Job Description

Job Description:

Pacific Life is investing in bright, agile and diverse talent to contribute to our mission of innovating our business and creating a superior customer experience. We’re actively seeking a talented Payroll Specialist to join our Payroll team in Newport Beach. This role can be on-site or hybrid.

As a Payroll Specialist, you’ll play a key role in Pacific Life’s growth and long-term success by being part of a collaborative and customer-centric team responsible for the payroll operations of Pacific Life’s U.S. employee population . You will fill an existing role that sits on a team of 2 people in the Corporate division. Your colleagues will include Sr Payroll Specialist and Payroll Manager.

How you will make an impact:

Process semi-monthly Non-exempt payroll (roughly 800 employees) for employees across multiple states, research and resolve out of balance situations.

Balance payroll accounts by auditing information; identifying and resolving discrepancies (cycle balancing).

FLSA compliance subject matter expert and resource for hourly nonexempt employee Payroll inquiries.

Meets payroll standards by contributing information to strategic plans and reviews; implementing production, productivity, quality, and customer-service standards; resolving problems; identifying system improvements.

Serves as back up for Sr Payroll Specialist for all cycles (exempt salary, bonus, and NQ Pension), and Accounts Payable invoices.

Peer reviews payroll data entry.

Processing of off cycle payments. bonus cycles, and terminations.

Fulfills wage garnishment requirements by completing forms, adjusting payroll records, documenting and transmitting withholdings to third party vendor. 

Assists with payroll audits and quarterly and year-end reconciliations.

Maintains payroll-related unapplied cash accounts and is responsible for the reconciliation and accuracy of one or more accounts within a complex accounting system.

Back up for reconciliation of Payroll Suspense accounts.

Analyzes data and performs reconciliation of Workday and Oracle Financials integration, identifying errors and preparing journal entries if needed.

Researches and analyzes accounting journal entries for out of balance bank reconciliation items that pertain to ACH and Bank deposits. Collaboration with Corporate Finance in resolution of items.

Responsible for creation of Workday data uploads (EIB’s) and assisting with testing of Workday Releases.

The experience you will bring:

Minimum of 3+ years payroll and general accounting experience.

Multi-State Payroll knowledge.

Working knowledge of payroll best practices, with a strong knowledge of federal and state regulations and FLSA.

Strong PC skills, including experience with Excel formulas like SUM, COUNT and VLOOKUP as well as pivot table are required.

Good verbal/written communication abilities and effective interpersonal skills.

Approaches all encounters with customers and co-workers in a friendly, attentive, and service-oriented manner.

Able to achieve task completion and meet schedules, deadlines, quotas, and performance goals.

Ability to maintain confidentiality and have a high level of discretion.

Advanced decision making, problem solving, and analytical ability.

Working knowledge of payroll and time processing with Workday.