Payroll Lead

Job Type

PetSafe Brands, formerly known as Radio Systems Corporation, is headquartered in Knoxville, TN. It has been named “The Marble City” and "Scruffy City", names we have embraced for our unique charm. We are the home of 1982 World’s Fair and we boast of 21 craft breweries around the city (click here for the Ale Trail). If you like to hike or camp, visit the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. Take your pick of outdoor activities from walking, tubing, running, or biking in our Urban Wilderness. Knox County has an amazing public-school system, no state income tax, low property taxes and cost of living. We host Music and Shakespeare on the Square as well as Family Movie Nights on the Square during the summer months in downtown Knoxville.

Our Company: PetSafe Brands is the world leader in pet products through our family of brands:Pet Safe® Brand, Sport DOG® Brand, Invisible Fence® Brand, Kurgo and Premier Pet. Pet Safe® Brand makes every product from leashes and harnesses to water fountains and and litter boxes. We have an ambitious goal of touching over 21 million pets, people, and communities around the world each year. We serve a broad range of pet owners from providing the hunter the best gear for a successful hunt to accommodating the “Not-So-Crazy Cat Lady” with all the entertaining toys and effective solutions she could ever imagine. We do this by creating a culture of enthusiasm, resilience, adaptability, and teamwork every day in the office. We work hard to be our community’s employer of choice as we all live our purpose: We exist to unleash freedom for pet parents by keeping their pets happy, healthy and safe. 

Summary of Position:

The Payroll Lead is responsible for overseeing the organization’s payroll to ensure accurate, timely, secure, and compliant payroll administration for U.S. and Canada operations. This position provides leadership for payroll processing, payroll tax compliance, reporting, reconciliations, audits, system administration, internal controls, and payroll-related policy and procedure administration. The Payroll Lead partners with Human Resources, Finance, Operations, leadership, external vendors, tax agencies, and auditors to support regulatory compliance, data integrity, operational efficiency, and a positive teammate experience. This role is expected to exercise sound judgment, discretion, and confidentiality in all payroll matters.

Essential Functions:

• Oversee end-to-end payroll operations for U.S. and Canada payrolls, including payroll preparation, review, approval, funding, payment distribution, and post-payroll reconciliation.
• Maintain compliance with applicable federal, state, provincial, and local payroll laws and regulations, including wage and hour requirements, payroll taxes, garnishments, deductions, unemployment, and year-end reporting.
• Validate payroll-related changes and transactions, including new hires, terminations, compensation changes, bonuses, benefits, deductions, garnishments, and other adjustments.
• Partner with Finance to complete payroll-related journal entries, account reconciliations, deduction payments, general ledger reporting, and variance analysis.
• Serve as the functional lead for payroll systems, reporting tools, user access controls, system testing, upgrades, implementations, data integrity, and process changes.
• Establish and maintain payroll policies, procedures, standard work instructions, checklists, documentation, internal controls, and audit-ready records.
• Coordinate internal and external payroll audits by preparing documentation, responding to requests, resolving findings, and supporting corrective actions as needed.
• Develop and deliver payroll reports, analytics, and dashboards for Human Resources, Finance, management, and other authorized stakeholders.
• Research and resolve payroll discrepancies, teammate inquiries, tax notices, system issues, and reconciliation differences in a timely and professional manner.
• Supervise and develop payroll staff by assigning work, setting expectations, monitoring priorities, providing guidance, supporting cross-training, and ensuring appropriate coverage.
• Collaborate with Human Resources, Finance, Operations, Legal, leadership, vendors, government agencies, and auditors to support payroll administration, compliance, reporting, and service delivery.
• Identify and implement improvements that enhance payroll accuracy, efficiency, internal controls, system functionality, reporting, and teammate experience.
• Protect the confidentiality and security of payroll, compensation, tax, teammate, and company information.
• Perform other duties and special projects as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field preferred; equivalent combination of education and relevant payroll leadership experience may be considered.
• Minimum of 7–10 years of progressive payroll administration experience, including multi-state payroll experience and payroll support for 1000+ associates.
• Thorough knowledge of payroll processing, payroll tax, wage and hour requirements, garnishments, deductions, unemployment, year-end processing, audits, and payroll compliance practices.
• Working knowledge of payroll accounting activities, including journal entries, account reconciliations, general ledger reporting, and variance analysis.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including advanced Excel skills; experience with payroll/HCM systems, reporting tools, and business intelligence platforms preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain confidentiality, exercise discretion, apply sound judgment, and handle sensitive information appropriately.
• Strong analytical, organizational, problem-solving, prioritization, and follow-through skills with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate payroll information clearly and professionally to teammates, leaders, vendors, agencies, and auditors.
• Ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities and deadlines, lead a team, and collaborate effectively with internal and external stakeholders.

Accountabilities:

• Accountable for accurate, timely, secure, and compliant payroll processing for all assigned payroll populations.
• Accountable for maintaining effective payroll controls, reconciliations, records, documentation, audit readiness, and reporting accuracy.
• Accountable for supporting continuous improvement of payroll processes, systems, reporting, compliance practices, and teammate service delivery.

Relationships:

• Reports to the Human Resources Senior Director.
• Maintains regular working relationships with Human Resources, Finance, Operations, Legal, leadership, teammates, payroll vendors, tax agencies, and internal and external auditors.

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BENEFITS:

Working for PetSafe Brands definitely has its benefits. We offer a collaborative and creative team-oriented work environment where we encourage you to take risks to learn and grow! We offer a competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, and 401K match. In addition we offer a rich wellness program which includes an onsite health clinic, workout facility and of course, we encourage you to bring your dog to work, which is our whole reason for what we do!

PetSafe Brands is dedicated to offering equal employment opportunity for all teammates and fostering a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. At PetSafe Brand, our teammates are our greatest strength. We strive to build a workforce as diverse as the customers we serve by hiring great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, life experiences, knowledge, self-expression and talent. We recruit and reward teammates based on capability and performance and together we are building a culture that welcomes all dimensions of an individual’s identity including race, color, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, age, educational background, national origin or ancestry, religion, veteran status, or physical ability. We embrace these differences and the unique contributions each teammate brings not just because it is the right thing to do but because it makes our company stronger. While we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and a culture of belonging, we recognize that we still have more work to do and a lot more to learn.