Team Lead – Payroll Tax

Who You Are

You’re a proactive, detail-oriented leader who brings structure to complexity. You excel at identifying opportunities to streamline processes, and you consistently drive toward greater efficiency through a mix of subject matter expertise, tech fluency, and strong execution. You lead with clarity, patience, and accountability–balancing a high bar for quality with a deep investment in team success.

As a Payroll Tax Pod Lead, you’re responsible not just for ensuring the work gets done, but for how it gets done. You oversee day-to-day operations, manage team performance, and help shape workflows that drive accuracy, timeliness, and consistency across the PEO’s tax filings. You’re energized by the opportunity to lead in a fast-paced, evolving environment, and you’re committed to helping your team thrive within it.

Your Success Profile

What You Will Work On:

Pod Leadership & Operational Oversight:

• Oversee daily execution, team performance, and the overall operational health of your designated pod.
• Represent your pod in leadership syncs and cross-functional updates, surfacing wins, risks, and support needed to meet filing and compliance goals.
• Ensure the completion and accuracy of all daily operational tasks across the PEO, including:
• Reviewing and ensuring accurate daily imports of PTS data from Payroll CS and CSTools to Mastertax.
• Ensuring the timely execution of daily tax payments and compliance with tax obligations.
• Overseeing daily enrollments in the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS).
• Ensuring accurate printing and mailing of payroll tax checks to appropriate agencies.
• Monitoring the logging of notices into Notice Ninja for tracking and resolution.
• Ensuring Applied For account numbers are accurately updated in our payroll and tax systems, collaborating with the Professional Employer Organization (PEO).
• Monitoring and tracking Applied For account numbers and ensuring companies are added to Justworks TPA accounts.
• Overseeing the review and documentation of uncashed checks, and ensuring reports are provided to the designated team for stop payments and reissuance.

Filing Lifecycle Management:

• Drive the quarterly filing lifecycle from end to end, including pre-filing routines, workbook reviews, and filing execution.
• Maintain accurate SOPs and filing calendars for each state assigned to the pod.
• Regularly update and maintain accurate tax rates and regulatory data in internal payroll systems, ensuring alignment with current legislation and filing requirements to support accurate and compliant tax reporting.
• Partner with Payroll Compliance & Tax Research to incorporate state regulatory changes into filings and documentation.

Performance & Risk Reporting:

• Define, track, and report on pod-level Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to leadership on a weekly and monthly cadence, ensuring alignment with established procedures for performance and risk.
• Provide coaching and real-time support during filing months and facilitate retrospectives post-quarter to identify and act on improvement opportunities. 
• Conduct regular internal audits of pod-level work and data to ensure accuracy, compliance, and adherence to established procedures.

Resource Management & Escalation:

• Monitor pod capacity and adjust workload distribution as needed, in partnership with the Manager, Payroll Tax Operations.
• Serve as the first point of escalation for issues impacting pod operations.
• Coordinate with cross-functional partners (i.e., Product, Engineering, CSO, etc) on state-specific issues that require cross-team visibility or resolution.
• Support the Manager, Payroll Tax Operations, with recruiting efforts for new team members, including participating in interviews and providing candidate feedback.
• Perform other related duties as assigned, supporting the overall efficiency and compliance of Payroll Tax Operations.

Team Development & Consistency:

• Support onboarding, cross-training, and development of each person in your pod.
• Drive consistency in documentation and operating routines across the pod. 
• Partnering with the other pod leads to reinforce best practices, promote a culture of accountability, collaboration, and learning, and identify opportunities to streamline workflows and improve filing accuracy, speed, or documentation across pods.

How You Will Do Your Work

As a Payroll Tax Pod Lead, how results are achieved is paramount for your success and ultimately results in our success as an organization. In this role, your effectiveness will be grounded in the following competencies: 

• Detail-oriented: You bring rigor and precision to your work. You’re thorough, organized, and proactive in identifying both the root causes of issues and their downstream impact. 
• Adaptability: You are flexible in the face of shifting priorities or ambiguity. You’re able to recalibrate workflows and support your team through change without losing momentum. 
• Good Judgment: You are solution-oriented and approach challenges with curiosity. You assess risks, connect patterns, weigh trade-offs, and take ownership for outcomes, not just activity. 
• Clear Communication: You communicate with clarity and purpose, whether in writing, pod/team meetings, or in 1:1s. You know when to listen, when to lead, and how to ensure alignment across the team and with leadership.
• Systems Thinking: You see the big picture. You recognize how people, processes, and timelines interact—and use that understanding to optimize how your pod operates as part of a larger whole. 

In addition, all Justworkers focus on aligning their behaviors to our core values known as COGIS. It stands for:

• Camaraderie: Day to day you can be seen working together toward a higher purpose. You like to have fun. You’re an active listener, treat people respectfully, and have a strong desire to know and help others.
• Openness: Your default is to be open. You're willing to share information, understand other perspectives, and consider new possibilities. You’re curious, ask open questions, and are receptive to thoughts and feedback from others.
• Grit: You demonstrate grit by having the courage to commit and persevere. You’re committed, earnest, and dive in to get the job done well with a positive attitude.
• Integrity: Simply put, do what you say and say what you'll do. You’re honest and forthright, have a strong moral compass, and strive to match your words with your actions while leading by example.
• Simplicity: Be like Einstein: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

Qualifications

• Minimum of 3+ years in a payroll tax environment, including  at least 1 year in a lead or supervisory role.
• American Payroll Association (APA) Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC) or Certified Payroll Professional (CPP), preferred
• Demonstrated advanced proficiency in Excel and/or Google Sheets, utilizing VLOOKUP and other data manipulation functions for effective data management, is required.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex processes clearly
• Process-driven and highly organized, with the ability to adapt in a fast-paced environment. 
• Technologically savvy; experience with utilizing multiple systems and software programs to manage work and drive execution.
• Experience managing multi-state tax accounts–either for a single large employer or across multiple employers. 
• Experience working with a payroll provider in a similar leadership role is a plus.
• Demonstrate expertise with quarterly and year-end filing cycles is a plus.
• Accounting, auditing and reconciliation experience and familiarity with General Ledger and approval processes, a plus

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The base wage range for this position based in our NYC Office is targeted at $97,000 - $106,700 per year. The base wage range for this position based in our Tampa Office is targeted at $90,250 -$99,275 per year.