Payroll Specialist and HR Operations

[Job Description]

Payroll Administration

- Coordinate and process regular and off-cycle payrolls accurately and on schedule for employ-ees in multiple U.S. states.

- Collect, validate, and enter payroll changes, including new hires, terminations, pay changes, bonuses, allowances, deductions, garnishments, time-off activity, and other approved adjust-ments.

- Review payroll registers and exception reports; reconcile employee changes and investigate dis-crepancies before payroll approval.

- Maintain payroll calendars, approval documentation, audit trails, and standard operating pro-cedures; ensure a trained backup can follow the process.

- Respond to employee payroll questions professionally and confidentially, escalating complex tax, legal, or employee-relations matters appropriately.

- Partner with Finance/Accounting on payroll funding, general-ledger reporting, reconciliations, accrual information, and year-end activities while maintaining appropriate separation of duties.

- Support quarterly and year-end payroll activities, including W-2 coordination, tax notices, au-dits, and vendor follow-up.

HR Operations, HRIS & Employee Records

- Maintain accurate employee records in the HRIS, payroll system, personnel files, and organiza-tional reports, including hires, transfers, promotions, leave status, and separations.

- Coordinate onboarding and offboarding transactions, including offer-document administration, background checks, Form I-9 completion, benefit enrollment, and final-pay notifications.

- Coordinate directly with the HQ IT team and hiring manager for each new hire's laptop, equipment, email, and system-access setup; submit requests on time, follow up across time zones, confirm readiness before the start date, and coordinate equipment return at separation.

- Administer routine HR workflows and track deadlines for probationary periods, required docu-ments, policy acknowledgments, training, and employment-status changes.

- Prepare recurring headcount, turnover, payroll, benefit, and workforce reports for HR leadership and authorized business partners.

- Maintain organized, audit-ready files and apply record-retention, privacy, and confidentiality re-quirements.

- Identify opportunities to simplify, document, and automate HR processes while maintaining ap-propriate controls.

Benefits & Employee Support

- Support employee benefit enrollment, life-event changes, eligibility updates, invoice reconcilia-tion, and vendor issue resolution.

- Serve as a responsive first point of contact for routine questions regarding pay, benefits, PTO, policies, and HR processes.

- Provide clear, respectful service to a culturally diverse workforce, including office, warehouse, expatriate, and visa-status employee populations.

- Assist with employee communications, HR programs, open enrollment, surveys, and other team initiatives.

Compliance & Controls

- Support compliance with applicable federal, state, provincial, and local payroll and employ-ment requirements; monitor assigned filing and notice deadlines.

- Help ensure timely final-pay processing, lawful deductions, accurate time and attendance rec-ords, and appropriate documentation across operating locations.

- Protect confidential payroll, compensation, immigration, medical, and employee-relations in-formation using role-based access and sound judgment.

- Support internal and external audits and promptly correct documented data or process errors.

Requirements

- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Accounting, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

- Three or more years of experience in payroll administration and HR operations; hands-on multi-state U.S. payroll experience is required.

- Working knowledge of payroll controls, wage-and-hour fundamentals, payroll taxes, deduc-tions, garnishments, and year-end payroll processes.

- Experience using an HRIS and payroll platform, with strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel, in-cluding lookups, pivot tables, reconciliation, and data validation.

- Demonstrated accuracy, follow-through, discretion, customer service, and ability to meet firm payroll deadlines.

- Clear written and verbal communication skills and the ability to explain payroll and HR pro-cesses to employees and managers.

The following skills and qualifications are preferred for this position:

- Experience supporting employees across several states and working with geographically dis-persed office and warehouse populations.

- Experience with benefit administration, HR reporting, audits, and Canadian payroll coordina-tion.

- Payroll or HR certification, such as Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC), Certified Payroll Professional (CPP), aPHR, PHR, or SHRM-CP.

- Experience working in a Korean-headquartered, international, manufacturing, logistics, or au-tomotive-related organization.

- Korean-English bilingual