Payroll Specialist
- Fulltime, Direct Hire
- Tualatin, OR
- Hybrid
- Manufacturing and Distribution
What you should know: Mulberry Talent Partners has been engaged to partner with our client in Tualatin to hire a Payroll Specialist. Reporting to the HR Director, this role offers an opportunity to own multistate payroll operations, support and strengthen HRIS and payroll controls, and lead high-impact audit and reporting initiatives.
As an individual contributor you will manage full-cycle payroll, timecards, reconciliations, benefit billing and payroll reporting serving as a trusted partner to People and Finance. The ideal candidate brings strong payroll judgement, advanced Excel skills, and confidence to identify discrepancies, recommend solutions, and improve processes with limited day-to-day direction.
Key Responsibilities:
- Own payroll and benefits integrity in Paylocity, including validation standards, risk assessment, error investigations, and corrective controls.
- Prepare, validate, and process regular and off-cycle multistate payroll, including commissions, bonuses, adjustments and final pay.
- Manage daily timecard reviews, schedule changes, missing or duplicate punches, approvals, overtime, meal periods, and pay-code discrepancies.
- Apply approved PTO and leave policies; verify eligibility, accruals, balances, and pay treatment, and resolve or escalate exceptions.
- Validate gross-to-net calculations, taxes, benefit and retirement deductions, garnishments, funding, personnel changes, and required approvals.
- Reconcile payroll registers, funding, deductions, employer contributions, PTO, and payroll accounts, and complete post-payroll corrections.
- Prepare payroll and monthly benefits journal entries and supporting schedules; coordinate coding and posting with Finance.
- Reconcile carrier invoices against enrollment, eligibility, effective dates, deductions, and employer contributions, and resolve discrepancies.
- Lead internal coordination for annual 401k and workers’ compensation audits, including data preparation, reconciliations, issue investigations, and resolution tracking.
- Develop weekly, monthly and ad hoc payroll and HRIS reports; interpret workforce cost trends and present actionable recommendations.
- Evaluate payroll workflows, system configurations, access controls, and procedures; lead approved process and system improvements from testing through implementation.
Qualification, Experience and Education:
- 4+ years’ progressive payroll experience including 2 or more years independently processing full-cycle multistate payroll for 200+ employees.
- Hands-on experience with timekeeping, PTO and leave pay codes, gross-to-net validation, payroll taxes, benefit deductions, garnishments, reconciliations, and post-payroll corrections.
- Experience reconciling benefit invoices and preparing payroll or benefits journal entries and supporting schedules for Finance.
- Experience coordinating payroll, retirement plans, workers’ compensation, or comparable financial audits and corrective action tracking
- Working knowledge of wage and hour, final pay, payroll tax, payroll record, and deduction requirements.
- Proficiency with an integrated HRIS platform and Advanced Excel including pivot tables, lookup functions, and data validation.
- High school diploma or equivalent required. Relevant education, professional training, and practical experience will be considered.
Compensation and Benefits: $33-38/HR offering a robust and comprehensive benefits package. Opportunity to work one day remotely. Easy access from I-5 and ample parking.
Background check upon acceptance of offered employment.
Mulberry Talent Partners is dedicated to connecting exceptional talent with exciting opportunities. By applying for this position, you will also be considered for other open positions within our network. If you are already part of our community, we encourage you to reach out directly to one of our recruiters regarding any specific roles that catch your eye!
