Specialist, Payroll
Menlo Park, CA
General & Administrative – Finance /
Regular, Full-Time Employee /
On-site
More than one million people in the United States today are fighting blood cancer. While a traditional allogeneic stem cell transplant has been the best hope for many, the transplant itself can prove fatal or lead to serious conditions, such as graft vs. host disease. Orca Bio is a late-stage biotechnology company redefining the transplant process by developing next-generation cell therapies with the goal of providing significantly better survival rates with dramatically fewer risks. With our purified, high-precision investigational cell therapies we hope to not only replace patients' blood and immune systems with healthy ones, but also restore their lives.
The Specialist, Payroll will be responsible for the end-to-end processing of payroll for our expanding workforce. This includes ensuring compliance with multi-state wage and hour laws, administering timekeeping systems, handling payroll audits, and providing excellent support to employees regarding pay, deductions, and tax-related inquiries. Reporting to the Head of Accounting, this role is a critical partner to HR and Finance in maintaining smooth payroll processes in a dynamic, high-growth environment. The Payroll Specialist will also support equity stock administration by reconciling equity transactions with payroll, ensuring accurate tax reporting, and assisting employees with equity-related inquiries.
Essential Duties & Key Responsibilities
- Independently manage the end-to-end semi-monthly/bi-weekly payroll process for multi-state employee population (exempt and non-exempt), ensuring accuracy and compliance.
- Maintain and audit employee timekeeping records, including overtime, shift differentials, and meal/rest break compliance for non-exempt staff.
- Review, reconcile, and validate timesheets for non-exempt employees prior to payroll submission. Partnering with managers and supervisors to resolve timekeeping discrepancies quickly.
- Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local wage and hour regulations, including multi-state tax registrations, garnishments, and other statutory requirements:
- Collaborate with HR to onboard new hires, update employee records, leave management, and process terminations, including post-termination payments, in payroll systems (Zenefits / TriNet).
- Partner with Finance on payroll reconciliations, journal entries, and reporting.
- Work with payroll service to resolve issues with tax deductions, pay discrepancies, and other payroll-related matters in a timely manner.
- Oversee payroll system upgrades and integrations.
- Liaise with auditors and external partners to manage any payroll-related requests for audits.
- Support year-end activities including W-2 processing and compliance filings (e.g. Form 5500, ACA).
- Partner with Finance, Legal, and HR to administer employee equity program, ensuring accurate payroll integration, tax compliance, and reporting.
- Reconcile equity transactions with payroll records and support preparation of equity-related tax filings.
- Provide employee support on equity grants, vesting, and payroll/tax implications.
- Respond to employee inquiries regarding pay, deductions, time reporting, and related matters with a high degree of customer service.
- Maintain strict confidentiality and ensure data integrity in all payroll operations.
- Assist in developing payroll policies, procedures, and process improvements to support company growth.
o State-specific overtime rules (e.g., California daily overtime and double-time)
o Meal and rest break premiums
o Local tax withholdings and state unemployment insurance
o Wage statement and recordkeeping requirements
o Final pay regulations for terminating employees
o Garnishments and other state-specific deductions
Minimum Requirements
- 5+ years of payroll experience, in a multi-state environment with a significant non-exempt employee population, including alternate work schedules.
- 1–2 years of experience supporting stock administration/equity plan operations (experience with Carta, E*TRADE, or similar equity systems preferred).
- Strong knowledge of federal and state wage and hour laws (e.g., overtime, meal/rest break compliance), overtime rules, and payroll tax compliance.
- Experience with HRIS/payroll systems (e.g., ADP Workforce Now, Paylocity, Workday, or similar) preferably TriNet but not required.
- High attention to detail, accuracy, and ability to meet deadlines in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with a service-oriented mindset.
- Ability to handle confidential information with discretion.
- CPP (Certified Payroll Professional) or FPC certification is a plus.
- Start-up or biotech industry experience preferred but not required.
$90,000 - $110,000 a year
The anticipated annual salary range for this job is based on prior experience in the role/industry, education, location, internal equity, and other job-related factors as permitted by law. For remote-based positions, this range may vary based on your local market. You will also be eligible to receive pre-IPO equity, in addition to medical, dental, and vision benefits, flexible PTO, 401(k) plan, life and accidental death and disability coverage, and parental leave benefits. Other perks include free daily lunches and snacks at our on-site locations.
Who we are
We are driven by a passion for science and compassion for patients. We act with urgency to ensure our treatments are one day accessible to all who need them.
We live by our core values of passion, courage, and integrity. Excellence in our work means the chance to unlock a better quality of life for our patients, and with that comes tremendous responsibility.
We innovate on a path that hasn’t been paved. We embrace an entrepreneurial spirit and take calculated risks to achieve our mission. We aren’t afraid to ask “why not” and challenge the status quo.
We maintain a start-up culture of camaraderie and leadership by example, regardless of title.
We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and recognize that celebrating our differences creates stronger, lasting solutions that better serve our team, our patients and their healthcare providers.
Notice to staffing firms
Orca Bio does not accept resumes from staffing agencies with which we do not have a written agreement and specific engagement for a particular opening. Our employment activities, inquiries and offers are managed through our HR/Talent team, and all candidates are presented through this channel only. We do not accept unsolicited resumes, and we rarely outsource recruitment.
