ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR TAX AND ACCOUNTING

• Finance & Budget Strategy

• Institutional Analytics & Data Support

• Policy, Planning & State Operations

• University Business Services

The Assistant Director for Tax and Accounting , reporting to the Payroll Director, will be responsible for leading a dedicated team in managing payroll operations and serving as the primary contact for resolving customer payroll inquiries. Key responsibilities include overseeing payroll calculations and data entry, managing garnishments, administering the Paid Family and Medical Leave program, handling unemployment security payments and reporting, and ensuring compliance with tax withholding and reporting requirements across multiple states and federal programs. Additional duties encompass navigating foreign national tax treaties as well as performing bank and general ledger reconciliations.

To achieve the established objectives, the Assistant Director will mentor and guide the team to uphold the highest standards of accuracy and compliance. This role involves supervising payroll support staff and ensuring that all payroll activities and policies align with university, state, and federal regulations while effectively addressing customer needs. Candidates for this position must possess comprehensive expertise in payroll, tax, and accounting practices. A thorough understanding of relevant compliance and regulatory standards, along with proficiency in audit and control reporting, is essential for success in this role.

Duties & Responsibilities:

Strategy Development

• Counsel and collaborate with leadership on strategic direction and process improvement options for customer support and success

• Develop and propose solutions for system change decisions understanding the impacts of changes to Workday processes to incorporate new laws or regulations

• Create highly complex environment where interdependencies including downstream impacts need to be anticipated and understood

• Deliver strategies, short-term and long-term, to maintain compliance with union contracts, requirements of state and federal agencies, laws and regulations (RCWs, WACs and State Administrative and Accounting Manual, IRS, etc.)

• Employ knowledge to new emerging initiatives to determine change impact to business processes, systems and processes while evaluating risk to the University

Leadership and Team Management

• Oversee the Payroll support staff that complete the majority of Payroll transactions for the University

• Manage and coach a team, and their workload through collaboration, cross-training and distribution of day-to-day responsibilities as required to meet established service standards

• Responsible for staff development, career enrichment and any necessary corrective action

• Ensures team members are sufficiently trained to meet established service standards

• Review financial accounting transactions, journal vouchers, management records and internal accounting reports for completeness, accuracy and compliance to ensure data integrity

• Approve payroll transactions for payment

• Establish mechanisms to review and follow up on assigned work within unit, to ensure accuracy and timeliness of procurement to meet customer needs

• Monitors team performance, identifies patterns in issues/inquiries and promotes improved customer service through regular updates to knowledge management content

Campus Leadership

• Monitor team performance, identify patterns in case escalations/resolutions and promotes improved customer service through regular updates to knowledge management content

• Cultivate and drive high quality payroll customer service

• Monitor customer satisfaction and adjust service delivery protocols based on pertinent feedback and utilizing system data of pay results

• Deliver strategy driven peer-to-peer leadership to colleagues across the university and Finance, Planning and Budgeting

• Support and participate to negotiate priorities and resolve conflicts between unit requests and priorities while ensuring the University remains in compliance with state, national tax and international tax treaties

• Integrate unit priorities and programs into Finance, Planning and Budgeting and university priorities

• Shape and maintain trusted relationships with internal partners (central and unit partners) and external partners (banks, state entities and suppliers)

• Communicate to leadership (internal and external) about emerging trends that may affect payroll, programs supported by Payroll, and taxes that may have financial or customer impacts to the unit or University

• Facilitate effective decision-making across the University focusing on risk and compliance

Program Development and Process Management

• Develop and defines protocols and standards for facilitating payroll transactional processes, including payroll calculations, payroll inputs, Paid Family and Medical Leave, unemployment payments, corrections of payroll errors, tax withholding and reporting, withholding orders, tax treaties, time tracking and report reconciliation and addressing escalated customer inquiries, retroactive payments, overpayment recovery, time tracking and report reconciliation

