Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting

Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting

Heredia, Costa Rica

Company Overview:

Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD) is at a critically important juncture in the company’s lifecycle. CSOD is the world’s largest and most successful stand-alone unified Talent Management company and one of the world’s largest SaaS companies. The company is entering a phase of achieving scale and global expansion through continued relentless execution.

The position will be part of Global Shared Services team in Costa Rica

Job Summary:

The Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting will lead a team of 5 payroll accountants (based in Costa Rica & India) responsible for end-to-end payroll accounting across 27 countries, supporting 3,000+ employees (“Cornerstars”). This role owns payroll accounting close activities (postings and accruals), monthly balance sheet reconciliations, and entity-level payroll variance/flux analysis. You will partner closely with Payroll Processing to resolve issues quickly and drive automation to improve accuracy, controls and close efficiency.

Key Responsibilities:

• Team Management: Lead, coach, and develop a team of 5 payroll accounting team members; set priorities, manage capacity, and ensure high-quality outputs across all deliverables
• Payroll accounting & accruals (global scope): Oversee payroll postings and ensure accurate accounting for payroll-related accruals including pensions, bonuses (various plans), and restructuring-related items across 27 countries.
• Month-end close execution: Ensure all payroll accounting entries and related deliverables are completed accurately and on time to meet month-end deadlines.
• Entity-level analysis & flux explanations: Own the entity-level payroll analysis process; support the team in producing balance sheet and income statement flux/variance analysis used by senior finance leadership to understand and explain movements
• Balance sheet reconciliations: Lead the monthly reconciliation process for payroll-related balance sheet accounts, ensuring completeness, accuracy, and appropriate documentation and controls
• Cross-functional issue resolution: Partner with Payroll Processing teams to investigate and resolve payroll accounting questions and discrepancies as they arise, driving timely resolution and clear communication
• Automation & process improvement: Design and implement automation and standardization initiatives for payroll accounting (e.g., improving data flows from ADP/ActivePay into Oracle, templates, controls, and reconciliations) to reduce manual effort and strengthen accuracy and compliance.

• Build relationships: Partner with Talent teams, FP&A & IT to resolve queries, provide intelligent analysis and develop future improvements
• Support internal and external payroll and financial audits : Partner with Accounting and statutory accountants to prepare accurate payroll records, reconciliations and supporting documentation, responding promptly to auditor queries, and ensuring the timely resolution of audit findings.

Qualifications:

• Education:
• Bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, or a related field.
• Registered Private Accountant (CPI)

• Experience:
• 8+ years of progressive experience in payroll accounting, accounting operations, controllership, or close/reconciliation roles within a multi-entity global organization
• Proven experience leading teams (people management and/or strong functional leadership)
• Experience within a multinational, Shared Service Centre (SSC), Global Business Services (GBS) or BPO environment strongly preferred.

• Skills:
• Strong analytical skills with demonstrated ability to deliver clear, audit-ready reconciliations and variance explanations
• Ability to operate effectively under month-end deadlines and coordinate across time zones and stakeholders.
• Ability to lead and motivate a team.
• Interpersonal skills & strong problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
• Strong knowledge of payroll accounting concepts (wages, taxes, pensions, bonus accruals, and related balance sheet accounts) across multiple countries (US, India, France and Costa Rica are a must)
• Hands-on experience with Oracle, FloQast and payroll systems such as ADP and/or ActivePay (or similar), including leveraging system outputs for journal entries, reconciliations, and analysis
• Strong knowledge of MS office especially Excel, PowerPoint & Outlook.
• Advanced English and good written and verbal communication skills to interact upward and cross functionally are a must
• Must be comfortable operating in a fast-paced global organisation undergoing significant transformation.
• Experience of technology-enabled process improvement

Extra dose of awesome if you have…

• Additional language skills