Senior Payroll Analyst

WorkWhile is on a mission to help the 83 million Americans who work hourly wage jobs earn a better living and live better lives. WorkWhile hires the best hourly workers and matches them with shifts that fit their skills, schedule, and location. Employers get access to a quality workforce, while employees get stable income and unmatched perks like next-day pay.

About the role

WorkWhile is looking for an experienced Senior Payroll Analyst. Join our growing People team at a time of strategic transformation. You’ll deliver accurate, compliant payroll across nearly all 50 U.S. states for over 30,000 flex workers, and be a core contributor as we build out and improve our product for our W2 platform users. As we build out our in-house stack and modernize payroll operations end-to-end, you’ll act as both a specialist and a change-agent — ensuring day-to-day excellence and helping drive process improvements, system automation, and controls maturity.

What you get to do every day

• Execute full-cycle payroll for ~30,000 U.S. flex and occasional workers (across nearly all 50 states), including new hires, terminations, bonuses, retroactive adjustments, off-cycle runs, and corrections.
• Participate in system design, requirement gathering, vendor assessments, testing and go-live support.
• Support maintenance of tax/regulatory compliance: multi-state tax set-ups (income tax, unemployment), local tax nexus, state registrations, filings, remittances, and notices.
• Administer garnishments, statutory deductions, and year-end filings
• Perform monthly and quarterly reconciliations tying payroll to GL and other financial systems; support internal audits and documentation of controls.
• Serve as the subject-matter expert for our in-house payroll system and any related transformation (data migration, automation of reports, vendor transitions).
• Partner cross-functionally with HR, Finance/Accounting, Worker Support and external providers to deliver seamless payroll experience and continuous improvement.
   

What you bring to the role

• 5+ years of U.S. payroll experience, ideally covering multi-state operations and servicing a large hourly front-line employee base.
• Strong working knowledge of U.S. payroll tax and compliance (state/local income tax, unemployment, garnishments).
• Experience with payroll systems and comfort working in a transformation setting (system upgrades, migrations, process redesign)
• Excellent analytical skills—Excel proficiency (lookups, pivots, reconciliations), good data-QA instincts. Familiar with AI products and eager to use AI to increase leverage and speed.
• Experience utilizing API integrations to manage large-scale data imports and exports for payroll migration/automation
• Comfort working remotely/hybrid, self-managing, collaborating across functions and time zones.
• Strong communication skills: able to liaise with internal stakeholders and external providers.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Payroll certification (CPP or equivalent) or in progress.
   
• Experience with reporting tools or system build (SQL, custom payroll modules) is a plus.

Why You'll Love It

• Be part of shaping a best-in-class payroll function — less about “keeping the lights on” and more about building the future.
• Work in a tech-forward environment where your ideas for automation, simplification and transformation will be heard and acted on.
• Opportunity to broaden scope soon into Canada — good growth potential.
• Remote flexibility plus a hub in San Francisco for connection, collaboration and culture.

Benefits & Perks

• In-person company offsites
• Medical, dental, & vision coverage
• Flexible time off
• 401(k) with employer match
• WFH stipend to support your home office needs

WorkWhile is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Women, minorities, individuals with disabilities and protected veterans are encouraged to apply. WorkWhile has a diverse, mission-driven, and supportive culture—we look for people who want to take ownership, are energized by ambiguity, and strive to make a lasting impact. If this resonates with you, we’d love to chat!