Senior Payroll Specialist (Canada)

✨ One platform, a whole world of opportunity

Right now, the best jobs are limited to people in a handful of the world’s wealthiest cities, yet brilliant people are everywhere. Driven to overturn the status quo and distribute opportunities equally around the world, Oyster launched its global employment platform to help companies hire, pay, and care for talent anywhere.

When it comes to global employment, we walk the walk. We’re proof that companies don't need an office to create a highly-engaged culture. Since the company’s inception in January 2020, Oyster has:

Our momentum speaks to the power of global employment—and we’re just getting started! If you want to change the world with Oyster and be empowered to work remotely while doing so, we’d love for you to apply!

Location: While this position is posted in a specific location, all of Oyster’s positions are fully remote and you can work from home. Forever. To create the best experience for our new hire (you?!) this role does require you to be based EST +/- 4 hours time zone.

To support its rapid growth, Oyster is looking for a talented Canada Sr. Payroll Specialist to join our Payroll Operations team. In this senior role, you will be referred to as the “expert” for anything and everything payroll-related in Canada. This is an opportunity to be at the forefront of the future of work.

What you'll do…

• Maintain professional knowledge of all Canada payroll legislative changes
• Process payroll for all internal/external & exempt/non-exempt Canada employees, ensuring accuracy and compliance with all federal and provincial regulations
• Calculate and process deductions, such as taxes (federal & provincial), benefits, and garnishments
• Review and reconcile payroll data, including employee salaries, vacation pay, and overtime
• Work closely with HRBP team members to manage enhancements to processes and legislation
• Respond to employee inquiries related to payroll, benefits, and deductions
• Receive approval from upper management for payments/off-cycles when needed
• Maintain accurate payroll records and ensure timely reporting to government agencies
• Formatting of payroll file upload to Alteryx & NetSuite
• Creating/maintaining payroll processes and procedures
• Ensure 100% of team members are paid timely
• Conducting pre-payroll audits and checks
• Assist with special payroll projects and initiatives as assigned

What We're looking for :

• 5+ years of Canada payroll experience and knowledge that will include, but is not limited to;
  • Knowledge of federal & provincial payroll regulations and guidelines
  • Country-specific taxation and compliance (eg. with regards to taxation of benefits, expenses, income taxes, etc,)
  • Country-specific regulatory payroll filing requirements (federal & provincial)
  • Country-specific payroll nuances (federal & provincial)
  • Experience/understanding of the laws and legislation in Canada, specifically around income taxation, various tax rates, benefits, expenses
  • Experience working with the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency), provincial EHT organizations, RQ (Revenue Quebec),
• Payroll reporting experience will include, but is not limited to;
  • Gross-to-net reports
  • Payroll control summaries
  • Employer cost summaries by payroll component
  • Payslips/Tax Declarations
  • Payment files
  • Experience of reconciling, at high volumes, the key payroll reports stated above

• Proven experience working cross-functionally with Finance, Accounting and Treasury departments
• Proven experience in improving payroll processes, examples:
  • Facilitation of payroll input data to and from third-party vendors
  • Management and organization of payroll changes and cutoff controls
  • Improvement in third-party vendor management

• Data transformation and analytics experience that includes but is not limited to:
  • The ability to manipulate and analyze data rapidly whilst maintaining the quality and integrity of data
  • Confidence utilizing data tools such as Excel and Google Sheets and basic data transformation applications such as Power Pivot
  • Confidence with Excel formulas, such as INDEX MATCH, VLOOKUPS, PIVOT TABLE
  • The ability to transform various software output reports into uniform template files (eg. csv files)
• Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from management, vendors, and team members
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to develop and maintain an organized structure
• Ability to work collaboratively in a distributed environment where adaptability is imperative
• Accurate with a strong attention to detail
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• [Bonus] Alteryx & NetSuite experience
• [Bonus] Experience with payroll operations in other countries

You'll also need...

• A reliable home internet connection (or be able to get one)
• Fluent English - required
• Fluent French - (nice to have)

🦪 How we work together at Oyster

Our values guide the work we do, the decisions we make, and the culture that makes us special. We elevate talent. 🙌 We build trust. 🤝 We thrive together. 🌍

Our mission is to create a more equal world—one global hire at a time. Everything we do ladders up to our mission—and that doesn’t just mean building software. We develop programs, participate in workshops, and create dedicated teams to ensure we successfully support companies and knowledge workers in this new world of work.

We embrace asynchronous communication and collaborative work—and we share how we work in the Oyster Public HQ —to help other global teams learn from our experiences.

💌 How YOU work

Different countries have different statutory benefits, different cultures have different norms, and different people have different needs! In order to best support and encourage our diverse team, we’ve created How YOU Work; a program of policies, practices, and perks to support your whole human experience as an employee at Oyster.

• Work from anywhere: Oyster is a borderless, HQ-less company. As long as your work gets done on time, your team has the support they need, and you're authorized to work where you live, the world is truly your Oyster.
• Paid time off: We’re all about taking breaks—we all need it. Oyster provides employees with 40 days off each year, which includes public/bank holidays and vacation/holiday leave (unless your country mandates more).
• Mental health support: We consider your mental health a top priority. We offer access to Plumm, a mental well-being service, to support your mental health.
• Wellbeing allowance: Each month, Oyster will top up your ThanksBen wallet with a wellbeing allowance. You can get pretty much anything that your heart desires! ThanksBen offers a wide array of options for spending your wellbeing allowance. Check out their benefits catalogue here for inspiration.
• Flexible parental leave: Families are created in lots of different ways. Our parental leave policy applies to all employees who are becoming parents, regardless of how they become a parent. Oysters are eligible for a minimum of three months of paid parental leave and your job will be held for 12 months (or longer if required by local jurisdiction).
• WFH stipend: $3000 stipend to spend on your laptop and any other equipment you need for your home office; we'll get you up and running in no time!

✨ The best jobs should be available to everyone

At Oyster, we celebrate a variety of perspectives and experiences and we’ve intentionally built our product and our company with an inclusive, global mindset. We know from experience that people from underrepresented groups often don’t apply for roles they don’t feel they meet all the criteria for. We’re committed to elevating talent by creating a trust-based environment where we can all thrive together. So if you think you have what it takes, but don’t necessarily check every single box, please consider applying. We’d love to hear how you might contribute to our mission and our team.

Oyster is committed to ensuring equal opportunity of employment for qualified persons with disabilities and actively fosters an inclusive work environment. If you require reasonable accommodations throughout the recruiting process, please email [email protected] with the subject line: Interview Accommodations.

Our available positions are published on our careers page and should you be invited to interview with us, our recruitment team will only ever contact you directly from an @oysterhr.com email address. We will never ask you to send us money as part of a job offer. If you receive a suspicious email relating to opportunities at Oyster from any other email domain where someone is claiming to be a part of our recruitment team, or are directed to anywhere other than www.oysterhr.com/careers to view our available jobs we encourage you to submit a report through our Compliance and Ethics Helpline.