Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting

We're looking for a

Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting

This role is Hybrid, Costa Rica

Job Title: Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting

Location: Costa Rica

Company Overview:

Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD) is at a critically important juncture in the company’s lifecycle. CSOD is the world’s largest and most successful stand-alone unified Talent Management company and one of the world’s largest SaaS companies. The company is entering a phase of achieving scale and global expansion through continued relentless execution.

The position will be part of Global Shared Services team in Costa Rica

Job Summary:

The Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting will lead a team of 5 payroll accountants (based in Costa Rica & India) responsible for end-to-end payroll accounting across 27 countries, supporting 3,000+ employees (“Cornerstars”). This role owns payroll accounting close activities (postings and accruals), monthly balance sheet reconciliations, and entity-level payroll variance/flux analysis. You will partner closely with Payroll Processing to resolve issues quickly and drive automation to improve accuracy, controls and close efficiency.

Key Responsibilities:

• Team Management: Lead, coach, and develop a team of 5 payroll accounting team members; set priorities, manage capacity, and ensure high-quality outputs across all deliverables
• Payroll accounting & accruals (global scope): Oversee payroll postings and ensure accurate accounting for payroll-related accruals including pensions, bonuses (various plans), and restructuring-related items across 27 countries.
• Month-end close execution: Ensure all payroll accounting entries and related deliverables are completed accurately and on time to meet month-end deadlines.
• Entity-level analysis & flux explanations: Own the entity-level payroll analysis process; support the team in producing balance sheet and income statement flux/variance analysis used by senior finance leadership to understand and explain movements
• Balance sheet reconciliations: Lead the monthly reconciliation process for payroll-related balance sheet accounts, ensuring completeness, accuracy, and appropriate documentation and controls
• Cross-functional issue resolution: Partner with Payroll Processing teams to investigate and resolve payroll accounting questions and discrepancies as they arise, driving timely resolution and clear communication
• Automation & process improvement: Design and implement automation and standardization initiatives for payroll accounting (e.g., improving data flows from ADP/ActivePay into Oracle, templates, controls, and reconciliations) to reduce manual effort and strengthen accuracy and compliance.

• Build relationships: Partner with Talent teams, FP&A & IT to resolve queries, provide intelligent analysis and develop future improvements
• Support internal and external payroll and financial audits : Partner with Accounting and statutory accountants to prepare accurate payroll records, reconciliations and supporting documentation, responding promptly to auditor queries, and ensuring the timely resolution of audit findings.

Qualifications:

• Education:
• Bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, or a related field.
• Registered Private Accountant (CPI)

• Experience:
• 8+ years of progressive experience in payroll accounting, accounting operations, controllership, or close/reconciliation roles within a multi-entity global organization
• Proven experience leading teams (people management and/or strong functional leadership)
• Experience within a multinational, Shared Service Centre (SSC), Global Business Services (GBS) or BPO environment strongly preferred.
  
  
• Skills:
• Strong analytical skills with demonstrated ability to deliver clear, audit-ready reconciliations and variance explanations
• Ability to operate effectively under month-end deadlines and coordinate across time zones and stakeholders.
• Ability to lead and motivate a team.
• Interpersonal skills & strong problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
• Strong knowledge of payroll accounting concepts (wages, taxes, pensions, bonus accruals, and related balance sheet accounts) across multiple countries (US, India, France and Costa Rica are a must)
• Hands-on experience with Oracle, FloQast and payroll systems such as ADP and/or ActivePay (or similar), including leveraging system outputs for journal entries, reconciliations, and analysis
• Strong knowledge of MS office especially Excel, PowerPoint & Outlook.
• Advanced English and good written and verbal communication skills to interact upward and cross functionally are a must
• Must be comfortable operating in a fast-paced global organisation undergoing significant transformation.
• Experience of technology-enabled process improvement

Extra dose of awesome if you have…

• Additional language skills

Our Growing Presence in Costa Rica

Cornerstone is excited to be building a new hub in Costa Rica as part of our continued investment in growing our global talent and capabilities. We are bringing together teams across a variety of functions, creating exciting opportunities for people to join us at the ground floor of this new chapter and help shape how we grow in the region.

We have invested in a new office in Costa Rica, with construction beginning soon, and we expect our presence and capabilities in the region to continue expanding over time. For those joining us now, this is a unique opportunity to help build something from the beginning, work alongside talented colleagues across Cornerstone globally, and be part of our longer-term growth in Costa Rica.

Employment Structure

As we establish our operations in Costa Rica and complete the process to operate under the country’s Free Trade Zone Regime, Cornerstone is partnering with Recluta, our local Employer of Record (EOR).

Our Culture

Spark Greatness. Shatter Boundaries. Share Success. Are you ready? Because here, right now – is where the future of work is happening. Where curious disruptors and change innovators like you are helping communities and customers enable everyone – anywhere – to learn, grow and advance. To be better tomorrow than they are today.

Who We Are:

At Cornerstone, we believe in AI that works in the service of people, amplifying their judgment to drive high-performing, future-ready organizations forward. Cornerstone Workforce AI™, the intelligence platform for workforce readiness, brings together workforce and labor market data into a proprietary Cornerstone People Graph™, translating signals into intelligence, targeting learning where it matters, developing critical skills, and surfacing hidden talent. Delivered as an open, enterprise platform across whatever application your people work in every day, Cornerstone Workforce AI is built for scale, security, and trust, with certified AI guardrails. As an industry leader, Cornerstone is helping approximately 7,000 organizations, 140M+ users, across 186 countries build continuous workforce readiness.

Check us out on LinkedIn, Comparably, Glassdoor, and Facebook!