Payroll Specialist - Dallas, TX

Job description

[**Cobalt Service Partners**](https://www.cobaltsp.com/) (CSP) is building the nation's leading commercial access and security integration platform. Backed by [Alpine Investors](https://alpineinvestors.com/), we partner with founder-led businesses that install, maintain, and repair commercial gates, doors, loading docks, and integrated security systems. Since launching in late 2023, we've welcomed 22 partner companies into Cobalt. Each one has its own team, practices, and local history. Bringing them onto shared processes and systems without disrupting the people who built them is central to how we grow. Payroll sits right at the heart of that work. **About the role** Cobalt Service Partners is hiring a Payroll Specialist to own accurate, on-time payroll for a group of operating businesses. Each business has its own employees, pay schedules and quirks, and you'll be the person they count on to get it right every cycle. We're a startup, so our payroll processes, procedures, and systems are still taking shape. Processing payroll is the core of this job. Helping us build the way we do it — documenting steps, tightening controls, and shaping our systems as we grow — is the other part. **What you'll do** **Payroll processing (most of your time)** - Run end-to-end payroll for multiple businesses on weekly, biweekly and semimonthly schedules - Collect and verify hours, new hires, terminations, pay changes, bonuses and commissions before each run - Calculate and process deductions, garnishments, PTO accruals and benefit withholdings - Review payroll registers for accuracy and resolve discrepancies before funds are released - Make sure federal, state and local payroll taxes are withheld, filed and paid on time, including quarterly and year-end filings (941, W-2, W-3) - Answer employee and manager questions about pay, deductions and tax forms - Reconcile payroll to the general ledger and prepare journal entries or reports for accounting - Support audits, workers' comp reviews and year-end close **Building how we work** - Write and maintain step-by-step procedures and checklists for each business you support - Spot errors, manual workarounds and risks, and propose fixes - Help evaluate, set up, or migrate payroll and HR systems as we standardize - Bring newly added businesses onto our payroll process smoothly - Partner with HR, accounting, and local business managers to keep data flowing cleanly **What you bring** - 3+ years of hands-on payroll processing, ideally across more than one company or EIN - Working knowledge of federal and multi-state payroll tax rules, wage and hour law, and garnishments - Experience with at least one major payroll platform (for example ADP, Paychex, Paylocity, Gusto or UKG) - Strong Excel skills: lookups, pivot tables and reconciliations - A high bar for accuracy and confidentiality - Clear, friendly communication with employees and managers who aren't payroll experts **Nice to have** - Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC) or Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) - Experience with field-service or hourly workforces (overtime, shift differentials, job costing) - Experience helping implement or migrate a payroll system - Exposure to acquisitions or onboarding new entities **Who thrives here** - You're comfortable when the answer is "we haven't decided that yet" and you'll help decide it - You fix the root cause, not just this cycle's error - You write things down so the next person doesn't have to guess - You can juggle several pay calendars without missing a deadline - You ask questions early and flag problems before payday, not after **Why Cobalt** - **Real variety.** You'll support multiple partner companies, each with its own team, pay practices and history. It's not the same payroll every week. - **A hand in building it.** Our payroll processes and systems are still taking shape, and you'll help design them instead of inheriting someone else's. - **Work that matters to people.** The technicians and installers keeping our customers' buildings secure count on you to get their pay right. - Competitive base salary, full health benefits, 401(k) with match, paid time off, paid holidays, life and disability coverage, and professional development support. *Cobalt Service Partners and its operating companies are equal opportunity employers. Employment is at-will.*