Senior Payroll and Benefits Specialist

Shaw Bakers; San Leandro (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Shaw Bakers in the Bay Area is seeking a Senior Payroll & Benefits Specialist to own end-to-end payroll and benefits administration for a two-location operation. The role is onsite in San Leandro with occasional travel to SSF for on-site support, and requires thorough knowledge of California wage and hour rules.

You'll partner with HR leadership, Finance, and Operations to ensure accurate, timely payroll, benefits enrollment, system configuration (Paylocity/ADP), and strong controls.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of progressive payroll and benefits administration experience.
• Experience with California payroll processing and compliance.
• Experience with Paylocity and ADP.
• Experience implementing, transitioning to, or onboarding a new HRIS.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end payroll process for a large hourly workforce, ensuring accuracy and compliance.
• Oversee regular, off-cycle, and final payrolls; review timekeeping and deductions.
• Administer employee benefits programs including enrollment and changes.
• Partner with Brokers/Carriers to ensure accurate plan administration.
• Serve as HRIS subject matter expert for payroll, benefits, timekeeping, and data.
• Maintain data integrity and develop SOPs for payroll/benefits processes.
• Support internal/external audits and drive process improvements.

Skills

Payroll administration

Benefits administration

California payroll

Data analysis

Excel

Bilingual English/Spanish

Education

CPP certification

SHRM-CP / SHRM-SCP

Tools

Paylocity

ADP

Job description

If you’re someone who loves getting into the details, solving problems, improving systems, while making sure employees get paid accurately and on time, this could be the role for you.

We’re looking for a Senior Payroll & Benefits Specialist to own the administration of payroll and employee benefits for Shaw Bakers across our two Bay Area locations.

This is a hands‑on role with significant ownership. You’ll be a trusted resource for employees, managers, HR leadership, Finance, and Operations—and you’ll have the opportunity to make a real impact on the systems and processes that support our people.

This is a fulltime, onsite position in our San Leandro facility and applicants must be able to travel to our South San Francisco facility for onsite support one to two days per week. This role is not eligible for relocation.

What You’ll Do

Own Payroll

• Manage the end-to-end payroll process for a large, primarily hourly workforce, ensuring payroll is accurate, timely, and compliant.
• Oversee regular, special, off-cycle, and final payrolls as needed.
• Review timekeeping, attendance, overtime, premiums, deductions, bonuses, incentives, leave payments, and other payroll inputs.
• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local wage and hour requirements, with a strong focus on California payroll requirements.
• Reconcile payroll and partner closely with Finance on payroll accounting and reporting.
• Investigate and resolve payroll discrepancies quickly and appropriately.
• Maintain strong payroll controls, documentation, and audit processes.
• Be a trusted resource for employees and managers with questions about pay, deductions, taxes, and pay statements.

Manage Benefits Administration

• Administer employee benefit programs including medical, dental, vision, life, disability, retirement, and other company-sponsored programs.
• Coordinate enrollments, changes, qualifying life events, and terminations.
• Support annual open enrollment, including system configuration, communications, vendor coordination, and reconciliation.
• Partner with brokers and carriers to resolve employee issues and ensure accurate plan administration.
• Monitor eligibility, deductions, invoices, and carrier reconciliations.
• Support benefits compliance and required notices.
• Create clear communications and resources that help employees understand and use their benefits.

Be an HRIS & Systems Expert

• Serve as a key HRIS subject matter expert for payroll, benefits, timekeeping, and employee data.
• Bring hands‑on experience with Paylocity and ADP.
• Support the implementation, transition, or onboarding of a new HRIS—from planning and configuration through testing, data conversion, go‑live, and stabilization.
• Partner with HR, Finance, IT, and external vendors to ensure successful system implementation and integration.
• Maintain data integrity and strong controls for employee and payroll information.
• Identify opportunities to automate processes and improve the employee and manager experience.
• Create and maintain SOPs and documentation for payroll, benefits, and HRIS processes.

We’re looking for someone who doesn’t simply maintain processes—you look for ways to make them better.

You’ll:

• Stay current on California and federal payroll, wage and hour, leave, and benefits requirements.
• Support internal and external audits.
• Develop and maintain payroll and benefits procedures, calendars, checklists, and controls.
• Analyze payroll and benefits data to identify trends, errors, and opportunities for improvement.
• Recommend and implement improvements that increase accuracy, efficiency, and employee service.
• Explore AI and automation to reduce manual work, strengthen reporting, identify opportunities, and improve the employee experience—while maintaining confidentiality, security, and appropriate human oversight.

This role is about more than processing payroll.

You’ll serve as a trusted resource to HR leadership, managers, supervisors, and employees, while partnering closely with Finance, Operations, and frontline leaders.

You’ll also:

• Provide guidance to HR team members on payroll, benefits, HRIS, and related processes.
• Establish a high standard of responsiveness and customer service.
• Handle sensitive employee, compensation, payroll, and benefits information with discretion and sound judgment.
• Help ensure payroll and benefits processes work effectively for a high-volume hourly workforce.

Who You Are

You’re detail-oriented, analytical, curious, and proactive. You’re comfortable rolling up your sleeves to investigate an issue yourself, but you also know when something requires additional HR or legal review.

You can move comfortably between reconciling payroll with Finance, troubleshooting an HRIS issue, partnering with Operations, and explaining a complicated pay or benefits question to a frontline employee in simple terms.

You understand that payroll accuracy builds employee trust, particularly in a large hourly workforce.

What You’ll Bring

• 4+ years of progressive payroll and benefits administration experience, with significant hands‑on payroll responsibility.
• Experience processing payroll for a high-volume hourly workforce, preferably in manufacturing, distribution, food production, or a similarly operational environment.
• Strong hands‑on experience with California payroll processing and compliance.
• Required: Experience with both Paylocity and ADP.
• Required: Demonstrated experience implementing, transitioning to, or onboarding a new HRIS.
• Strong knowledge of payroll processes, timekeeping, wage and hour requirements, payroll taxes, deductions, and reconciliations.
• Working knowledge of employee benefits administration and annual open enrollment.
• Experience integrating HRIS, payroll, benefits, and timekeeping data.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and communication skills.
• Exceptional attention to detail and ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Ability to handle confidential information with professionalism and discretion.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and the ability to analyze and reconcile data.
• High intellectual curiosity, professionalism, and a proactive mindset.
• CPP certification strongly preferred.
• SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, or another relevant payroll, HR, benefits, or California employment law certification is a plus.
• Bilingual English/Spanish strongly preferred.

What You Should Know

• Some travel between company locations is required, approximately 1–2 days per week.
• This role requires the ability to enter the manufacturing floor and adhere to GMPs.
• Schedule flexibility may be needed during payroll processing, year-end, open enrollment, HRIS implementation, and other critical deadlines.
• Frequent computer and data-entry work is required.

If you’re a payroll professional who wants to be more than a payroll processor—and wants to help build better systems, stronger processes, and a better employee experience,we’d love to hear from you.