Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting

About the role

Cornerstone OnDemand is hiring a Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting for its Global Shared Services team in Costa Rica. The role leads a team of 5 payroll accountants (based in Costa Rica and India) responsible for end-to-end payroll accounting across 27 countries, supporting 3,000+ employees. It covers payroll accounting close activities, monthly balance sheet reconciliations and entity-level payroll variance analysis, working closely with Payroll Processing to resolve issues and drive automation.

Key responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop a team of 5 payroll accounting team members, set priorities and manage capacity.
• Oversee payroll postings and accruals across 27 countries, including pensions, bonuses and restructuring items.
• Ensure payroll entries and deliverables are completed accurately and on time for month-end close.
• Own entity-level payroll analysis and support balance sheet and income statement variance explanations for senior finance leadership.
• Lead monthly reconciliation of payroll-related balance sheet accounts with proper documentation and controls.
• Partner with Payroll Processing teams to resolve discrepancies quickly.
• Design and implement automation and standardization (e.g. data flows from ADP/ActivePay into Oracle, templates, controls, reconciliations).
• Work with Talent, FP&A and IT, and support internal and external payroll and financial audits.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in business, Finance or a related field; Registered Private Accountant (CPI).
• 8+ years of progressive experience in payroll accounting, accounting operations, controllership or close/reconciliation in a multi-entity global organization.
• Proven experience leading teams; experience in an SSC, GBS or BPO environment strongly preferred.
• Strong knowledge of payroll accounting concepts across the US, India, France and Costa Rica.
• Hands-on experience with Oracle, FloQast and payroll systems such as ADP and/or ActivePay.
• Advanced English and strong written and verbal communication.

Required skills

• MS Office, especially Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
• Ability to deliver clear, audit-ready reconciliations and variance explanations under month-end deadlines.
• Experience with technology-enabled process improvement.