Vice President, Payroll Administration

Future Standard; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); On-site; USD 170,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Future Standard seeks a Vice President of Payroll Administration to lead enterprise payroll operations, ensuring accurate, timely, and compliant payments across the organization. You will own end-to-end payroll, including processing, off-cycle filings, garnishments, and G/L interface into Corporate Accounting.

You will partner with HR, Treasury, Tax, and Audit to modernize processes, strengthen controls, and guide a distributed team through growth and system changes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, human resources, or a related field.
• 12+ years of payroll experience with at least 5 years leading a payroll organization in a multi-state environment.
• Demonstrated command of payroll tax, wage and hour regulation, garnishment administration, and year-end reporting requirements.
• Hands-on experience with an enterprise payroll and time platform, and comfort working alongside systems teams on configuration, testing, and integrations.
• Experience leading a payroll system implementation, conversion or shared-services transition preferred.
• Exposure to international payroll and equity compensation reporting preferred.
• Experience with Ceridian Dayforce preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own the full payroll cycle for all pay groups, ensuring accuracy and on-schedule release.
• Partner with in-country providers and local finance teams for international payroll across countries and currencies.
• Direct off-cycle payments, retroactive adjustments, bonus/commission runs, severance, relocation, and equity payroll events.
• Maintain a documented control environment over payroll and ensure audit readiness.
• Lead, develop, and retain the payroll team with clear objectives and succession planning.
• Own payroll tax registrations, deposits, filings, and W-2 issuance/amendments.

Skills

Leadership

Cross-country payroll

Regulatory compliance

Stakeholder collaboration

Process improvement

Education

Bachelor's degree in accounting/finance/HR

Tools

Ceridian Dayforce

Payroll/time platform

Job description

The Vice President, Payroll Administration leads the enterprise payroll function and is accountable for the accurate, timely, and compliant payment of all employees across the organization. The role owns end-to-end payroll operations, including processing, off-cycle filings, garnishments, and the general ledger interface into Corporate Accounting. It carries responsibility for the internal control environment over payroll and for the integrity of payroll data used in financial reporting.

Reporting into Accounting Operations, the Vice President partners closely with Human Resources, Treasury, Tax, Financial Systems, and Internal/External Audit. The successful candidate combines deep technical payroll expertise with the judgment to modernize processes, strengthen controls, and lead a distributed team through periods of growth and system change.

THE SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE IS EXPECTED TO:

Payroll Operations

• Own the full payroll cycle for all pay groups, ensuring every payroll is processed accurately and released on schedule.
• Partner with in-country providers and local finance teams to administer international payroll across multiple countries and currencies.
• Direct off-cycle payments, retroactive adjustments, bonus and commission runs, severance, relocation, and equity-related payroll events.
• Establish and monitor service levels for payroll inquiries, escalations, and case resolution across the employee population.
• Lead, develop, and retain the payroll team, setting clear objectives, cross-training for continuity, and a succession plan for critical roles.
• Maintain a documented control environment over payroll, including segregation of duties, approval thresholds, and evidence sufficient to satisfy internal and external audit.
• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local wage and hour law, multi-state and multi-jurisdiction tax withholding, garnishment orders, and applicable reporting obligations.
• Own payroll tax registrations, deposits, quarterly and annual filings, and monthly/quarterly/year-end reporting, including W-2 issuance and amendments.
• Deliver the payroll general ledger interface, accruals, and account reconciliations to Accounting Operations within the monthly and quarterly close calendar.
• Support system automation with benefit providers. (HealthEquity Partners, Fidelity, etc.)
• Own the annual workers’ compensation audit.
• Internal payroll reporting as requested
• Calculate and record monthly payroll allocations.
• Calculate and record monthly bonus accruals.
• Own day-to-day administration of the company 401(k) plan in partnership with Human Resources and the plan recordkeeper, including enrollment, deferral, and loan data flowing from payroll.
• Calculate and validate employer match and any non-elective contributions, including the annual true-up, and confirm each calculation agrees to the plan document and eligible compensation definition.
• Record and support the monthly and year-end accruals for employer match, reconcile the related liability accounts, and explain movements to Corporate Accounting as part of the close.
• Lead the annual 401(k) plan audit and Form 5500 process, preparing census and payroll data, coordinating requests from the external audit team, and resolving findings ahead of filing deadlines.
• Support annual compliance testing and contribution limit monitoring, and remediate operational errors, including missed deferrals and corrective contributions, under established correction procedures.

Systems and Process Improvement

• Partner with Financial Systems and Human Resources on the payroll and time-capture platform roadmap, including upgrades, integrations, and testing of configuration changes.
• Identify and eliminate manual effort through automation, standardized calendars, and improved data quality at the point of entry.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, human resources, or a related field.
• Twelve or more years of progressive payroll experience, including at least five years leading a payroll organization in a multi-state environment.
• Demonstrated command of payroll tax, wage and hour regulation, garnishment administration, and year-end reporting requirements.
• Hands-on experience with an enterprise payroll and time platform, and comfort working alongside systems teams on configuration, testing, and integrations.
• Working knowledge of payroll accounting, including accruals, reconciliations, and the payroll entries that flow into financial statements.
• Experience leading a payroll system implementation, conversion or share-services transition preferred.
• Exposure to international payroll and equity compensation reporting preferred.
• Experience with Ceridian Dayforce preferred.