portfolio without anyone chasing you

Useful but not required: certified payroll and prevailing wage, Davis-Bacon or Service Contract Act work, construction or healthcare clients, benefits administration, moving a company off a PEO.

The arrangement

W-2, part-time to start at roughly 15 to 25 hours a week. As our client base grows you can move to full-time if you want it, or stay part-time. Both are fine, and the hourly rate is the same either way.

Fully remote. We are based in Houston, and Texas or Virginia is a plus for overlapping hours, but neither is required. We can hire in Texas, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina today. If you are somewhere else and this is a strong fit, say so and we will look at it.

Occasional client visits are possible. They are never required, and we cover the travel.

What's in it for you

• Real schedule flexibility. Start at 15 to 25 hours a week and grow toward full-time if you want it, or stay part-time. The hourly rate is the same either way.
• Your own portfolio of client relationships rather than a ticket queue.
• Direct contact with the people you serve, without three layers of internal process between you and a decision.
• A team built so you are not alone on the hard questions. An HR generalist and a compliance specialist work alongside you, and the expectation is that you use them.

What we work in

BambooHR is our primary HR system, alongside Google Workspace and Microsoft Office. If you have not used BambooHR specifically, tell us what you have run and how quickly you pick up a new system.

How we work

Two things are not negotiable here, because they are why our clients stay: we are friendly and we are responsive.

Responsive means a reply inside the window we promised that client — 8, 4 or 2 business hours depending on their package — every time, including when the honest reply is "I have it, here is when you will hear back."

Friendly means no jargon, no sighing at a basic question, and never making a client feel small for not knowing something.

If that reads as a slogan rather than a description of you, this will not be a fit.