ABOUT THE WALTERS ART MUSEUM
The Walters Art Museum is among America's most distinctive museums, forging connections between people and art from cultures around the world and spanning seven millennia. Located in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, the Walters is free for all. The museum’s campus includes five historic buildings and 36,000 art objects.
Today, the Walters serves Baltimore and Maryland by embracing its role as educator and storyteller, using the collection as a vehicle of knowledge and cultural expression to support learning, dialogue, and community engagement. The museum is committed to public education, offering essential programs that help people to connect art to their lives. The Walters Visitor Promise aligns staff and volunteers across the museum to preserve and share the works in our care for future generations, partner with communities, and create welcoming, accessible experiences for visitors. The museum offers challenging and creative work opportunities by promoting collaboration and teamwork.
OVERVIEW OF ROLE
The Payroll & Benefits Administrator is responsible for the full execution and administration of payroll, benefits, and leave programs at the Walters Art Museum. This is a hands-on, individual contributor role with end-to-end ownership of payroll processing and benefit administration, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and a strong employee experience.
Reporting to the Director of Human Resources, this role serves as the primary control point for payroll and benefits operations and will lead the transition from external contractors to a fully internalized function, establishing sustainable processes, documentation, and internal controls. This role also supports broader HR operations to ensure continuity across the department.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Payroll Administration
- Own and process full-cycle payroll in Paycom, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance
- Maintain payroll calendar and ensure all deadlines are met
- Review and validate timesheets, earnings, and deductions
- Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local wage and hour laws
- Ensure compliance with the collective bargaining agreement, including wage scales, step increases, tenure adjustments, and required employee communications.
- Investigate and resolve payroll discrepancies
- In partnership with Finance, reconcile payroll reports to the general ledger
- Maintain payroll records in accordance with audit standards and best practices
Benefits & Leave Administration
- Administer all employee benefits and leave programs, including health and retirement
- Serve as primary point of contact for employee benefits inquiries and issue resolution
- Manage enrollments, changes, and terminations
- Review and reconcile monthly benefits invoices and resolve discrepancies
- Administer benefits programs through the City of Baltimore system open enrollment support.
- Ensure compliance with the collective bargaining agreement and applicable laws (FLSA, COBRA, ACA, etc.)
General HR Support
- Provide additional recruitment support to the HR Generalist throughout the hiring process including job postings, scheduling and conducting interviews, candidate communication, and offer letter preparation and delivery.
- Support onboarding and offboarding processes
- Assist with job postings, interview coordination, and candidate communication
- Maintain accurate and up-to-date employee records (digital and physical), ensuring data integrity and confidentiality
- Generate standard and ad hoc reports for HR, Finance, and operational leadership
- Respond to HR helpdesk inquiries and support day-to-day HR operations
- Assist with HR projects, reporting requests, and process improvements
- Other duties as assigned
- 5+ years of payroll and benefits administration experience
- Demonstrated experience processing payroll independently
- Experience with HRIS/payroll systems (Paycom preferred)
- Strong knowledge of payroll compliance and wage and hour laws
- Experience administering benefits and managing vendors
- Experience in a unionized environment strongly preferred
ANNUAL STARTING SALARY: $65,000 - $75,000
The Walters Art Museum provides a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, prescription, vision, subsidized transportation and parking, short term disability, long-term disability, life insurance, FSA (flexible spending account), 457b retirement, and free professional financial management counseling. This position is eligible to work remotely up to 1 day a week.
All employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States. The museum does not sponsor work visas.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of payroll and benefits administration experience
- Demonstrated experience processing payroll independently
- Experience with HRIS/payroll systems
- Experience with Paycom
- Strong knowledge of payroll compliance and wage and hour laws (FLSA, COBRA, ACA)
- Experience administering benefits and managing vendors
- Experience in a unionized environment
- Legal authorization to work in the United States (no visa sponsorship)
What We Do
The Walters Art Museum is a prominent cultural institution located in Baltimore, Maryland. It houses a vast collection of art spanning over seven millennia, from 5,000 BCE to the 21st century. The museum serves as a cultural hub for the community, offering free access to its diverse collections and exhibitions, and is dedicated to preserving and sharing art history with the public.
