Payroll Manager

Overview:

The Payroll Manager is a senior individual contributor who owns accurate, timely, and compliant end-to-end biweekly payroll for U.S. and Canadian employees, including payroll taxes, accounting, controls, and multi-jurisdictional compliance. The role reports to the Corporate Controller, with day-to-day work direction from the HRIS & Benefits leader. As the payroll subject-matter expert, the role defines requirements and validates outputs, while HRIS and IT own configuration, security, workflows, and integrations.

Key Responsibilities:

Payroll Processing

• Own end-to-end biweekly payroll processing, corrections, and off-cycle payrolls for U.S. employees and approximately 12 Canadian employees through a technology-only payroll service model.
• Manage payroll calendars and deadlines; collect and validate payroll inputs; review payroll previews, registers, control totals, and variance reports; and investigate discrepancies before finalization.
• Review timekeeping outputs and identify exceptions affecting payroll. People leaders own timely timecard review and correction with HR guidance and follow-up; HRIS owns exception reporting, system configuration, access, training, and issue resolution.
• Validate payroll inputs, including new hires, terminations, compensation changes, variable and retroactive pay, benefit deductions, garnishments, taxable income, tax elections, and work-location changes; coordinate corrections with the appropriate functional owners.
• Submit completed regular and off-cycle payrolls to the Controller for final approval; coordinate funding and release and confirm successful payroll settlement.
• Partner with Benefits and the disability carrier on third-party sick pay reporting, taxation, and Form W-2 treatment, and process payroll adjustments for unpaid leave; Benefits owns leave administration and premium payments.
• Serve as the primary contact for payroll calculations, deductions, taxes, garnishments, payments, voids, returned payments, results, and employee-pay issues; partner with HRIS on payroll-platform support and technical issues.

401(k) Payroll Partnership

• Partner with Benefits, who owns day-to-day plan administration, to validate 401(k) payroll activity—including deferrals, employer contributions, loan repayments, recordkeeper feeds, and funding—and coordinate corrections.
• Provide payroll data for compliance testing, audits, filings, plan changes, and issue resolution led by Benefits and plan partners.

Payroll Compliance and Accounting

• Partner with HR and Legal to apply U.S. multi-state and Canadian payroll requirements, including wage-and-hour, overtime, and final-pay rules.
• Own quarter-end and year-end payroll activities, including balancing, payroll-tax and wage-statement reconciliations, Forms W-2/W-2c, applicable Canadian payroll filings and wage reporting, annual-limit updates, and corrections.
• Oversee U.S. and applicable Canadian payroll-tax compliance, including work-location monitoring, registrations, tax-liability validation, filing and remittance confirmation through the payroll tax-filing provider, and resolution of exceptions and agency notices.
• Partner with Accounting and HR to maintain approved payroll costing and labor allocations; prepare payroll journal entries and accrual support; and reconcile payroll registers, liabilities, and assigned payroll-related balance-sheet accounts.
• Ensure RSU and PSU taxable income and withholding are accurately recorded in payroll and on Forms W-2; reconcile equity-vendor data and coordinate corrections with Finance and the plan administrator.
• Maintain, execute, and enhance established payroll controls, including recurring SOX testing, segregation of duties, and access reviews with HRIS; support remediation and payroll-related internal and external audits.
• Lead payroll requirements, testing, and output validation for system and process changes; manage payroll technology-provider performance and escalations.
• Forecast payroll cash requirements and coordinate funding with Treasury.
• Maintain payroll procedure documentation and cross-training so every pay cycle has backup coverage.
• Continuously look for ways to simplify, automate, and improve payroll processes, communications, and documentation; implement in-control improvements directly, and partner with Accounting and HRIS on changes that affect established SOX controls or require automation or system integration.
• Safeguard confidential payroll and employee data in line with company data-privacy and records-retention requirements.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 7+ years of progressive payroll experience, including end-to-end in-house payroll ownership using an enterprise payroll platform and working with service providers.
• Strong knowledge of multi-state payroll, wage-and-hour requirements, payroll taxes, payroll registers, and off-cycle processing.
• Experience with payroll audits, reconciliations, and internal controls in a SOX or SOX-like environment.
• Experience with payroll accounting, month-end close, journal entries, and balance-sheet reconciliations.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills, with the ability to manage deadlines and partner across HR, Accounting, Finance, and external vendors.

Preferred:

• Hands-on experience with ADP Workforce Now, ADP timekeeping, or comparable HRIS/timekeeping platforms.
• Experience processing or overseeing Canadian payroll.
• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) designation.
• Experience partnering with Benefits on 401(k) payroll activity, reconciliations, corrections, and compliance-data support.
• Experience supporting a payroll, HCM, or timekeeping implementation, migration, conversion, or major upgrade as the payroll subject-matter expert, including requirements, testing, and data validation.

What Makes Holley a Great Place to Work

At Holley, we’re more than a performance parts company—we’re a community of enthusiasts, innovators, and problem-solvers. We offer a competitive benefits package and a culture that values both performance and people.

Benefits:

Holley is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

If you require assistance or accommodation due to a disability during the application process, please contact human resources.