Global Payroll & Equity Administration Director

About LILT

AI is changing how the world communicates — and LILT is leading that transformation.

We're on a mission to make the world's information accessible to everyone, regardless of the language they speak. We use cutting-edge AI, machine translation, and human-in-the-loop expertise to translate content faster, more accurately, and more cost-effectively without compromising on brand, voice, or quality.

At LILT, we empower our teammates with leading tools, global collaboration, and growth opportunities to do their best work. Our company virtues—Work together, win together; Find a way or make one; Quicker than they expect; Quality is Job 1—guide everything we do. We are trusted by Intel Corporation, Canva, the United States Department of Defense, the United States Air Force, ASICS, and hundreds of global Enterprises. Backed by Sequoia, Intel Capital, and Redpoint, we’re building a category-defining company in a $50B+ global translation market being redefined by AI.

Role Overview

We are looking for a Global Payroll & Equity Administration Director to lead and fully own end-to-end global payroll operations through Rippling, DATEV, and equity administration through Carta, U.S. and international tax compliance, state registrations, retirement programs, and workers’ compensation administration.

This is a senior individual contributor role with full accountability for designing, operating, and continuously improving scalable, audit-ready payroll and compliance infrastructure. You will partner closely with Finance, People, Legal, external vendors, and executive leadership to ensure payroll, equity, and regulatory obligations are accurate, timely, compliant, and well-controlled across all jurisdictions.

This role requires both strategic ownership and hands-on execution.

Key Responsibilities:

Global Payroll Leadership

• Own and operate all global payroll cycles (biweekly, semimonthly, monthly) across multiple countries and worker types (exempt, nonexempt, contractors), approximately 12 to 14 per month.

• Ensure payroll accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and documentation across all jurisdictions.

• Establish and maintain strong payroll controls, audit trails, reconciliations, and documented procedures.

• Partner with Finance on payroll funding, approvals, reporting, accruals, and month-end close.

• Lead payroll reconciliations and support internal and external audits.

• Design and continuously improve scalable payroll workflows as the company grows.

Payroll Tax, State Registration & Regulatory Compliance

• Oversee all U.S. federal, state, and local payroll tax filings and international statutory payroll requirements (in partnership with providers).

• Own multi-state employer registrations, account maintenance, and regulatory correspondence for all current and future operating jurisdictions.

• Ensure proper tax setup and compliance for new state or international expansions.

• Monitor regulatory changes and proactively adjust payroll processes to maintain compliance.

• Maintain complete documentation to ensure audit readiness.

• Coordinate responses to government inquiries related to payroll and tax matters.

Equity Administration (Carta)

• Serve as primary administrator for Carta, owning cap table management and equity operations.

• Manage equity grants, vesting schedules, exercises, terminations, and reporting.

• Ensure accurate equity tax withholding and integration with payroll.

• Support coordination of 409A valuations and support equity-related compliance requirements.

• Partner with Finance and Legal on equity disclosures, financial reporting, and board reporting.

• Maintain audit-ready documentation of all equity transactions.

Retirement & 401(k) Administration

• Own end-to-end administration of the U.S. 401(k) plan, including eligibility tracking, enrollment oversight, contribution processing, employer match calculations, and timely funding.

• Ensure payroll deductions and employer contributions are accurate, reconciled, and transmitted within regulatory deadlines.

• Partner with plan providers (e.g., Fidelity) to maintain ERISA compliance.

• Coordinate annual nondiscrimination testing (ADP/ACP, top-heavy testing) and audit support.

• Oversee Form 5500 preparation and filing in partnership with external advisors.

• Manage required employee notices, plan amendments, and documentation.

• Ensure accurate integration between Rippling payroll and retirement plan systems.

• Oversee U.K. and Ireland pension administration (e.g., People’s Partnership and Bank of Ireland), ensuring statutory compliance and accurate funding.

Workers’ Compensation Administration

• Own workers’ compensation administration across all U.S. operating states.

• Ensure proper state registrations and coverage as the company expands geographically.

• Coordinate policy renewals and audits with insurance brokers and carriers.

• Oversee workers’ compensation payroll audits and ensure accurate wage reporting.

• Manage claims administration in partnership with HR and carriers.

