Senior Payroll Administrator

Why AAA Life?

AAA Life is a respected and trusted American brand that has been focusing on Life Insurance and Annuity Products since 1969.  At AAA Life, we have over 1.8 million policies where we take pride in earning the trust of our policyholders who understand our promise to be there for them – and their families – when we’re needed most.  By joining the AAA Life team, you are joining a company that genuinely cares about helping each other, with a devotion to protect the lives of those around us.   We embrace a diverse, equitable, inclusive culture where all associates can feel a sense of belonging and use their unique talents and perspective to influence, innovate, motivate, and thrive.

How You’ll Work

Work Solution: Hybrid (Tuesday- Thursday)

Relocation Eligibility: Available

What You'll Do

The Senior Payroll Administrator is primarily responsible for end-to-end payroll administration and processing.  This includes responding to inquiries from AAA Life associates, management, vendors, and external reporting agencies; developing and maintaining procedures, policies, guidelines, and forms; creating and maintaining necessary payroll and time/attendance reports to ensure compliance with state and federal legislation and in support of the organization.  

This role operates with a high degree of independence and serves as a key control point for payroll accuracy, compliance, and continuity in a regulated environment.

Key Responsibilities

Payroll Ownership & Execution

• Own end-to-end payroll accuracy, timeliness, and delivery across all regular, off-cycle, and special payrolls.
• Perform payroll reconciliations, variance analysis, and reporting to ensure data integrity.
• Investigate and resolve payroll discrepancies and respond to associate and leadership inquiries.
• Apply sound judgment in complex, high-volume, or time-sensitive payroll situations.

Compliance, Controls & Risk Management

• Ensure compliance with all federal, state, and local wage and hour regulations.
• Proactively identify and mitigate payroll, compliance, and audit risks.
• Maintain and enforce payroll controls and support internal and external audits.
• Prepare audit documentation and partner with leadership to remediate control gaps.

Systems & HRIS Partnership

• Serve as the primary payroll user and subject matter expert within the HCM/payroll system (e.g., Dayforce).
• Partner closely with HRIS on system configuration, enhancements, and issue resolution.
• Validate payroll system changes prior to processing.
• Support payroll-related testing, upgrades, and implementation activities.

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Process Discipline & Operational Continuity

• Document payroll calendars, processes, controls, and key dependencies.
• Maintain procedures that ensure uninterrupted payroll operations.
• Reduce single-point-of-failure risk through strong documentation and knowledge transfer.
• Adhere to standardized processes while continuously improving efficiency and control.

Senior-Level Judgment, Communication & Continuous Improvement

• Operate independently with minimal supervision as a senior-level individual contributor.
• Demonstrate accountability, discretion, and confidentiality in handling sensitive payroll and compensation data.
• Communicate payroll matters clearly and effectively to associates and leaders.
• Identify root causes of issues and implement sustainable process, system, and control improvements.
  
  

Basic Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
• Minimum of 8 years of progressive payroll experience.
• Proven experience independently managing end-to-end payroll in a regulated environment.
• Elaborate working knowledge of federal, state, and multi-state payroll tax and wage and hour regulations.
• Demonstrated understanding of payroll controls, compliance, and audit requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) designation.
• Experience supporting payroll audits and compliance reviews in highly regulated industries.

Essential Job Functions 

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand, walk, sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel and talk or hear.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus. 

This job requires the ability to perform duties contained in the job description for this position, including, but not limited to, the above requirements.  Reasonable accommodations will be made for otherwise qualified applicants as needed to enable them to fulfill these requirements. 

AAA Life Insurance Company does not offer immigration sponsorship for this position. This includes visa types such as H-1B, TN, and STEM OPT. Please do not apply if you currently require or may require employer-sponsored immigration support now or in the future.