Payroll Compliance Manager

About the role

Payroll Compliance Manager is responsible for developing, maintaining, and monitoring payroll compliance programs and internal controls across the organization. This role ensures payroll practices comply with federal, state, and local wage-and-hour, tax, garnishment, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements.

The Payroll Compliance Manager will serve as the payroll subject-matter expert for audits, regulatory changes, system controls, policy development, and risk mitigation.

The successful candidate must have strong hands-on experience with UKG Pro and UKG Workforce Management and demonstrated proficiency using artificial intelligence tools to improve payroll auditing, compliance monitoring, data analysis, documentation, and operational efficiency.

Responsibilities

Payroll Compliance and Governance Monitor compliance with federal, state, and local payroll laws, including wage-and-hour, overtime, minimum wage, final-pay, pay-frequency, meal and rest-period, paid-leave, tax, and record-retention requirements. Maintain a comprehensive payroll compliance calendar covering tax filings, regulatory deadlines, year-end activities, audits, reconciliations, and policy reviews.

• Research regulatory changes and translate requirements into payroll policies, procedures, system configurations, and operational controls.
• Partner with Legal, Human Resources, Finance, Tax, Benefits, Operations, and Internal Audit to address payroll compliance risks.
• Review payroll policies and procedures to ensure consistent application across locations, business units, and employee populations.

• Maintain documentation supporting payroll decisions, regulatory interpretations, and corrective actions.
• UKG System Compliance Serve as a functional subject-matter expert for UKG Pro and UKG Workforce Management.
• Evaluate UKG configurations to ensure compliance with company policies, wage-and-hour requirements, and payroll tax rules.

• Review pay codes, deduction codes, accruals, work rules, overtime rules, rounding rules, holiday rules, security roles, workflows, and approval controls.
• Partner with Payroll Operations, HRIS, IT, and UKG support teams to test and implement system changes.
• Develop UKG queries, reports, dashboards, and exception reporting to identify payroll compliance issues.

Validate system updates, configuration changes, interfaces, and patches through documented testing and approval processes. Maintain configuration documentation, test scripts, control matrices, and system-change records. Artificial Intelligence and Payroll Analytics Use approved AI tools to enhance payroll compliance audits, exception analysis, trend identification, policy research, documentation, and process improvement.

Develop and maintain AI-assisted payroll audit prompts, compliance checklists, risk models, and standardized review procedures. Use AI and data analytics to identify anomalies such as duplicate or unusual payments, excessive manual adjustments, repeated missed punches, unauthorized timecard edits, and overtime anomalies.

Qualifications & Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• Minimum of 5 years of progressive payroll experience, including at least 3 years in payroll compliance, audit, controls, or payroll management.
• Strong hands-on experience with UKG Pro and UKG Workforce Management is required.
• Demonstrated experience supporting complex, high-volume, multi-state payroll operations.

• Strong knowledge of federal, state, and local wage-and-hour and payroll tax requirements.
• Experience performing payroll audits, developing internal controls, and resolving compliance findings.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups, data validation, exception analysis, and large-data reconciliation.

• Demonstrated proficiency using generative AI and AI-enabled analytics tools in a professional payroll, compliance, finance, audit, or HR environment.
• Strong analytical, research, documentation, project-management, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Ability to handle confidential employee and payroll information with discretion.
• Pay Transparency: $110k - $120k

Additional Information

As a Member of the Equinox Team You Will Receive

We offer competitive salaries, benefits, and industry leading commission opportunities for club employees Complimentary Club membership Perks and incentives with our products and services including Personal Training, Pilates, Spa and Shop This job description is intended to describe the general requirements for the position. It is not a complete statement of duties, responsibilities, or requirements. Other duties not listed here may be assigned as necessary to ensure the proper operations of the department. Must have a legal right to work in the United States.