Payroll Specialist, United States Payroll

A Career with Point72’s Finance Team

The Finance team provides a broad range of timely, accurate, relevant, and objective financial information, advice, and services to its business partners, with commitment to the highest professional and ethical standards. Our team offers a dynamic and collaborative environment where our colleagues can learn at a fast pace and are rewarded with advanced opportunities both within Finance and across the firm.

What you’ll do

We are seeking a Payroll Specialist for the U.S. Payroll who will have direct ownership of hands-on payroll processing in addition to providing subject matter expertise and oversight. Specifically, you will:

• Own end-to-end U.S. payroll processing with minimal supervision, including data gathering, validation, review, and final sign-off
• Lead complex payroll activities such as multi-state tax calculations, W-2 testing and reconciliation, 401(k) processing, salary variance analysis, and retroactive adjustments
• Serve as the U.S. payroll subject matter expert, providing guidance on federal, state, and local tax matters and ensuring compliance and accuracy
• Independently prepare, review, and post payroll journal entries, including accruals, reversals, and adjustments
• Act as the primary point of contact for payroll escalations, employee inquiries, client questions, and external vendor coordination
• Partner with Human Resources (HR), Finance, Tax, and Benefits teams to resolve payroll issues, support audits, and manage cross-functional dependencies
• Review payroll outputs for quality and compliance, proactively identifying, investigating, and remediating discrepancies
• Drive payroll process improvements, automation, system enhancements, and transitions using tools such as Excel, Workday, and other reporting/automation solutions, while mentoring junior team members as needed

What’s required?

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
• 4+ years of finance, accounting, and/or U.S. payroll experience
• Strong hands-on expertise in state and local tax calculations and compliance, W-2 testing, year-end reconciliation, and corrections, 401(k) and benefits-related payroll processing, and salary variance analysis, reconciliations, and exception handling
• Advanced MS Excel proficiency, including VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP, COUNTIFS and SUMIFS, and nested IFs and complex reconciliation logic
• Deep understanding of US federal, state, and other jurisdictional payroll taxes
• Advanced experience with payroll-related journal entries, accruals, and financial reconciliations
• Proven ability to independently collect, validate, and review payroll data
• Experience managing payroll for foreign or global clients or working within a global service delivery model
• Excellent attention to detail with a process-oriented approach to payroll compensation for some of the top leading professionals in the industry
• The ability to efficiently analyze sizeable amounts of data and work with the Technology team to identify opportunities where improvement is essential
• The ability to excel in a dynamic, fast paced environment and work effectively under pressure.
• A willingness to manage change and build working relationships with our clients within Finance and throughout the firm
• Strong verbal and written communication skills (English language verbal and writing skills)
• Excellent organizational skills to meet deadlines and manage multiple priorities
• Commitment to the highest ethical standards

ABOUT POINT72

Point72 is a leading global alternative investment firm led by Steven A. Cohen. Building on more than 30 years of investing experience, Point72 seeks to deliver superior returns for its investors through fundamental and systematic investing strategies across asset classes and geographies. We aim to attract and retain the industry’s brightest talent by cultivating an investor-led culture and committing to our people’s long-term growth. For more information, visit https://point72.com/