{"id":3121907,"url":"https://alion.io/job/mercor-global-payroll-lead","title":"Global Payroll Lead","company":{"id":4960,"name":"Mercor","domain":"mercor.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/mercor","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":true,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":84,"open_postings":16,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.438,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":65,"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"}},"role":"Finance","role_family":"Finance","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":160000,"max":185000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":185000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-22T22:46:26Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-22","last_verified_at":"2026-10-25T17:12:06Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"About Mercor\nMercor's mission is to organize human intelligence to power the AI economy. We're a leading AI data company, building the layer between human expertise and frontier models. Millions of domain experts on the platform are paid over $4 million per day to train frontier AI models. Mercor's APEX benchmark family measures AI's real-world impact on professional work. Mercor Enterprise brings this same infrastructure to Fortune 500 companies: helping companies capture how their best people actually work, translating that expertise directly back into agents.\nMercor is creating a new category of work where expertise powers AI advancement. Achieving this requires an ambitious, fast-paced and deeply committed team. You’ll work alongside researchers, operators, and AI companies at the forefront of shaping the systems that are redefining society. Mercor is a profitable Series C company valued at $10 billion. We work in-person five days a week in our San Francisco, NYC, or London offices.\nAbout the Role\nMercor is seeking a high-execution payroll leader to spearhead global payroll delivery while scaling our underlying operational infrastructure. In this role, you will hold end-to-end accountability for payroll execution schedules, vendor governance, internal controls, general ledger reconciliations, and complex issue resolution, all while driving high-impact automation initiatives. Additionally, you will orchestrate the seamless transition of acquired talent onto Mercor's unified payroll architecture.\nWorking cross-functionally, you will collaborate closely with Accounting, People Ops, Finance Systems, Legal, and international payroll partners. This position demands a mix of strategic oversight and hands-on execution-diving deep into operational mechanics, driving swift decision-making within structured framework guidelines, and proactively flagging operational bottlenecks to executive leadership.\nWhat You'll Do\nRun employee payroll cycles across assigned countries, coordinating inputs, validations, approvals, funding deadlines, and provider processing so employees are paid accurately and on time.\n\nReview new hires, departures, compensation changes, bonuses, benefits, deductions, and equity-related payroll inputs with functional owners; investigate exceptions before approval.\n\nReconcile payroll outputs to approved inputs, funding, and accounting records. Partner with Accounting on journals, accruals, balance sheet reconciliations, and month-end close.\n\nMaintain country calendars and evidence of required filings and remittances, working with providers and local advisers to resolve issues and complete year-end activities.\n\nLead payroll workstreams for acquisitions and new-country launches, including data mapping, cutover planning, testing, parallel runs where appropriate, and post-launch reconciliation.\n\nImprove HRIS-to-payroll data flows, approval workflows, and reporting. Deliver scoped implementations and vendor transitions with documented requirements and acceptance criteria.\n\nBuild operating procedures, backup coverage, access controls, and audit evidence, maintaining separate preparation and approval responsibilities for payroll and payments.\n\nResolve employee pay questions clearly and promptly. Track accuracy, on-time delivery, reconciliation aging, and issue resolution, and address recurring causes.\n\nAutomate repeatable checks and reporting using approved tools, with validation, human review, and appropriate protection of employee data.\n\nWhat We're Looking For\n7+ years of progressive payroll experience in high-growth tech startups\n\nHands-on ownership of US payroll and experience delivering payroll in additional countries through local teams or providers.\n\nStrong understanding of payroll processing, reconciliations, statutory deadlines, controls, and year-end reporting, with judgment about when to involve local tax or legal specialists.\n\nExperience delivering a payroll optimization, vendor transition, acquisition integration, or new-country launch from planning through stabilization.\n\nPractical experience with an enterprise HRIS and payroll platform, including data validation, reporting, testing, and troubleshooting. Rippling or comparable systems experience is valuable.\n\nStrong analytical skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage competing deadlines and influence partners without direct authority.\n\nClear communication, sound judgment with confidential information, and willingness to stay close to operational work.\n\nA degree in Accounting, Finance, HR, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.\n\nNice to Have\nEMEA or APAC payroll\n\nEquity or mobility payroll\n\nHourly payroll and timekeeping\n\nCPP or comparable certification\n\nCompensation\nBase cash comp from $160K - $185k\n\nGenerous equity grant vested over 4 years\n\nUp to $15k Relocation bonus\n\n$10K housing bonus (if you live within 0.5 miles of our office)\n\n$1.5K monthly stipend for meals\n\nFree Equinox membership\n\n$200 monthly laundry reimbursement\n\n$200 monthly personal wellness reimbursement\n\nHealth, Dental, Vision insurance\n\n401(k) with company match","description_format":"text","description_chars":5125,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Recruiting & Staffing","Freelance & Talent Marketplaces","AI Training Data & Annotation"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-23T00:56:19Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":2,"expected_fill_days":65,"reasons":["conf:3","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":185000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/mercor-global-payroll-lead","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/mercor-global-payroll-lead.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-25T18:05:09Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":25953,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-26T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":4960},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=4960"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fmercor-global-payroll-lead"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fmercor-global-payroll-lead"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fmercor-global-payroll-lead"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/mercor-global-payroll-lead\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fmercor-global-payroll-lead"}]}