Payroll Manager

ESHYFT; New Jersey; On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Weekly Pay

Paid Holidays

Paid Time Off

Health Insurance

Vision Insurance

Life Insurance

Pet Insurance

Voluntary Benefits – Accident,Hospital

HRA and FSA Accounts

401k with 10% Employer Match

Job summary

ESHYFT is seeking a Payroll and Workforce Operations Manager to oversee high-volume payroll for ~4,500 clinicians and staff in Howell, NJ. You will own end-to-end W-2 payroll, 1099s, timekeeping, funding, and close reporting to Accounting, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and timely cycles.

This role leads onshore/offshore teams, drives process automation, maintains SLAs, and partners with Finance to optimize cash flow and risk management while supporting audits and regulatory inquiries.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in payroll, workforce-payment, or high-volume financial operations
• Experience leading teams for 3+ years
• Knowledge of multi-state W-2 payroll and 1099 contractor payments
• Familiarity with payroll taxes, wage-and-hour laws, and year-end reporting
• Bachelor’s degree preferred; CPA/CPP designation a plus

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end multi-state W-2 payroll and 1099 payments with calendars and cutoffs
• Own timekeeping queues and resolve missed punches and pay discrepancies
• Forecast payroll funding and monitor banking transactions for accuracy
• Deliver complete cycle-close packages to Accounting within 3 business days
• Ensure compliance with wage-and-hour laws, tax withholdings, and audits
• Collaborate across Billing and Finance to streamline operations and provide backups

Skills

Payroll operations

Multi-state payroll

Team leadership

Excel

Education

Bachelor’s degree in accounting/finance/business

Tools

Payroll platforms

ERP systems

Timekeeping systems

Job description

The Payroll and Workforce Operations Manager leads ESHYFT’s high-volume payroll, clinician-payment, timekeeping, and workforce-operations function supporting approximately 4,000 independent-contractor clinicians and 500 W-2 clinicians. This role is accountable for accurate and timely execution, funding readiness, exception resolution, operational compliance, team performance, and a complete cycle-close handoff to Accounting.

Our office is located in Howell, NJ, approximately 70 miles south of NYC and 60 miles east of Philadelphia.

Job Responsibilities

Payroll & 1099 Operations: Lead end-to-end multi-state W-2 payroll and 1099 contractor payments, managing master calendars, funding deadlines, cutoffs, pre-payroll input controls, Instant Pay, and settlement closeouts.

Timekeeping & Exception Management: Own queues and resolution protocols for missed punches, disputed timecards, pay discrepancies, unapproved rates, and billing-related payroll exceptions to preserve audit trails.

Funding & Controls: Forecast daily and weekly payroll funding, monitor processor balances, maintain segregation of duties for banking transactions, and immediately expedite cash shortfalls or anomalies.

Accounting Close & Reporting: Deliver complete cycle-close packages—including registers, funding approvals, settlement support, and exception logs—to Accounting within three business days.

Compliance & Audit: Ensure operational compliance with wage-and-hour laws, tax withholdings, garnishments, state programs, disability, workers' comp, and year-end reporting while supporting audits and regulatory inquiries

Cross-Functional & Backup Coverage: Partner across Billing and Finance to streamline operations, maintaining documented continuity, and provide designated backup support for credit/collections.

Systems & Process Automation: Own functional requirements, UAT, and adoption for payroll, ERP, and payment platforms, collaborating with Tech/Data teams to automate workflows and reduce manual adjustments.

Team Leadership & Operating Discipline: Lead onshore and offshore teams with SOPs, daily expectations, service level agreements (SLAs), quality reviews, cross-training, and continuous performance coaching.

Risk Management & Reporting: Monitor operational metrics via dashboards/Excel, conduct post-incident/vendor reviews, and provide the CFO with early warnings on material risk, potential fraud, or funding threats.

Qualifications

• 7 or more years of payroll, workforce-payment, or comparable high-volume financial-operations experience, including at least three years leading teams.
• Demonstrated ownership of multi-state W-2 payroll and 1099 contractor-payment operations; experience in healthcare staffing, workforce marketplaces, or another high-volume, time-sensitive environment is strongly preferred.
• Working knowledge of payroll taxes, wage and hour requirements, overtime, deductions, garnishments, unemployment, paid leave, year-end reporting, and payroll audit support.
• Experience with payroll and timekeeping platforms, instant-pay or payment processors, banking interfaces, ERP systems, implementations, and advanced Excel
• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business, human resources, or a related field is preferred; Certified Payroll Professional designation is a plus.
• Ownership and urgency: Closes loops, protects pay deadlines, and escalates material risk early.
• Control judgment: Balances speed with validation, documented approvals, security, and segregation of duties.
• Data fluency: Uses evidence, trend analysis, and measurable service levels to manage performance.
• People leadership: Sets clear expectations, coaches directly, and builds accountable teams with reliable coverage.
• Cross-functional leadership: Establishes facts quickly, communicates clearly, and drives coordinated resolution and prevention.

Salary Range

$100-130k commensurate with experience

• Weekly Pay
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Time Off
• Health Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Pet Insurance
• Voluntary Benefits – Accident, Hospital, Cancer Care
• HRA and FSA Accounts
• 401k with 10% Employer Match (Match is 10% of the employee’s contribution in the calendar year)