Payroll Specialist (ANZ)

About Rippling

Rippling gives businesses one place to run HR, IT, and Finance. It brings together all of the workforce systems that are normally scattered across a company, like payroll, expenses, benefits, and computers. For the first time ever, you can manage and automate every part of the employee lifecycle in a single system.

Take onboarding, for example. With Rippling, you can hire a new employee anywhere in the world and set up their payroll, corporate card, computer, benefits, and even third-party apps like Slack and Microsoft 365—all within 90 seconds.

Based in San Francisco, CA, Rippling has raised $1.85 from the world’s top investors—including Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Sequoia, Greenoaks, and Bedrock—and was named one of America's best startup employers by Forbes.

We prioritise candidate safety. Please be aware that all official communication will only be sent from @Rippling.com addresses.

About the role
Rippling is continuing to scale its Global Payroll product in New Zealand. While product enhancements are being delivered to meet updated NZ compliance specifications (targeted for 2028), we are establishing a dedicated compliance oversight service for Rippling customers.
We’re looking for an experienced ANZ Payroll Compliance Specialist to oversee and mitigate compliance risk for clients using the Rippling Global Payroll product, with a primary focus in New Zealand.
In this role, you will act as a controlled compliance layer between customer payroll preparation and final payroll processing. You will provide hands-on payroll review, perform manual calculations where required, validate system outputs, and ensure adherence to NZ legislative requirements including the Holidays Act 2003, KiwiSaver, PAYE, ESCT, and leave entitlements.
This role is ideal for a payroll professional with New Zealand expertise. You will have extensive experience and understanding of the NZ Holidays Act and be comfortable working directly with customers while partnering internally with Product and Compliance to reduce risk and improve long-term scalability.

What you will do
Payroll compliance oversight
Review payroll changes submitted by NZ customers prior to processing
Identify impacted records, including terminations, unpaid leave, parental leave, public holidays, excess hours, and leave spanning pay periods
Validate and manually calculate where required:
Termination payments (including annual leave and final pay components)
KiwiSaver deductions, including excess hours and termination payments
PAYE overrides on termination runs
ESCT rate selection at implementation and tax year rollover (1 April)

Apply and document overrides where required
Provide documented approval summaries prior to payroll finalisation
Holidays Act & leave governance
Review Annual Leave rate calculations, including OWP, AWE, and identification of OWP-4 gaps
Manually calculate annual leave rates where:
Unpaid leave has occurred
Parental leave has occurred
Leave spans multiple pay periods
OWP-4 calculations are required

Oversee legislated and custom paid leave:
For leave covered under RDP and ADP rate calculations, assess system-generated values and override where required
For hourly staff, manually add leave taken into the pay run where it does not flow automatically

Manage and monitor:
Sick leave anniversary policies to prevent over-entitlement
Casual employee 8% pay-as-you-go compliance
Public holiday eligibility and alternative holiday accrual and balances

Customer communication & risk management
Communicate identified compliance risks to customers clearly and proactively
Document manual overrides and calculation methodology for audit defensibility
Support escalation resolution where compliance errors occur
Act as the compliance point of contact for assigned customers, under oversight of the NZ Compliance Lead
Reporting & process improvement
Extract payroll data and perform compliance checks using Excel and manual analysis
Identify repeat friction points and systemic risks across customer cohorts
Partner with Product and Engineering to:
Document compliance gaps
Recommend reporting improvements
Improve visibility into payroll changes requiring review

Contribute to a structured mitigation framework to ensure audit readiness until product resolution
Other tasks as required
What you will need
Payroll expertise
5+ years of hands-on NZ payroll experience
Demonstrated knowledge of:
Holidays Act 2003 calculations (OWP, AWE, termination payments, OWP-4)
KiwiSaver (including ESCT treatment)
PAYE treatment on termination
Leave entitlement policy design and anniversary management

Demonstrated experience performing manual termination calculations
Experience reviewing and overriding payroll outputs
Compliance & analytical skills
Strong ability to identify regulatory risk in payroll outputs
High attention to detail and comfort working with manual calculations
Advanced Excel capability for data extraction and validation
Ability to document methodology clearly for audit purposes
Collaboration & communication
Experienced and confident working directly with customers in a compliance-facing capacity
Ability to explain complex Holidays Act and payroll concepts clearly
Experience partnering cross-functionally with Compliance, Product, and Engineering
Strong sense of ownership and accountability for assigned customer risk
Success measures
Zero regulatory breaches across assigned GP customers
Reduction in payroll-related escalations
Clear and consistent documentation of manual interventions
Established and maintained audit-ready mitigation framework through product resolution
Improved reporting visibility and reduction in repeat manual corrections over time
Customer feedback and CSAT
Additional Information
Rippling is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, or any other legally protected characteristics, Rippling is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities who need assistance during the hiring process. To request a reasonable accommodation, please email accomodations@rippling.com