Payroll Manager

Position Title:  Payroll Manager

Reports to: CFO

Department: Accounting

Classification: Full-time, Exempt

Pay: $85,000 - $110,000 annually

Stanislaus Mission

To attract quality-oriented restaurateurs with consistently superior tomatoes and olive oil, keep them through legendary service, and invest in talented people who share our dedication to customer success.

The Company

Stanislaus Food Products is a nationally recognized, family-owned company known for crafting the finest Italian-style tomatoes and sauces for top-quality Italian restaurants and pizzerias.

Payroll Team is seeking a Payroll Manager

If you take pride in the quality of your work and prefer working on a team of talented individuals who share your passion for excellence, we invite you to apply for this exciting opportunity! This is a full-time position located on-site at our Modesto administrative office.

The Payroll Manager will be instrumental in managing and overseeing successful day-to-day payroll service delivery. This individual should be experienced in high volume, multi-state payroll with knowledge of payroll regulatory compliance across all states in the U.S. which employees reside as well as experience with payroll processing for multiple legal entities. This position will be responsible for ensuring the required pay inputs, processing tasks, and outputs are processed timely to produce paychecks for employees. This position will lead the payroll team to complete and settle payroll in a timely manner and according to policy and regulatory standards. This position will support the Time Analyst role as well as needed. In addition, this individual will identify, troubleshoot, and assist with resolution to errors that may occur. This individual will interact with management, vendors, and related business units to manage the proper response to inquiries and audits.

This position will oversee:

• Manage the day-to-day operations of the C.A payroll function servicing over 2000+ employees union group employees.
• Lead the payroll clerical and administrators’ team (two year-round and plus two seasonal) in payroll related activities based on the defined payroll processing schedule for each pay group, ensuring timely close of payroll and coverage for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and holiday processing requirements.
• Coach and mentor, the team to ensure each person excels individually and as a team with a focus on customer service and operational excellence.
• Responsibility of all payroll processes in Time System for Stanislaus (UKG/Dimensions).
• Oversee and resolve issues related to calculation of pay for union employees according to collective bargaining agreements, all employees according to company policy and legislative requirements, and resolve questions on taxes, garnishments, imputed income, pension, or benefit deductions, etc.
• Perform data analysis by running reports, and using Excel functionality (VLOOKUP’s, pivot tables) and UKG Business Intelligence.
• Ensuring team provides customer service, ensuring all inquiries are answered, and all requests are processed in a timely manner.
• Oversee and confirm required controls are validated and cleared as part of routine payroll processing (e.g., audit reports); raise any exceptions or discrepancies related to application and business controls to management.

This position’s personal duties include: 

• Process payrolls for all non-union group team members on a bi-weekly pay period basis (200-350 team members) throughout United States.
• Support internal audits of various payroll areas and prepare materials for external and internal auditors.
• Review and complete Federal & State Tax returns/tax deposits and adhere to daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and annual deadlines for payroll processing and reporting requirements (e.g., tax deposit and tax filings, ACH deadlines).
• Alongside the Sr. People Systems & Analytics Manager, troubleshoot any issues that must be cleared to close payroll on time. Assess and prioritize processing requirements and decide when to move forward with processing or when to stop.
• Understand interdependencies of inbound and outbound integrations and how payroll processing is impacted by errors or delays. Manage processing schedule according to these interdependencies. Coordinate with Technology to launch integrations and/or resolve integration issues.
• Provide status reports to key stakeholders and participate in meetings as appropriate.
• Identify and execute ways to improve operational processes in the spirit of continuous improvement.
• Ensure appropriate documentation for operational processes and procedures are in place and adhered to as part of operations (e.g., processing schedule, checklist, DTPs). Create and conduct employee training on payroll policies and usage of payroll related systems.
• Participate in testing of payroll system or process changes and enhancements as needed.
• Partner with key players and decision makers for payroll processing both internally and externally to effectively operate payroll including key constituents who deliver payroll input (like HR, Finance, and Operations) and those who make decisions on how to proceed if significant issues in payroll arise.
• Back up Time Administrator when needed for absences.
• Support other projects and activities, as defined by senior leadership and/or enterprise activities, as directed and required.
• Support and partner with Vice President of People Operations as needed on projects, processes, trainings, and Time.

Candidate Requirements:

• Minimum three years of experience in payroll operations.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, Accounting, Finance, or a related field, or equivalent combination of work experience and/or CPP or FPC certification.
• Minimum two years’ experience with UKG HR/payroll or another SaaS payroll engine.
• Understanding of federal and state regulations related to salaries, wages, taxes, benefits, and other payroll related matters.
• Ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality with all data and sensitive materials.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex projects and implement complex programs & processes.
• Experience with HR/payroll integration and mass data uploads.
• Previous experience in a confidential business environment.
• Must have excellent verbal and written communication and customer service skills and the ability to communicate effectively and tactfully with all levels of personnel.
• Excellent interpersonal and leadership skills, with the ability to appropriately lead, train, develop others and effectively manage the performance of direct team members.
• Must be able to organize, prioritize and schedule work effectively and be able to work well under time constraints.
• Must have excellent & demonstrated analytical skills with excellent attention to detail.
• Must be a self-starter and a team player.
• Must be able to handle a high volume in a fast-paced environment.
• Must be able to manage confidential payroll information and uphold the required security restrictions related to confidential pay details.
• Advanced proficiency with MS Excel (VLOOKUP’s, pivot tables with a deep ability and understanding of analytics, data manipulation, and building upload formats).
• Must be available to work long hours including the weekend during our Pack Season (mid-July through end of September).

Candidate Preferences:

• Prior supervisory experience is strongly preferred.

Physical Requirements:

Rare lifting, carrying, pushing, and/or pulling; rare stooping, kneeling, crouching, and/or crawling; and frequent fine finger dexterity. Generally, the job requires the following percentages of time committed to physical activity:   75% or more sitting, 25% or less walking, and 25% or less standing. The job is performed under rare temperature variations and in an office environment. Unrestricted visual and audio abilities are required for the safety of all employees. The ability to lift up to 25 lbs. is required.

Wellbeing:

In addition to our solid track record as a stable, growing employer, we offer a variety of different sets of benefits from the list below depending on your role; 

• Physical Wellness – Medical, Prescription Drug, Dental, Vision, Wellness Events, Biometrics Screenings.
• Social Wellness – Paid Time Off, Company Holidays, Federal and State Leave of Absences, Reward Time Off.
• Development Wellness- Recognition, Development Training Programs, Succession Planning, Tuition Reimbursement.
• Emotional Wellness– Employee Assistance Program, People Operations Department -Open Door Policy. 
• Financial Wellness– Competitive Salary, Performance based bonus, 401k Program, Life Insurance.
• Nutrition Wellness- Access to best-in-class tomato sauce and olive oil products.