Senior Specialist, Payroll Tax

Mastercard Inc.; O’Fallon (MO); On-site; USD 85,000 - 132,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive benefits

Paid time off

401k with match

Job summary

Mastercard in the United States is seeking a Senior Specialist, Payroll Tax to lead tax-related activities during mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and business integrations. You will serve as the payroll tax SME across the M&A lifecycle, ensuring compliance, employee tax setup accuracy, and smooth integration into payroll operations.

The role requires deep knowledge of U.S. federal and state payroll tax regulations, strong project management, and collaboration with Corporate Tax, Legal and

Qualifications

• Strong expertise in U.S. Federal tax regulations, state withholding requirements, state unemployment insurance, local taxation, wage reporting requirements.
• Experience with payroll systems such as ADP, Workday Payroll.
• Strong analytical and reconciliation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple implementation projects simultaneously.
• Experience supporting mergers, acquisitions, or divestitures.
• Experience with multi-national payroll tax compliance.
• Experience working with payroll tax vendors and outsourced payroll providers.
• Knowledge of tax filing and wage reporting processes across multiple jurisdictions.

Responsibilities

• Payroll Tax Due Diligence: Assess payroll tax profiles, registrations, and compliance status of acquired entities.
• Tax Registration & Entity Setup: Coordinate establishment of federal, state, provincial, and local tax registrations.
• Payroll Tax Implementation: Validate employee tax setup and election data conversions; coordinate testing of tax calculations and filings.
• Vendor & Stakeholder Management: Partner with Payroll Operations, Corporate Tax, Payroll vendors, & M&A COE team on implementation activities.
• Post-Go-Live Stabilization: Monitor payroll tax operations after implementation and transition ongoing activities.

Skills

US Federal tax

State withholding

State unemployment

Local taxation

Wage reporting

Analytical & reconciliation

Merger & acquisition experience

Multi-national payroll compliance

Vendor management

Tax filing knowledge

Tools

ADP

Workday Payroll

Job description

Company Purpose

Our Purpose Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re helping build a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.

Title and Summary

Senior Specialist, Payroll Tax

Position Summary The Tax Implementation Specialist, Payroll, is responsible for leading payroll tax-related activities associated with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and business integrations. This role serves as the payroll tax subject matter expert throughout the M&A lifecycle, ensuring tax compliance, regulatory readiness, employee tax setup accuracy, and successful integration into payroll operations. This role requires deep knowledge of U.S. and global payroll tax regulations, strong project management skills, and the ability to navigate complex tax environments during organizational change.

Key Responsibilities

Payroll Tax Due Diligence

• Assess payroll tax profiles, registrations, and compliance status of acquired entities.
• Review existing payroll tax processes, controls, filing practices, and vendor relationships.
• Identify tax risks, liabilities, compliance exposures, and remediation requirements.
• Support integration planning by providing payroll tax impact assessments.

Tax Registration & Entity Setup

• Coordinate establishment of federal, state, provincial, and local tax registrations.
• Ensure tax IDs, withholding accounts, unemployment accounts, and local registrations are established accurately.
• Partner with Corporate Tax and Legal teams to address jurisdictional requirements.
• Manage tax account transitions during mergers, consolidations, and divestitures.

Payroll Tax Implementation

• Validate employee tax setup and election data conversions.
• Support payroll vendor implementations and integrations.
• Coordinate testing of tax calculations, filings, deposits, and reporting.
• Maintain audit-ready documentation for all implementation activities.

Vendor & Stakeholder Management

• Partner with Payroll Operations, Corporate Tax, Payroll vendors, & M&A COE team on implementation related activities
• Serve as the payroll tax workstream lead within integration governance meetings.
• Provide status updates, risk assessments, and recommendations to leadership.

Post-Go-Live Stabilization

• Monitor payroll tax operations following implementation.
• Transition ongoing tax activities to payroll operations teams.
• Capture lessons learned and update implementation playbooks.

Qualifications

• Strong expertise in U.S. Federal tax regulations, state withholding requirements, state unemployment insurance, local taxation, wage reporting requirements
• Experience with payroll systems such as ADP, Workday Payroll
• Strong analytical and reconciliation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple implementation projects simultaneously.
• Experience supporting mergers, acquisitions, or divestitures.
• Experience with multi-national payroll tax compliance.
• Experience working with payroll tax vendors and outsourced payroll providers.
• Knowledge of tax filing and wage reporting processes across multiple jurisdictions.

Mastercard is a merit-based, inclusive, equal opportunity employer that considers applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We hire the most qualified candidate for the role. In the US or Canada, if you require accommodations or assistance to complete the online application process or during the recruitment process, please contact [e-mail] and identify the type of accommodation or assistance you are requesting. Do not include any medical or health information in this email. The Reasonable Accommodations team will respond to your email promptly.

Corporate Security Responsibility All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must: Abide by Mastercard's security policies and practices; Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed; Report any suspected information security violation or breach, and Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard's guidelines.

In line with Mastercard's total compensation philosophy and assuming that the job will be performed in the US, the successful candidate will be offered a competitive base salary and may be eligible for an annual bonus or commissions depending on the role. The base salary offered may vary depending on multiple factors, including but not limited to location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Benefits

• insurance (including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, disability, life insurance); flexible spending account and health savings account; paid leaves (including 16 weeks of new parent leave and up to 20 days of bereavement leave); 80 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time, 25 days of vacation time and 5 personal days, pro-rated based on date of hire; 10 annual paid U.S. observed holidays; 401k with a best-in-class company match; deferred compensation for eligible roles; fitness reimbursement or on-site fitness facilities; eligibility for tuition reimbursement; and many more.

Intern Benefits

• 56 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time; jury duty leave; and on-site fitness facilities in some locations.

Pay Ranges

• O'Fallon, Missouri: $85,000 - $132,000 USD

Everyone wants easier ways to pay; we invent them. Checkout lines are slow; we speed them along. Merchants want more sales; we give them data and insights. People need financial access; we connect them. Corporate purchasing is complicated; we make it simple. Commuters are busy; we speed them on their way. Governments need greater efficiencies; we help create them. Small businesses are virtual; we give them access to a world of buyers. Retailers want to fight fraud; we provide the tools.