Payroll & Senior Accounting Specialist

Compensation: $42.25 - $45.68 / hour (DOE)

Status: Full-time Non-exempt Year-round

Location: Richmond CA

Youll be the financial heartbeat of our school operations. This is a non-management highly execution-focused position where your passion for precision and your ability to connect with people come together. Youll manage the day-to-day business office mechanics ensuring our 150 team members are paid accurately and on time while maintaining a rock-solid general ledger.

As a vital bridge between the Business Office People Operations (HR) and our Instructional Team you will keep our school in excellent standing. You will ensure every dollar is spent legally effectively and in perfect balance so our educators can focus on what they do best: teaching.

Note to Applicants: While experience in California K-12 school finance (SACS CalSTRS) is a major plus it is not required. We are seeking a rock-solid California payroll and general accounting professional who loves working with people. If you bring the foundational payroll and accounting expertise we will fully train you on our school-specific compliance frameworks.

• Execute full-cycle bi-weekly payroll for over 150 employees meticulously verifying timesheets and tracking data.
• Manage specialized deductions including garnishments stipends and teacher summer hold-back payments.
• Streamline operations by maintaining internal checklists workflows and zero-defect systems.
• Protect compliance by calculating precise final paychecks and PTO payouts under strict California labor timelines.
• Partner deeply with People Operations/HR to maintain flawless data flow managing retirement plan enrollments and distributing tracking reports (overtime leave balances headcount).

• Drive month-end and year-end closing tasks posting journal entries and processing accruals for restricted/unrestricted funds.
• Prepare and post bi-weekly payroll journals directly into Sage Intacct.
• Reconcile and clear specific payroll-related balance sheet accounts (FSA life insurance).
• Audit expense data by supporting the accurate coding of vendor invoices and employee reimbursements against approved budgets.
• Monitor daily cash positions and feed clean data to the finance team for cash flow projections.

You are tech-forward highly analytical and a systems-thinker. You love a structured checklist but you also have a customer-service heart and genuinely enjoy helping employees solve problems.

• 3 years of hands-on full-cycle payroll processing for an organization with 150 employees.
• 2 years of general ledger accounting experience including journal entries month-end accruals and balance sheet reconciliations.
• Strong command of California Wage & Hour rules (overtime final check timelines meal/rest break rules).
• Advanced tech literacy including mid-to-enterprise accounting/payroll software (e.g. Sage Intacct Rippling Concur) and advanced Excel skills (VLOOKUPs Pivot Tables).

• Experience in a fast-paced public school charter school or non-profit environment.
• Prior familiarity with California school systems like CalSTRS SACS guidelines or the CDE GMART/ConApp portals.

Employment eligibility will include fingerprints/Live Scan TB screen and other employment clearance. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our school.