Manager, Payroll

Alkami is a leading cloud-based digital banking solutions provider for financial institutions in the United States that helps clients to transform through retail and business banking, digital account opening and loan origination, payment fraud prevention, and data analytics and engagement solutions. Alkami’s Mobile App Platform has been certified by J.D. Power for providing clients with “An Outstanding Mobile Banking Platform Experience.”

Founded in 2009, we continue to be recognized for our intentional culture and tremendous growth (Best Place to Work in Fintech; Best & Brightest to Work For Nationally; and Comparably’s Best Company Culture, Best Career Growth, Best Engineering Team, and Best Places to Work in Dallas, among others). Through our bold investments in technology and people, we empower our clients to grow confidently, adapt quickly, and build thriving digital banking communities through tailored experiences for over 19.5M users.

As a remote-first company, most of our positions can be remote in the US, except for key roles, which will be indicated in the Job Title.

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The Manager, Payroll is responsible for the leadership, oversight, and execution of payroll operations supporting a workforce of 1,000+ salaried and hourly employees across multiple states. This role ensures the accurate, timely, and compliant processing of payroll while maintaining strong internal controls and driving continuous process improvement.
This position serves as the subject matter expert for Workday Payroll, overseeing payroll processing, payroll tax compliance, reporting, and system optimization. The Senior Manager will partner closely with HR, Total Rewards, Finance, HRIS, and external payroll vendors to ensure seamless payroll operations and regulatory compliance.
The ideal candidate brings extensive experience managing complex, multi-state payroll environments, with deep hands-on expertise in Workday payroll processing and administration.

Key Responsibilities & Duties:

● Lead the end-to-end processing of on-cycle and off-cycle payrolls for a workforce of 1,000+ employees, including salaried (semimonthly) and hourly (biweekly) populations across multiple states.
● Serve as the Workday Payroll subject matter expert, ensuring accurate payroll
configuration, processing, reconciliation, and reporting.
● Oversee payroll schedules, validation procedures, and payroll audits to ensure accurate and timely payroll processing.
● Review and validate payroll data including timesheets, earnings, deductions, bonuses, taxable fringe benefits and adjustments and process time sensitive 401(k) and HSA funding.
● Manage payroll tax processes in partnership with the organization’s tax filing vendor, ensuring compliance with federal, state, and local payroll tax regulations.
● Lead payroll month-end, quarter-end, and year-end processes, including payroll
reconciliations and coordination with Accounting to ensure accurate payroll postings to the general ledger.

● Oversee year-end payroll reporting, including W-2 and W-2C reconciliation and
preparation.
● Support organizational compliance and reporting requirements including SOX controls, internal audit controls and payroll-related audits such as 401(k) and workers’ compensation.
● Identify and implement payroll system enhancements and process improvements, particularly within Workday Payroll.
● Partner cross-functionally with HR, HRIS, Finance, Total Rewards, and external payroll vendors to ensure alignment across payroll-related programs and processes.
● Work closely with the stock compensation team to process payrolls related to ISO, RSU, ESPP, ESPP DD and ISO DD.
● Develop and maintain payroll documentation, internal controls, and operational
procedures.
● Provide leadership and support for payroll operations, serving as a key escalation point for complex payroll issues.
● Other duties as assigned
 

Qualifications:

● 8+ years of progressive payroll experience, including leadership or senior-level payroll operations responsibilities.
● Proven experience managing payroll for 1,000+ employees in a multi-state environment, including both salaried and hourly workforces.
● Extensive hands-on experience processing payroll in Workday Payroll and ADP
SmartCompliance.
● Strong knowledge of payroll tax regulations, multi-state payroll compliance, and wage and hour laws.
● Experience managing payroll tax vendors and responding to tax agency inquiries and audit requests.

● Strong analytical, reconciliation, and reporting skills with experience supporting payroll accounting and general ledger integration.
● Advanced Excel skills including Pivot Tables, VLOOKUPs, and payroll data analysis.
● Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Payroll and Payroll Tax
 

Desired Skills:

● Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) designation is a plus.
● Experience supporting or leading Workday Payroll optimization and system
enhancements required.
● Experience managing payroll in high-growth or complex organizational environments.
● Strong project management and process improvement capabilities.
● Ability to collaborate effectively across HR, Finance, and operational teams.
● Strong attention to detail, organizational skills, and ability to manage multiple priorities in a deadline-driven environment.
 

The salary range for this position is: $105,600 - $132,000 + Bonus + RSUsCool Things to Know

Not Just Any Company: Alkami has an awesome diverse and inclusive environment. We have a FUN culture and offer great benefits, including remote-first environment, unlimited paid time off, 401(k) with employer match, and more.

Work Authorization: We cannot offer employment sponsorship at this time. Candidates must be eligible to work in the US for full-time employment.

Recruiters: We are not looking for outside recruiting firms to help us in this search. Thank you for understanding.

Pay Transparency: As of January 1, 2023, new states and locales have enacted pay equity laws that require more pay transparency by employers in the following states: California, Colorado (effective January 1, 2021), Connecticut, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington.

The Important Stuff

Alkami Technology is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind: Alkami is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Alkami are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Alkami will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Alkami encourages applicants of all ages.

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J.D. Power 2024 Mobile App Platform Certification ProgramSM recognition is based on successful completion of an audit and exceeding a customer experience benchmark through a survey of recent servicing interactions. For more information, visit jdpower.com/awards.