• Provides extensive insight and direction related to payroll transactional processes, including:
o Federal and State tax deductions, international tax treaties and compliance
o Payroll Calculations
o Payroll Inputs (including voluntary deductions)
o Time Entry/Corrections
o Overpayment Recovery (including reporting and coordination with outside collection agencies as required)
o Manual Payments
o Tax withholding and reporting (federal and multi-state)
o Garnishment
o State Programs: unemployment and Paid Family and Medical Leave payment and reporting
o Payment Adjustments
o Tax treaties
o Reconciliations (bank account and general ledgers)
o Final Payments
o Utilization of pro-active reports for data integrity and error identification

• Ensures the timeliness and accuracy of customer responses

• Guarantees completion of assigned payroll transactions in accordance with established standards, laws and regulations

• Manages strong relationships with other Tier 2 resources and external Central Business Unit experts to address escalated inquiries

• Facilitates discussions with CBU owners to drive alignment on policy, procedures and execution of transactions

• Establishes and/or adapts efficiently to changing policy, process and system requirements in support of a continuous improvement model

• Identifies and promotes process improvement opportunities

• Promotes use of ServiceNow to facilitate management of inquiries/issues in accordance with established protocol

• Magnitude of tax impacts and unemployment (millions to reconcile charges for University – impacts future rates) Volume /scope impact of taxes

• Supports periodic Workday update processes, including payroll testing activities

• Supports payroll knowledge management processes, including identification and verification of additions/changes to the working repository of knowledge content

• Supports payroll training activities, including development and verification of relevant content

Supervisory Responsibilities: This position will supervise 4 Payroll Support positions

• Manage the Payroll Tax and Accounting team which include students, classified and professional staff

• Establish individual and team goals in conjunction with staff

• Manage formal decision-making regarding hiring and/or termination; recommends promotion/reclassifications and or salary adjustment, disciplinary actions; and/or handling complaints or grievances.

• Assess employee’s performance and potential for future development through goal setting with staff

• Analyze work, projects and prioritize team initiatives in conjunction with staff

• Train new staff, and provide ongoing training and development of existing staff

• Develop standards for a knowledge drive organization/unit

• Direct and monitors the work of unit staff

• Work with staff to develop both unit and professional goals

We encourage applicants to apply even if they do not feel they satisfy all the skills listed above; we understand that it will take some time for the successful applicant to strengthen specific position skills where needed, to learn about the university systems, campuses, and collaborators, to develop a deep understanding of the UW Finance, Planning & Budgeting environment itself. You will join a supportive team that will partner with you in these efforts; we are an open, ethical, highly engaged, and collaborative community based on trust, transparency, and mutual respect. We believe in the importance of quality of life, embracing diversity and equity, making a difference, and having fun.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree & 5 years of experience with payroll accounting and operations

• Equivalent combination of education and experience from which comparable knowledge and skills have been acquired may substitute for degree

• Experience in payroll operations, including payroll calculations, tax processing, overpayment recovery, and report reconciliation, with a strong understanding of payroll accounting standards, federal/state regulations, and external reporting requirements

• Proven leadership in payroll management, supervising and mentoring diverse teams, ensuring compliance, accuracy, and operational efficiency in a high-volume, deadline-driven environment

• Experience managing payroll processes in a higher education or complex organizational setting, with expertise in payroll systems (Workday preferred), ERP platforms, and system troubleshooting

• Excellent communication skills, effectively managing customer inquiries, collaborating with internal/external partners, and balancing competing priorities while maintaining compliance

• Demonstrated ability to optimize payroll workflows, implement process improvements, and ensure regulatory compliance through continuous evaluation and refinement of payroll operations

• Demonstrated experience in working on diverse groups and teams; respects, values, and contributes to FPB and UW’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity

Desired:
Professional Certification (CPA, CPP, etc.)
Experience managing payroll transactions in Workday
Experience playing a leadership role in a shared services environment
Working experience designing, executing and/or managing relevant business processes at University of Washington or in a comparable higher education environment

Application Process: The application process may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment, you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.