Payroll Director

The University Controller's Office is a department under the Finance Division. The office has business units covering the following areas; Cash Management, Banking and Merchant services; General Accounting, Financial Reporting and Taxation; Accounts Payable; Business Systems; Payroll and Debt Management.

The University Controller's Office works to advance NC State as a leader in fiscal accountability and responsibility through a collaborative partnership with our campus community, strong partnerships with our peer groups, improvements in the University's financial systems and internal controls, and efficient and effective business operations. The office continues its attention towards collaborative efforts and in providing fiscal leadership, oversight, accounting, reporting, training and outreach services that exemplify the highest standards of quality, performance and service. Having professional staff and managers with imagination, knowledge and people skills are paramount in the successful implementation of these goals.

The University Controller's Office is responsible for fiscal accountability, accuracy and reporting of a $2 billion enterprise, including timely and accurate payment of monthly and biweekly wages to over 18,000 staff, faculty, student workers and temporary employees, over 110,000 vendor payments annually and management of a $480 million external debt portfolio.

University Payroll is responsible for: 1) timely and accurate payment of wages to approximately 11,300 monthly and 14,500 biweekly staff, faculty, undergraduate and graduate student workers, postdocs, foreign national, and temporary employees with an annual payroll of over $1.2 billion; 2) proper deduction, monthly plan reconciliation and vendor payment of three mandatory, 38 voluntary and 60 statutory (garnishment) deduction plans, including the employer's matching contributions for retirement and health insurance; and 3) compliance for, payment to, and proper reporting of wages and tax withholdings to the federal government and approximately 40 states.

Essential Job Duties

The Payroll Director reports to the University Controller and designs, directs, and delivers complex services related to payroll administration for NC State University, a major public research university. The Payroll Director has 2 direct reports (Payroll Processing Manager and Payroll Assistant Director) and 10 indirect reports.

The Director provides expertise and vision, establishing goals and objectives, and ensuring effective and valued customer service. The Director also serves on the Controller's senior leadership team and as a senior liaison to various campus and UNC System ad hoc and standing committees.

The Director of Payroll supervises and coordinates the payroll aspects of taxation and payment of non-resident alien employees, as well as non-employees paid through the PeopleSoft Financials System and Student Information System. The Director and payroll staff maintain content expertise regarding visa types and tax treaties with other countries. Transactions include payments to graduate assistants, visiting professors, trainees, etc. The Director resolves highly complex compensation, tax, and benefits problems and serves as the primary payroll contact for the State of NC and other external auditors as well as internal auditors providing requested information and meeting to explain business processes and produce complex reports as needed. The Director compiles and reports KPI (key performance indicator) payroll metrics for campus and university system dashboards as well as the UNC system, and plans and facilitates business resiliency/disaster recovery strategies with various OIT units based on payroll's designation as a top business-continuity priority.

The Director: 1) guides staff in the administration of two types of pay cycles (biweekly and monthly) as well as off-cycle payments 2) develops and coordinates calendar year-end and fiscal year-end processes to ensure the timely and successful completion of tasks such as W-2s, 1042Ss, and fiscal year end financial/accounting close-out 3) confers with university hiring officials and employees to assist with unusual pay situations (including international tax challenges); resolves complex or sensitive problems that staff cannot resolve 4) coordinates the investigation and resolution of payment discrepancies, such as over payments from late actions and may arrange payment plans with current or terminated employees and initiates collection efforts as required 5) serves as a functional subject matter expert for the PeopleSoft enterprise system; tests multiple tax updates and bundles/patches/ upgrades/fixes provided annually by Oracle/Peoplesoft before they are moved into production 6) directs the annual production of W2s and 1042s 7) reviews tax documents to ensure University compliance with federal, state, and local tax laws and 8) responds to inquiries from outside tax accountants concerning employee W2s and related tax issues.

The Director serves as a primary content expert and strategic adviser in policy matters involving payroll administration and payroll tax. The Director provides guidance and consulting services to hiring managers, department heads, and institutional leaders as appropriate; researches and prepares recommendations for senior management decision-making; and ensures the ongoing development, maintenance, and improvement of work processes and action steps required to administer payroll activities efficiently and accurately, including designing workflow documentation and assuring effective relationships and communication with internal stakeholders across the institution.

The Director liaises with Contracts and Grants, the Budget Office, Human Resources Information Management and Analytics, and campus Business Officers and HR Leads to ensure the accounting information associated with each payroll is accurately reflected in the Financial System. The director is responsible for ensuring the proper setup of payroll tables and processes in the HR system that are used in distribution processing for each payroll as well as the actual process of running payroll distributions.

Other Responsibilities

The Director will be assigned special projects as needed.

Qualifications

Minimum Education and Experience

Master's degree in relevant field with 6-8 years of prior professional and supervisory experience in payroll within a large, complex organization, and with evidence of increasing levels of management responsibility over time. Equivalent professional experience may be substituted for the degree requirement.

Other Required Qualifications

• Comprehensive knowledge of the broad range of federal and state employment laws and regulations that impact HR activities, including but not limited to federal IRC (Internal Revenue Code) regulations.

• Comprehensive understanding of payroll issues that are unique to a complex research university such as pay management from multiple funding sources and/or multiple employing entities, payments to foreign nationals and individuals in other states and abroad, complex time and effort tracking and reporting, and payroll system accommodations for individuals with unique paid and non-paid relationships with the University.

• Demonstrated effectiveness in proactive customer service with excellent oral and written communication skills, as well as editing skills.

• Must have strong statistical, analytical, and computational skills, with a detail orientation.

• Ability to adapt to new situations, people, ideas, structures, procedures, etc. to accommodate an evolving work environment.

• Unquestioned integrity and excellent professional judgment. Discretion with highly confidential information.

• Ability to develop and maintain professional and collegial relationships with peers, customers, administrators, etc.

• Creative thinker and flexible in order to meet customer needs.

• Good steward of the University's welfare and resources.

• Experience and functional expertise with a complex enterprise IT system.

Preferred Qualifications

• Degree in business administration or accounting preferred.

• Experience with PeopleSoft HR system.

• Professional credentials such as the Certified Payroll Professional (CPP).

• Experience in higher education.

• Supervisory experience.

Required License(s) or Certification(s)

N/A

Valid NC Driver's License required No Commercial Driver's License required No