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Salary: USD 93,034 - 124,085 / annual
Babylist, a leading platform for expecting and new families with $750M in revenue, is seeking a Senior Payroll & Compliance Specialist to own payroll operations and regulatory compliance for a distributed U.S. workforce of 600–1,000 employees across ~35 states, with 300+ nonexempt/hourly workers. You will report to the People Operations Manager and work closely with People Ops, Accounting, and Babylist's payroll partner.
Key Responsibilities:
- Run two payroll cycles end to end: weekly for fulfillment center and hourly showroom teams, bi-weekly for corporate and salaried showroom staff. Handle all changes for the large hourly population including new hires, terminations, clawbacks, corrections, direct deposit updates, and ad-hoc termination pay.
- Audit every pre-process payroll register before funding and resolve discrepancies with the payroll partner.
- Serve as the primary contact for employee paycheck questions, responding within one business day.
- Own the U.S. compliance calendar through annual filings, including EEO-1, California Pay Data, and OSHA 300 reporting across corporate, both showrooms, and the fulfillment center. Translate legislative changes across ~35 states into actionable items and brief the People team.
- Run background check reviews and escalations; conduct quarterly health exclusion checks.
- Lead the annual "Compliance Refresh" each February, ensuring 100% completion across eligible employees and contractors. Partner with Legal and outside counsel on handbook and policy review every two years.
- Design internal controls across payroll and compliance, maintaining evidence trails for workers' compensation and external financial audits.
- Build automation and process improvements using AI and workflow tooling, testing against known-good output and instrumenting systems to verify ongoing accuracy. Document standard operating procedures.
You will have real room to redesign steps that slow down operations and will see the full picture from payroll register to regulatory filing. The controls you design will be used and reviewed by auditors, Finance, and Legal, giving your work significant organizational weight. You'll work alongside a manager and director building the function alongside you.
Requirements:
- 5–8 years in payroll and compliance, including 3+ years running multi-state U.S. payroll in an enterprise HRIS (Paylocity or comparable).
- Demonstrated ownership of a compliance calendar covering EEO-1, OSHA, nondiscrimination testing, state reporting, background checks, I-9 review, required trainings, and policy creation/revision.
- Strong ability to translate legal requirements into usable policy and work effectively with Legal and outside counsel.
- Proven track record of improving processes, testing them against known-good output, building in verification checks, and documenting SOPs.
- Ability to explain payroll details to employees and financial stakeholders.
- Reliable deadline management, planning backward from pay dates and filing dates, and raising flags early when dates are at risk.
- Direct experience with California or New York employment law is a strong plus (same-day final pay, pay data reporting, frequent local rule changes).
- Certifications (CPP, FPC, SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, or SPHR) are not required but would strengthen candidacy.
- Comfort using AI tools naturally to move faster; Babylist uses AI daily across all teams.
