Director, Payroll

Flexible Location

WHO WE ARE

TNTP is the nation's preeminent education nonprofit that brings research, policy, and consulting together to meet the needs and aspirations of young people, families, communities, and the nation. We are educators, researchers, and innovators working to ensure every young person has the chance to reach their full potential, every educator and leader is set up for success, and every community has the resources necessary to connect young people to paths of opportunity.

We work at every level of the PK-12 system, side by side with educators, system leaders, and communities across 41 states and more than 4,000 systems nationwide to reach ambitious goals for student success. Our vision pushes beyond school walls, catalyzing cross-sector collaboration to create pathways for young people to achieve academic, economic, and social mobility.

Learn more about us, what we do, and working here.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

The FRO (Financial Reporting and Operations) team is an arm of TNTP's Finance function. The team owns accounting, project and contract setup and management, payroll, expense reports, supplier invoice processing, revenue, client invoicing, grant financial management, and the month-end close process. This team manages the annual audit and creates the org's monthly financial statements and keeps TNTP’s finances healthy and in compliance with state and federal regulations. 

The Director, Payroll is a strategic, hands-on, and operations minded leader that will oversee all aspects of payroll ensuring compliance, accuracy and timeliness. You will develop systems and make strategic decisions grounded in TNTP’s mission. In this role, you will report directly to the Controller and have one direct report: the Payroll Administrator. 

Responsibilities include: 

• Articulate a clear, compelling and ambitious payroll vision, and implement strategies to realize that vision. 

• Develop and maintain best practices, policies and procedures, and effectively manage the Payroll team to execute all payroll processes of bi-weekly, multi-state payroll for over 800 employees across a variety of employee groups and locations. 

• Develop, track and implement key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure accountability for payroll function aligned to strategic objectives of the organization.  

• Serve as Workday HCM lead for Payroll, including supporting implementation, mapping and optimization of Workday processes and reviewing payroll accounting outputs 

• Build and sustain strong partnerships with the internal departments of TNTP, including People Operations, Workforce, Finance and Technology to align payroll function with broader HR and business strategy 

• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local laws, as well as company's payroll, accounting and benefit program policies and procedures. 

• Partner with the Benefits Team on effectively managing 403b related systems, audits and certain operations including loans. 

• Lead Leave of Absence payroll processing, with a focus on improving automation and efficiency 

• Maintain and proactively research compliance with all applicable HR related laws including wage and hour law, state paid family leaves, and multi-state compliance of such laws. 

• Conduct periodic audits of payroll work and system automation processes to ensure the system is working as designed for leave accruals, employee compensation, payroll taxes, and remittance. 

• Lead the payout and data validation accuracy of special pay (including those calculated by other teams) including PTO, severance, bonus, and others. 

• Lead and empower the team to troubleshoot challenges and effectively communicate with employees across the organization. 

YOUR QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or related field preferred. MBA or other advanced professional degree and payroll certifications preferred.  

• Minimum of 10 years of Payroll experience, with at least 7+ years of Payroll leadership, managing a complex multi-state, multi-entity payroll. 

• Experience utilizing and optimizing Workday required. Workday HCM certification – Payroll preferred  

• 5+ years of experience leading cross-functional project teams, including HR, Finance, Legal stakeholders etc. 

• Ability to generate and in