Payroll Specialist in Houston, Texas at UNIFY ENERGY SOLUTIONS LLC

Job Summary

The Payroll Specialist provides vital human resources, benefits, and labor data support to the organization. This role is responsible for overseeing the processing of bi-weekly payroll in coordination with our outsourced payroll provider, ensuring precise timesheet management, administering deductions and employee benefits, and maintaining data integrity within our HRIS. Working directly within the Human Resources department, the Payroll Specialist serves as a primary point of contact for employee inquiries and collaborates closely with the Accounting department to ensure accurate labor allocations and general ledger entries.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Coordinate and oversee bi-weekly payroll runs with our outsourced payroll provider.
• Review, validate, and audit payroll data, including hours worked, deductions, benefits, bonuses, and expense reimbursements.
• Ensure absolute compliance with federal, state, and local payroll and tax regulations.
• Partner with the Accounting department to ensure accurate recording of payroll data, including applicable accruals and labor costing.
• Coordinates the end-of-year processing and distribution of W-2s with the payroll provider.

• Administer and manage employee benefit deductions, garnishments, employee loans, and other authorized withholdings within the HRIS.
• Collaborate closely with the HR team to ensure benefit changes, qualifying life events, and open enrollment updates are accurately reflected in payroll.
• Serve as a primary, high-touch resource for employees regarding payroll discrepancies, tax withholding questions, and benefit deduction inquiries.
• Maintain and audit digital employee records within Paylocity to ensure data integrity and confidentiality.

• Monitor and audit employee timesheets for accuracy, completeness, and timely submission.
• Track and verify accuracy regarding PTO, Vacation, Sick time, Holidays, Bereavement, and other paid/unpaid leave scenarios.
• Work collaboratively with project managers, supervisors, and employees to proactively resolve timesheet discrepancies.

• Ensure employee labor hours are correctly coded to appropriate projects, jobs, and cost centers.
• Collaborate with the project accounting team to reconcile payroll data with job cost reports.
• Support tracking and reporting requirements for multi-state or specialized project environments.

• Prepare recurring and ad-hoc payroll, labor, and compliance reports for internal HR metrics and external audits.
• Maintain the highest level of confidentiality and security for all payroll, medical, and personal employee records.
• Ensure that all payroll-related tax documentation, payments, and agency filings are maintained and compliant on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.

Required Skills & Abilities:

• Strong understanding of payroll administration, multi-state regulations, and outsourced payroll workflows.
• Excellent customer service and communication skills, with a proven ability to handle sensitive employee situations with empathy, respect, and absolute discretion.
• Highly proficient in HRIS platforms (Paylocity experience is highly preferred) and Microsoft Office, particularly Microsoft Excel.
• Familiarity with job costing, labor allocations, or project-based environments.
• Exceptional attention to detail and strong organizational skills.
• Ability to work cohesively within an HR team environment while partnering effectively across departments (Accounting, Operations, etc.).

Education & Experience:

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Accounting, or a related field (or equivalent combination of education and hands-on experience).
• Experience: 3–5 years of dedicated payroll and benefits administration experience, preferably in a construction, engineering, or project-based corporate environment.
• Multi-State Knowledge: Demonstrated familiarity with processing payroll across multiple states with differing tax laws and governances.
• Systems: Experience with ERP systems (Sage experience preferred) and modern HRIS platforms (Paylocity preferred).
• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) or Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC) is a plus.

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.