Payroll Manager
Location: Alameda County, CA
Compensation: $150,000–$160,000 Base Salary
Industry: Healthcare / Medical Services
Status: Confidential Search
Position Overview
A well-established healthcare organization in Alameda County is seeking an experienced Payroll Manager to oversee payroll, timekeeping, workforce management, and employee scheduling operations.
This is a hands-on leadership role responsible for ensuring accurate and timely payroll processing, maintaining strong payroll controls and compliance, and partnering closely with HR, Finance, Operations, and shared-services teams. The Payroll Manager will also play a key role in the implementation, administration, and optimization of timekeeping, scheduling, and workforce management systems.
The position has responsibility for the full end-to-end payroll process for affiliated medical groups, including payroll preparation, validation, processing, reconciliation, and distribution.
Key Responsibilities
Payroll Management
- Manage the full payroll cycle, including payroll preparation, validation, processing, reconciliation, and timely distribution.
- Ensure accurate processing of regular wages, overtime, differentials, bonuses, PTO, on-call pay, deductions, garnishments, and payroll adjustments.
- Review and reconcile payroll data prior to transmission and final processing.
- Research and resolve payroll discrepancies, tax issues, employee concerns, and payroll-related inquiries.
- Maintain compliance with applicable federal, state, and local payroll regulations, wage and hour requirements, and healthcare-related requirements.
- Maintain payroll records, audit documentation, and appropriate internal controls.
- Coordinate payroll calendars, deadlines, and payroll-related communications with leadership.
- Support payroll, 401(k), workers' compensation, and year-end audits and reporting.
- Continuously evaluate payroll processes for opportunities to improve accuracy and efficiency.
Timekeeping & Workforce Management
- Oversee timekeeping operations and ensure employee time records are accurately reviewed, validated, and approved.
- Identify, investigate, and resolve timekeeping exceptions.
- Audit timekeeping data for payroll accuracy and policy compliance.
- Develop and maintain timekeeping procedures, policies, and user documentation.
- Partner with managers to improve workforce accountability and consistency.
- Coordinate closely with shared-services payroll teams to ensure timely and accurate processing.
Scheduling & Systems
- Manage employee scheduling systems and related workforce operations.
- Lead the implementation and ongoing administration of scheduling technology and workforce management tools.
- Maintain scheduling rules, staffing templates, labor standards, shift structures, and organizational hierarchies.
- Serve as a subject matter expert for payroll, timekeeping, and scheduling systems.
- Lead system testing, training, implementation, and optimization initiatives.
- Support system upgrades, integrations, reporting enhancements, and issue resolution.
- Identify opportunities for automation and process standardization.
- Develop workforce reporting and metrics to support leadership decision-making.
Leadership & Cross-Functional Partnership
- Partner closely with HR, Finance, Operations, and shared-services teams.
- Provide payroll and timekeeping guidance to managers and employees.
- Lead cross-functional payroll and workforce-system initiatives.
- Promote accuracy, accountability, operational excellence, and a high level of internal customer service.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Human Resources, Finance, Healthcare Administration, or a related discipline; equivalent relevant management experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
- Minimum 5 years of progressive payroll and workforce management experience.
- Strong knowledge of payroll regulations, wage and hour laws, tax compliance, and workforce management practices.
- Demonstrated experience managing full-cycle payroll, including processing, reconciliations, and regulatory reporting.
- Healthcare or medical-group payroll experience is strongly preferred.
- Experience with Workday, ADP, and workforce management/timekeeping systems preferred.
- Experience implementing or optimizing scheduling and/or timekeeping systems preferred.
- Payroll certification or Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) designation preferred.
Ideal Candidate
The successful candidate will be a strong payroll operator who can work at both the leadership and hands-on execution levels. This individual should be comfortable managing complex payroll processes, troubleshooting issues, improving systems and controls, and working across multiple functions and locations.
Strong attention to detail, analytical and problem-solving skills, communication abilities, and the capacity to manage multiple priorities against strict payroll deadlines are essential. Experience coordinating payroll operations across remote and multi-site environments is particularly valuable.
Compensation
Base Salary: $150,000–$160,000
This is a confidential search. Additional information regarding the organization and position will be provided to qualified candidates during the interview process.