Senior Payroll Specialist

Job description

**Join a Challenger**At EQ, we're remaking banking so every Canadian gets ahead, every day. Serving nearly 4 million Canadians from coast to coast, we offer a wide variety of financial services from banking and lending, to trust and credit union solutions. We've been at this since 1970, challenging the conventions of traditional banking with smarter, faster, and more connected financial experiences. **What's kept us moving?** The people behind it all: challengers who ask better questions, push back on old assumptions, and look for a better way forward. If you're driven to help reshape how banking works for Canadians and the businesses that power our economy, this could be your next big opportunity. We can’t wait to get to know you! **Purpose of the role** The Senior Payroll Specialist is a senior individual contributor and payroll operations lead responsible for delivering accurate, compliant, and well-controlled payroll across multiple Canadian legal entities in a modern, lean payroll operating model. This role goes beyond payroll processing. The incumbent is accountable for end-to-end payroll execution, payroll accounting, statutory compliance, audit readiness, control effectiveness, issue prevention, and continuous improvement. Operating with a high degree of autonomy, the Senior Payroll Specialist serves as the escalation point for complex payroll matters and partners closely with Finance, HR, Tax, Benefits, vendors, and leadership. The role is expected to identify risks before they result in payroll errors, perform root cause analysis when issues arise, implement sustainable corrective actions, and strengthen payroll processes through documentation, controls, automation, and proactive governance. ### The Work ! **Payroll Operations** Independently process, validate, and oversee end-to-end payroll for multiple legal entities and payroll populations. Execute bi-weekly and off-cycle payrolls in alignment with payroll calendars, service commitments, company policies, employment standards, and legislative requirements. Review and validate payroll transactions including new hires, terminations, leaves of absence, salary changes, incentive payments, equity transactions, taxable benefits, pension/savings deductions, and other complex payroll events. Validate upstream data from HR, Benefits, Finance, vendors, and system integrations before payroll is finalized. Review payroll outputs with a risk-based lens to identify unusual trends, exceptions, or potential errors before employee impact occurs. Own complex payroll calculations and adjustments, including appropriate treatment, taxation, and accounting impact. **Payroll Compliance & Statutory Reporting** Ensure compliance with federal and provincial payroll legislation, statutory remittance requirements, and employment-related payroll obligations. Prepare, reconcile, and submit CRA remittances, provincial remittances, Employer Health Tax, workers’ compensation filings, Quebec payroll requirements where applicable, and other payroll-related filings. Coordinate year-end payroll activities including T4s, T4A reporting, CNESST wage statements, annual reports, pension reporting, taxable benefit reporting, and related reconciliations. Monitor legislative changes and assess impacts to payroll processes, systems, employee experience, reporting, and controls. **Benefits Administration & Reconciliation** Prepare, reconcile, and process benefits billing statements, pension and benefits remittances, and vendor invoices related to benefits programs. Coordinate with benefits providers to resolve discrepancies, investigate billing variances, and maintain accurate records. Support year-end activities and reporting related to employee benefits, pension, savings plans, and taxable benefits as applicable. **Payroll Accounting & Financial Controls** Prepare and reconcile payroll-related journal entries, payroll accruals, statutory liabilities, benefit-related entries, and payroll expense accounts. Own payroll-related balance sheet reconciliations and ensure reconciling items are investigated, explained, and cleared in a timely manner. Partner with Finance to support month-end close, quarter-end reporting, year-end audits, financial statement requirements, and payroll variance analysis. Prepare meaningful commentary on payroll variances, trends, reconciling items, and financial impacts. Maintain strong payroll controls that support internal audit, external audit, SOX-style governance, operational risk expectations, and financial reporting requirements. **Root Cause Analysis & Issue Resolution** Lead investigation and resolution of payroll discrepancies, complex employee payroll issues, and payroll accounting variances. Distinguish between one-time payroll corrections and systemic issues requiring process, system, data, vendor, or control remediation. Prepare issue summaries that include root cause, employee impact, financial impact, control impact, corrective action, owner, and prevention plan. Track recurring payroll issues and recommend changes to reduce repeat inquiries, manual adjustments, employee impact, and operational risk. Escalate material risks, compliance concerns, financial impacts, and control deficiencies with clear analysis and recommended actions. **Audit & Risk Management** Coordinate payroll audit activities and provide timely, accurate support for internal and external auditors. Own the preparation and maintenance of payroll audit evidence, including control logs, reconciliations, approval evidence, exception reports, sign-offs, and procedure documentation. Lead periodic payroll audits and control reviews across key payroll processes, including new hires, terminations, compensation changes, deductions, taxable benefits, remittances, off-cycle payments, and year-end reporting. Develop and maintain payroll control frameworks, audit documentation, standard operating procedures, and evidence of review. Identify operational risks and implement sustainable process improvements that reduce dependency, manual effort, and single points of failure. **Payroll Systems & Continuous Improvement** Serve as a subject matter expert for Dayforce and related payroll systems, integrations, configuration impacts, reports, and system controls. Support system implementations, upgrades, acquisitions, integrations, payroll transformation initiatives, and post-go-live hypercare activities. Lead or participate in user acceptance testing, parallel payroll testing, regression testing, and validation activities. Recommend opportunities to automate manual processes, improve reporting, strengthen controls, and improve operational efficiency. Maintain payroll procedures, workflows, checklists, control documentation, and knowledge management materials. **Stakeholder Support & Partnership** Act as the escalation point for complex payroll inquiries and payroll-related issues requiring cross-functional resolution. Provide guidance to HR, Finance, Tax, Benefits, Legal, vendors, leaders, and employees on payroll-related matters. Translate payroll issues into clear business impacts, including employee experience, financial exposure, compliance risk, and control implications. Build strong partnerships with internal stakeholders and third-party vendors, providing recommendations rather than only identifying issues. Support mergers, acquisitions, organizational changes, and other strategic initiatives affecting payroll operations. ### Let’s Talk About You! - Minimum 7 to 10 years of progressive payroll experience in a complex, multi-entity Canadian payroll environment. - Have an accredited payroll compliance professional certification - Experience independently processing payroll for multiple legal entities and complex payroll populations with a group ranging between 1500-3000 employees - Experience supporting payroll accounting, journal entries, accruals, reconciliations, financial reporting, and variance analysis. - Experience owning or supporting internal audit, external audit, control testing, and audit evidence preparation. - Experience with Dayforce payroll strongly preferred. - Experience with payroll integrations, implementations, acquisitions, system testing, or payroll transformation projects considered an asset. - Demonstrated experience with payroll accounting, audit ownership, controls, root cause analysis, and cross-functional issue resolution. - Canadian payroll legislation, employment standards, statutory remittances, and year-end reporting requirements. - Income Tax Act requirements, CPP, EI, taxable benefits, employer payroll obligations, and provincial payroll requirements. - Payroll accounting principles, general ledger reconciliations, accruals, variance analysis, and payroll liability management. - Internal controls, audit practices, evidence standards, documentation requirements, and operational risk management.