Director of Payroll

Director of Payroll

📍

Location:

Central Valley, CA (Stockton / Turlock / Fresno)
🕒

Schedule:

Full-Time, Exempt | Hybrid (2 days onsite / 3 days remote)
🏢 Department: Headquarters
📋

Reports To:

Chief Human Resources Officer
💰 Pay Range: $125,000 – $140,000 annually

✨ Make a Meaningful Impact

Aspiranet, a leading California-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting children, youth, and families, is seeking a dedicated and detail-oriented Payroll Director to join our team. If you thrive in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment and have a passion for providing excellent operational support while collaborating and working with the HQ team, we’d love to hear from you.

Aspiranet is a mission-driven nonprofit organization founded in 1975, serving communities across California. We support children, youth, and families through programs that include foster care and adoption, residential services, behavioral health, transitional age youth services, intensive home-based services, and community-based family resources.

At Aspiranet, we are guided by values of respect, integrity, courage, and hope, and we believe every role contributes to creating brighter futures.

The Payroll Director reports to the Chief Human Resources Officer and leads a team responsible for processing semi-monthly payroll for over 1,000 employees in a complex, highly regulated environment. This role ensures efficient payroll operations, tax reporting, auditing, and system management, while collaborating closely with finance, HR, and leadership to maintain full compliance. The ideal candidate has advanced knowledge of California and multi-state payroll regulations, is a Certified Payroll Specialist, experienced in system implementations, and excels in high-volume, continuous improvement settings.

• Direct and oversee accurate, timely payroll processing in a complex, grant-funded, high-volume environment.
• Ensure full compliance with all federal, state, and local employment, wage and hour, and tax laws and regulations.
• Provide final review and approval of all payrolls, filings, and related deliverables prior to submission.
• Serve as backup for payroll processing functions as needed to ensure continuity of operations.
• Perform other job‑related duties as assigned in support of organizational needs.

• Lead and coordinate internal and external audits, including fiscal, governmental, 403(b), workers’ compensation, compensation, benefits, and wage and hour audits.
• Conduct ongoing internal audits of payroll processes, tax filings, rates, accruals, and controls to proactively identify risks and ensure audit-ready compliance.
• Partner with Finance, HR, and external auditors to resolve findings and strengthen controls.

• Develop, implement, and maintain comprehensive standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all payroll functions.
• Evaluate payroll systems and workflows to identify opportunities for automation, efficiency, and enhanced compliance.
• Lead or support payroll system implementations, upgrades, and process redesign initiatives.

• Supervise, mentor, and develop payroll staff to promote accountability, technical excellence, and professional growth.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, accuracy, and service orientation within the payroll team.
• Build and maintain strong consultative partnerships with leaders and staff across the organization to support effective payroll operations.

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a closely related field required;
  Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) or equivalent certification strongly preferred.
• Minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible payroll experience in a high-volume, audit-intensive, and highly regulated environment.
• Advanced expertise in California wage and hour laws, with demonstrated ability to apply regulations accurately within complex payroll operations; multi-state experience preferred.
• Proven experience leading or supporting payroll audits, including tax, wage and hour, benefits,…