• Monitor classification codes and ensure alignment with payroll reporting.

• Maintain compliance with state-specific workers’ comp regulations and documentation requirements.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Governance

• Partner with People on onboarding, compensation changes, bonuses, commissions, leave adjustments, and offboarding.

• Respond to employee payroll and equity inquiries professionally and efficiently.

• Serve as subject matter expert on payroll, equity, retirement, and compliance matters.

• Provide executive-level reporting and insights on payroll risk, compliance exposure, and operational readiness.

• Identify risk areas and proactively implement mitigation strategies.

• Build redundancy, documentation, and scalable processes to reduce key-person risk.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive payroll experience, including global payroll ownership.

• Experience operating at a senior level in a scaling or high-growth company.

• Deep expertise in U.S. payroll tax compliance and multi-state registrations.

• Direct experience administering equity programs through Carta.

• Experience owning payroll systems, preferably Rippling.

• Strong understanding of payroll controls, reconciliations, and audit processes.

• Experience supporting payroll across the U.S., Ireland, U.K., Germany, and other international jurisdictions preferred.

• Expertise in 401(k) administration, ERISA compliance, and retirement plan audits.

• Experience managing workers’ compensation compliance and audits.

• High integrity and discretion in handling confidential financial and employee data.

• Advanced Excel/Google Sheets skills.

• Ability to operate independently with executive visibility and accountability.

What Success Looks Like

• Payroll is consistently accurate, on time, compliant, and audit-ready.

• Equity administration is precise, transparent, and fully documented.

• State registrations and tax filings are proactively managed.

• Retirement plans pass compliance testing without remediation.

• Workers’ compensation policies and audits are clean and reconciled.

• Finance can reconcile payroll and equity cleanly and efficiently.

• Risk exposure is minimized through strong controls and redundancy.

• Processes are seamlessly scaled globally

Our Story

Our founders, Spence and John met at Google working on Google Translate. As researchers at Stanford and Berkeley, they both worked on language technology to make information accessible to everyone. While together at Google, they were amazed to learn that Google Translate wasn’t used for enterprise products and services inside the company.The quality just wasn’t there. So they set out to build something better. LILT was born.

LILT has been a machine learning company since its founding in 2015. At the time, machine translation didn’t meet the quality standard for enterprise translations, so LILT assembled a cutting-edge research team tasked with closing that gap. While meeting customer demand for translation services, LILT has prioritized investments in Large Language Models, human-in-the-loop systems, and now agentic AI.

With AI innovation accelerating and enterprise demand growing, the next phase of LILT’s journey is just beginning.

Our Tech

What sets our platform apart:

• Brand-aware AI that learns your voice, tone, and terminology to ensure every translation is accurate and consistent

• Agentic AI workflows that automate the entire translation process from content ingestion to quality review to publishing

• 100+ native integrations with systems like Adobe Experience Manager, Webflow, Salesforce, GitHub, and Google Drive to simplify content translation

• Human-in-the-loop reviews via our global network of professional linguists, for high-impact content that requires expert review

LILT in the News

• Featured in The Software Report’s Top 100 Software Companies!

• LILT makes it onto the Inc. 5000 List.

• LILT’s continues to be an intellectual powerhouse, holding numerous patents that help power the most efficient and sophisticated AI and language models in the industry.

• Check out all our news on our website.

Information collected and processed as part of your application process, including any job applications you choose to submit, is subject to LILT's Privacy Policy at https://lilt.com/legal/privacy.

At LILT, we are committed to a fair, inclusive, and transparent hiring process. As part of our recruitment efforts, we may use artificial intelligence (AI) and automated tools to assist in the evaluation of applications, including résumé screening, assessment scoring, and interview analysis. These tools are designed to support human decision-making and help us identify qualified candidates efficiently and objectively. All final hiring decisions are made by people. If you have any concerns, require accommodations, or would like to opt-out of the use of AI in our hiring process, please let us know at recruiting@lilt.com.

LILT is an equal opportunity employer. We extend equal opportunity to all individuals without regard to an individual’s race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic characteristics, veteran or marital status, pregnancy, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state or federal laws. We are committed to the principles of fair employment and the elimination of all discriminatory practices.