Payroll Tax Supervisor

Overview

Who We Are:

Crowley is a privately held, U.S.-owned and operated company serving the maritime, logistics and energy industries with scale in 36 nations and island territories. Our Purpose is to bravely advance what’s possible to elevate people and planet, guided by our values of Integrity, Sustainability and Drive.

With more than $3 billion in annual revenue, our solutions provide integrated supply chains with a commitment to safety and reliability in our ocean and land transportation services and facilities.

We set high standards, operate with discipline, and continuously improve how we work. Performance, operational excellence and innovation drive how we compete, grow and deliver to our customers and partners.

Work Arrangement:

Hybrid

What You'll Do:

The Supervisor, Payroll Tax is a key operational leader responsible for overseeing accurate, timely, and compliant payroll tax administration and ensuring a strong control environment across payroll tax operations. This role provides hands-on leadership to the payroll tax team, serves as an escalation point for complex payroll tax matters, and is accountable for ensuring payroll tax data, reconciliations, validations, agency correspondence, and vendor-managed filing and payment activities are appropriately monitored and completed. The Supervisor is expected to bring strong payroll tax knowledge, sound judgment, attention to detail, and a high level of ownership. This position plays a critical role in identifying and mitigating payroll tax risk, investigating discrepancies, resolving agency notices, overseeing third-party tax service delivery, and ensuring appropriate corrective actions are implemented. The role requires a leader who understands that payroll tax is a financially sensitive and highly regulated function where accuracy, timeliness, compliance, controls, communication, and accountability are equally important.

Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead by example and establish clear expectations for accuracy, accountability, professionalism, and adherence to payroll tax procedures and controls.
• Provide coaching, performance feedback, and development while holding team members accountable for individual and team results.
• Oversee payroll tax operations, including validation and reconciliation of tax data, monitoring of vendor-managed filings and payments, amendments, agency notices, and year-end reporting.
• Review and validate payroll tax filings, reconciliations, tax liabilities, amendments, and year-end reporting to identify discrepancies and ensure accuracy.
• Monitor third-party tax service delivery, including ADP Smart Compliance activity, filing status, payment activity, exceptions, and required follow-up.
• Serve as an escalation point for complex payroll tax issues; investigate discrepancies, identify root causes, and coordinate appropriate corrective actions with internal partners and external providers.
• Maintain sound judgment during high-risk or time-sensitive tax matters and ensure compliance risks, errors, penalties, or control failures are escalated and addressed with transparency and urgency.
• Partner with Payroll, Human Resources, Finance, Benefits, HRIS, Treasury, external tax providers, and government agencies to resolve payroll tax matters and support business initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen controls, reduce compliance risk, improve vendor oversight, streamline processes, and increase payroll tax efficiency.
• Support payroll tax system enhancements, testing, audits, year-end activities, and maintenance of payroll tax procedures and training materials.

Qualifications

Experience:

Required

• 5+ years of progressive payroll tax experience, including hands-on experience supporting complex, multi-state payroll tax operations.
• Minimum 3 years of direct people leadership or payroll tax supervisory experience.
• Strong working knowledge of federal, state, and local payroll tax requirements and related tax forms, including Forms 941, 940, W-2/W-3, W-2C/W-3C, and applicable state and local withholding and unemployment filings.
• Demonstrated experience reviewing and validating payroll tax filings, tax liabilities, reconciliations, amendments, taxable wages, and year-end reporting.
• Experience overseeing third-party payroll tax filing and payment services, including monitoring filing status, payment activity, exceptions, agency notices, and required corrective actions.
• Demonstrated experience researching payroll tax discrepancies, resolving agency notices and filing issues, and coordinating resolution with tax providers and internal business partners.
• Experience supporting high-volume and/or multi-state payroll tax environments.
• Demonstrated ability to perform root-cause analysis, identify compliance or control risks, and implement sustainable corrective actions.

Preferred

• Experience with ADP Smart Compliance, Oracle Cloud Payroll, or comparable enterprise payroll and tax platforms.
• Experience supporting complex organizational structures, multiple legal entities, multi-state taxation, or geographically dispersed employee populations.
• CPP certification or equivalent payroll certification.
• Experience supporting payroll tax implementations, integrations, acquisitions, legal entity changes, tax registrations, automation, or process improvement initiatives.

Education & Credentials:

Associate's degree in business, accounting, finance, or related field; or a combination of post-high school education and equivalent experience may be substituted for education. Bachelor's degree preferred.

Technical Skills:

Proficient with Microsoft Office products, including Excel, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint. Strong working knowledge of payroll tax systems, reporting tools, payroll tax reconciliation processes, federal, state, and local payroll tax requirements, and third-party tax filing and payment services.

Competencies:

Leadership and Accountability: Sets clear expectations, provides coaching and feedback, develops team members, and holds individuals accountable for performance and adherence to payroll tax procedures and controls.

Payroll Tax Knowledge and Compliance: Demonstrates strong knowledge of federal, state, and local payroll taxation, tax forms and filing requirements, payroll tax reconciliation, year-end reporting, and vendor-managed filing and payment processes.

Controls, Risk, and Judgment: Understands the importance of payroll tax controls, identifies compliance and financial risks, exercises sound judgment, and escalates issues appropriately.

Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills: Analyzes payroll tax discrepancies, agency notices, reconciliation issues, and filing exceptions; identifies root causes and develops effective and sustainable resolutions.

Communication and Service Orientation: Provides clear, professional, timely, and accurate communication and follow-through with employees, business partners, government agencies, and external tax providers.

Collaboration and Relationship Management: Builds effective partnerships across Payroll, Human Resources, Finance, Benefits, HRIS, Treasury, external providers, and government agencies.

Organization and Continuous Improvement: Effectively manages competing deadlines and compliance requirements while identifying opportunities to strengthen controls, improve processes, reduce risk, and increase efficiency.

What We Offer?

We inspire top talent by offering a comprehensive and competitive package that supports the diverse needs of our people—on land, at sea, in offices, and remotely.

Our Total Rewards include:

• Competitive pay with recognition programs
• Comprehensive benefits: medical, dental, and vision insurance, life and disability coverage, and paid vacation and holidays
• Leave and family support: parental leave and sick leave
• Learning and growth: access to training and development for continuous skill development
• Well-being resources: Employee Assistance Program, wellness program, and gym membership discounts

At Crowley, we invest in you—your success, your health, and your future.