Payroll Staff Accountant

About Sift: Sift is a premier, internationally recognized cybersecurity automation heavyweight, digital trust pioneer, and AI-powered fraud mitigation trailblazer on an absolute mission to protect leading global businesses from transactional risk and ensure a safer internet. Leveraging deep investments in machine learning, user identity mapping, and a massive global data network scoring more than 1 trillion events per year, Sift empowers over 700 enterprise customers to unlock fearless commercial growth and deliver seamless consumer experiences. Built on a rich corporate architecture where diversity drives innovation and inclusion is recognized as a basic human need, Sift fosters an empowering environment where all teammates (“Sifties”) can bring their authentic selves to work. The hyper-growth firm provides high-agency finance specialists with an uncompromised remote canvas to leverage state-of-the-art ERP networks, manipulate high-volume compensation databases, and govern multi-state corporate accounting pipelines safely across the United States.

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly analytical, detail-obsessed Payroll Staff Accountant to join our core centralized Finance collective in a full-time remote capacity across the United States, with a core localized recruitment anchor based out of San Francisco, California. In this high-leverage and operational ownership track within our Finance & Accounting group, you will step up to claim true individual strategic accountability for driving the precision execution of our comprehensive end-to-end payroll operations across a complex multi-state and global employee population. Shifting completely away from routine inbound clerical support, basic manual record keeping, or unaligned task tracking, you will operate as a principal corporate ledger manager—balancing rapid transactional compliance with deep cross-functional partnership across internal People (HR) and Strategic Finance units. This position requires an enterprise SaaS or fintech payroll veteran with 3 to 5 years of hands-on execution history who structures multi-region pay calculations fluidly natively using Accountant accounting standards, coordinates general ledger balance reconciliations smoothly natively using Bookkeeping protocols within corporate general ledger systems, and commands enterprise ADP environments confidently under strict cutting cutoff timelines.

Key Responsibilities

• Full-Lifecycle Multi-State Payroll Processing: Process and execute bi-weekly payroll runs for an extensive multi-state domestic workforce alongside monthly payroll operations for global employee cohorts cleanly natively utilizing Accountant compliance parameters.
• Immaculate Pay Variable Validation: Administer and verify all foundational compensation variables, ensuring absolute accuracy across calculated earnings, benefit deductions, judicial garnishments, local taxes, retroactive adjustments, leave pay structures, and manual off-cycle distributions.
• General Ledger Integration and Reconciliation: Post payroll-related journal entries to the corporate General Ledger (GL) and execute meticulous balance configurations, tracking down and resolving any discovered variances in a timely manner natively leveraging Bookkeeping rules.
• Corporate Expense and Card Governance: Review, code, audit, and approve distributed employee expense sheets and corporate card transactions, mapping expenditures to target expense codes, posting related journal adjustments, and closing reconciliation loops.
• Operational Payroll Reporting: Create, enhance, and distribute clear operational reports and executive dashboards, monitoring workforce spend trends to address ad hoc tracking inquiries from senior leadership.
• Year-End Audit Coordination: Support and drive mission-critical year-end regulatory operations, leading annual W-2 compliance compilation, coordinating external tax audits, and plotting future payroll calendars.
• System Enhancement Product Ownership: Test, document, and support continuous software upgrades and configuration modifications within our core payroll engines, creating clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and conducting user training.
• Internal Control and SOP Enforcement: Maintain pristine internal controls and procedural documentation aligned with strict corporate audit requirements and security guidelines to ensure uncompromised data confidentiality.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• A minimum of 3 to 5 years of verified professional history running hands-on payroll processing, corporate staff accounting, full-cycle payroll coordination, or back-office financial reconciliation.
• Mandatory Processing Frequency History: Proven, hands-on experience successfully managing rapid, full-cycle bi-weekly payroll operations within a growth-stage company framework.
• Deep, authoritative technical command of multi-state payroll regulations, showing a proven ability to independently research, interpret, and accurately apply shifting state-level payroll laws, tax withholdings, and processing requirements across the US.
• Expert-tier capability modeling complex calculations, adjusting pay classes, and writing journal entries natively utilizing Accountant practices.
• Practical operational familiarity balancing ledger variances, verifying account balances, and auditing transaction codes natively using Bookkeeping protocols.
• Advanced, master-level software proficiency within Microsoft Excel, showing structural fluency deploying advanced formulas, conditional data validations, VLOOKUP matrices, and data pivot tables.
• Direct, hands-on professional mastery configuring and running payroll workflows within the **ADP Workforce Now** platform.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication traits in fluent English, demonstrating an empathetic, service-oriented style capable of translating complex tax and payroll rules clearly to non-payroll stakeholders.
• Location Context: Position open to qualified accounting professionals based permanently and resident within the United States to operate under a 100% remote work-from-home layout, with physical facility access available in San Francisco, California.

Preferred Strategic Indicators (Nice to Have)

• Prior commercial payroll history operating explicitly within a hyper-growth venture-backed tech startup, cloud software enterprise, or digital fraud-prevention SaaS corporation.
• Direct operational experience navigating Oracle NetSuite ERP architecture, database ledger tables, or automated general ledger mapping tools.
• Hands-on functional experience managing corporate spend through modern digital expense software ecosystems (specifically requiring exposure to Navan, Expensify, or Brex).
• An outcome-driven personal philosophy rooted in high operational curiosity, a continuous improvement mindset focused on automating manual friction, and an absolute commitment to data security and accuracy.

What We Offer

• Vetted Silicon Valley-Scaled Salaried Blueprint: An highly attractive full-time expected On-Target Earnings (OTE) package structured transparently between $100,000 and $140,000 USD per year, calibrated precisely to evaluate your payroll authority, accounting depth, and system optimization velocity, supplemented by corporate stock equity allocations.
• The exceptional professional canvas to claim absolute operational ownership over the payroll systems supporting a global AI-powered technology leader scoring 1 trillion events annually.
• Profound work-from-home remote parameters offering a 100% remote framework across America, complete scheduling trust, and zero physical geographic office commuting friction.
• Immediate baseline access to premium comprehensive corporate healthcare and protection benefits managed through corporate tracks.
• Access to elite financial accumulation and lifestyle provisions, including traditional and Roth investment channels, covered Paid Time Off (PTO) allocations, and extensive equipment support within an expanding digital trust pioneer.