Senior Payroll Lead - Multi-State & Compliance

Venture Forthe Inc.; Buffalo (NY); On-site; USD 85,000 - 105,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, vision insurance

PTO

401(k) with match

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Short-term disability

Job summary

Venture Forthe Inc. is seeking a Senior Payroll Specialist to ensure accurate, timely payroll for a large multi-state workforce of hourly and salaried employees.

You will act as a senior payroll resource, handling complex transactions, ensuring compliance, and driving payroll process improvements. In this in-person role, you will collaborate across Payroll, HR, Finance, and Operations, support testing and integrations, and mentor junior staff while safeguarding confidential information.

Qualifications

• At least five years of progressive payroll experience, preferably in a high-volume environment.
• Strong knowledge of payroll processing, taxes, deductions, garnishments, reconciliations, and wage-and-hour requirements.
• Experience processing payroll for both hourly and salaried employees.
• Advanced Excel skills, including formulas, lookups, pivot tables, and large-data reconciliations.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and communication skills.
• Excellent attention to detail, sound judgment, and the ability to meet strict deadlines while protecting confidential information.

Responsibilities

• Process and review weekly and biweekly payroll with earnings, deductions, taxes, benefits, PTO, mileage, bonuses, overtime, and shift differentials.
• Handle complex payroll transactions, including retroactive adjustments, corrections, garnishments, manual checks, off-cycle payments, new hires, terminations, and compensation changes.
• Perform payroll reconciliations, investigate discrepancies, and support month-end, year-end, audit, and W-2 activities.
• Help maintain compliance with federal, state, and local payroll, wage-and-hour, tax, paid-leave, and record-retention requirements.
• Review information from scheduling, EVV, timekeeping, and payroll systems, resolving issues involving hours worked, pay rates, travel time, mileage, and employee status.
• Serve as an escalation point for employee payroll questions and communicate resolutions clearly and professionally.
• Partner with Payroll, Human Resources, Finance, Operations, and leadership to resolve payroll issues and ensure accurate reporting.
• Support payroll system testing, implementations, integrations, documentation, automation, and process improvements.
• Provide guidance and backup support to payroll staff and assist with training, audits, compliance initiatives, and special projects.
• Protect confidential employee and payroll information while escalating significant errors, compliance concerns, or control issues to management.

Skills

Payroll processing

Excel (Advanced)

Garnishments

Analytical skills

Attention to detail

Cross-functional communication

Time management

Education

CPP or FPC certification

Tools

Paylocity

Job description

Venture Forthe Inc. is seeking a Senior Payroll Specialist to ensure accurate, timely payroll for a large multi-state workforce of hourly and salaried employees.

You will act as a senior payroll resource, handling complex transactions, ensuring compliance, and driving payroll process improvements. In this in-person role, you will collaborate across Payroll, HR, Finance, and Operations, support testing and integrations, and mentor junior staff while safeguarding confidential information.