Global payroll manager at Writer — San Francisco, CA

🚀 About WRITER

📐 About the role

We're looking for a hands-on, detail-obsessed global payroll manager to join our team. This is a high-ownership individual contributor role that sits at the intersection of finance and human resources.

You will own end-to-end payroll for a multi-entity, multi-currency, multi-regulatory environment spanning the US, UK, Canada, Singapore, the UAE, and a growing set of Employer of Record (EOR) countries across Europe. You'll also manage contractor payroll and oversee 401(k) and pension administration.

This is a role for someone who is energized by complexity — who sees a fragmented global payroll landscape and wants to bring order, accuracy, and scale to it.

🦸🏻♀️ What you’ll do

• End-to-end payroll execution across all of WRITER’s active entities and pay schedules, including multi-state US payroll with varying pay frequencies, and commission cycles; UK PAYE with HMRC filings, National Insurance contributions, pension auto-enrolment, and statutory pay calculations; Canadian federal and provincial remittances, Record of Employment filings, and CPP/EI; Singapore CPF contributions, MOM compliance, and IR8A filings; UAE WPS compliance and gratuity calculations; and contractor payroll with IC agreements, payment schedules, and 1099-equivalent filings.
• You will coordinate with each EOR provider, validate invoices against actuals, and resolve discrepancies — turning a high-volume, distributed model into an auditable workflow.
• You own the processing of the payments, and support the finance team’s general ledger journals, month-end reconciliations, and variance analysis.
• You will work closely with the finance team to ensure payroll liabilities, accruals, and actual disbursements are reflected accurately across entities.
• You will manage cycle-by-cycle processing for variable compensation, working directly with Finance and Revenue Operations to ensure timing, accuracy, and correct tax withholding
• You will stay ahead of — not just keep up with — evolving payroll tax requirements across every jurisdiction WRITER operates in.
• You will manage W-2s, P60s, P45s, T4s, and other international equivalents, and ensure our regulatory filings are complete, accurate, and on time across monthly, quarterly and annual cycles.
• You will reconcile benefits deductions against carrier invoices and manage international statutory leave top-up calculations across jurisdictions with varying leave frameworks.
• As Writer expands, you will lead new country setup for Payroll operations: systems configuration, testing, and end to end cycle execution.
• You will be a trusted resource for employees navigating payroll questions, tax situations, payslip discrepancies, and equity withholding — especially during peak seasons like tax filing and open enrollment.
• You will identify manual inefficiencies and build scalable workflows that integrate cleanly with Finance and HR systems.

⭐️ What you need

• 6–10+ years of payroll experience, ideally in a high-growth, global technology company
• Experience with Rippling Payroll
• Strong command of US multi-state payroll — multi-frequency schedules, state-specific compliance
• International payroll experience across at least two of: UK, Canada, Singapore, or UAE
• Experience managing EOR and third-party payroll vendors — coordinating across providers, reviewing outputs for accuracy, and holding vendors to a high standard
• Regulatory expertise and compliance instincts — you research evolving requirements proactively, not reactively
• Systems proficiency, and aptitude for learning new tools quickly
• Analytical rigor and documentation habits — high accuracy, strong attention to detail, and a paper trail you'd be comfortable showing an auditor
• Clear, effective communication — able to partner with Finance, Legal, and People teams, and equally able to explain a payroll discrepancy to an employee who just wants to understand their payslip
• Proactive, systems-minded approach — you spot inefficiencies before they become problems, and you're energized by building better processes

Even better if...

• Familiarity with equity compensation tax and withholding (RSUs, options)
• Experience supporting global entity setup and new-country payroll launches
• CPP (Certified Payroll Professional) or equivalent certification
• Experience designing or managing scalable payroll audits and internal controls
• Background working with shadow payrolls or complex expatriate payroll arrangements
• Payroll accounting fundamentals — you are comfortable with GL journals, month-end reconciliations, and can speak the language of Accounting

• Generous PTO, plus company holidays
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family
• Paid parental leave for all parents (16 weeks)
• Fertility and family planning support
• Early-detection cancer testing through Galleri
• Flexible spending account and dependent FSA options
• Health savings account for eligible plans with company contribution
• Annual work-life stipends for:
• Wellness stipend for gym, massage/chiropractor, personal training, etc.
• Learning and development stipend
• Company-wide off-sites and team off-sites
• Competitive compensation, company stock options and 401k