HR & Payroll Specialist (Accounting Tech III)

Salary: $35.72 - $41.59 Hourly
Location : Seattle, WA
Job Type: Classified Civil Service, Regular, Full-Time
Remote Employment: Flexible/Hybrid
Job Number: 2025-00224
Department: Seattle Municipal Court
Opening Date: 02/11/2025
Closing Date: 2/25/2025 4:00 PM Pacific
Language Premium: No

Position Description
The City of Seattle's Municipal Court's (SMC) mission is to provide a forum for people to resolve alleged violations of the law in a respectful, independent, and impartial manner. The Court is dedicated to advancing social justice issues by supporting personal, structural, and systemic change in our community, and building a diverse workforce. The Court works collaboratively to realize the City's vision of racial equity by participating in the City of Seattle's Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI). Candidates with the ability to effectively collaborate with multicultural communities are encouraged to apply.

The Court aims to hire people committed to being respectful and impartial when addressing customer issues, thereby ensuring the public's trust and confidence in the judicial system.

SMC is seeking an experienced and customer-focused HR Accounting Tech III, to provide payroll support for the Court's dynamic HR team. This position will perform a variety of payroll-related duties, including processing payroll, maintaining accurate payroll records, addressing employee timekeeping needs, and ensuring compliance with payroll regulations. Additionally, they will support accounts receivable, accounts payable, and reconciliation tasks as needed. As the Accounting Tech Lead for SMC HR, this role will also be partnered closely with our finance team to ensure accurate monthly reporting. This is a crucial role on a high-performing team that values collaboration, accountability, and a commitment to excellence.
You will be most successful in this role if you are:

Experienced in:

• Processing and auditing all payroll related activities, including calculating wages, deductions, and benefits administration, with a focus on accuracy and timeliness.
• Using Workday for data entry, payroll processing, and reporting, as well as familiarity with PeopleSoft for reconciling payroll and financial data.
• Using Excel for payroll-related calculations, data analysis, and reporting to manage payroll data.
• Investigating and resolving payroll discrepancies, effectively managing employee inquiries related to pay, deductions, or benefits.
• Calculating and processing retroactive employee payments.

Committed to:

• Advancing equity, social justice, diversity, and inclusion goals within the payroll and HR processes.
• Staying up-to-date with changes and amendments to payroll as it relates CBA agreements and current SMC and City of Seattle policies.

Skilled in:

• Organizing and processing payroll data efficiently and accurately, ensuring timely reporting or meeting deadlines for all payroll activities.
• Analyzing payroll data and preparing accurate reports for internal and external stakeholders.
• Using tools like OneNote, Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Adobe Sign to support payroll and administrative functions.
• Participating in all other relevant HR activities such as the onboarding of new employees.

Ability to:

• Communicate clearly and professionally, both written and oral, with employees and management regarding all payroll and relevant accounting activities.
• Work independently and maintain meticulous attention to detail, ensuring timely and accurate payroll processing.
• Demonstrate problem-solving skills when addressing payroll discrepancies or employee inquiries.
• Manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines while maintaining a high level of accuracy and professionalism.

Job Responsibilities
Payroll Processing and Administration

• Use Workday to process accurate and timely payroll for all employees, ensuring correct deductions, benefits.
• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local payroll laws and regulations, performing regular audits to maintain accuracy.
• Handle payroll-related inquiries from employees, resolve discrepancies, and provide guidance on payroll matters, including earnings, deductions, and benefits.
• Process costing allocation and organizational changes in Workday, ensuring data is accurate for payroll processing.

• Process retroactive payments adjustments.
• Process sick leave transfers.
• Process union dues, parking, and other relevant deductions.
• Verify cash-outs for sick, vacation, and compensatory time upon employee departure.

Payroll Reporting and Reconciliation

• Regularly generate payroll reports from Workday to ensure alignment with PeopleSoft data to reconcile any discrepancies each payroll cycle.
• Audit timesheets each pay period for compliance and accuracy with employee earnings, deductions, and benefits.
• Assist in preparing payroll reports for internal and external audits, ensuring all payroll records are accurate and compliant with regulations.
• Support the maintenance of historical payroll records and reports, ensuring they are properly archived in accordance with retention policies

General HR Administrative & Compliance Support

• Assist with payroll-related projects, tasks, and confidential payroll matters.
• Maintain HR communication materials, including employee payroll-related documents, ensuring they are updated and accurate.
• Collaborate with the HR team to ensure accurate record-keeping and up-to-date payroll information in Workday and related systems.
• Attend BRAG and SPHRUG meetings on behalf of the SMC HR team.

Records/Access Management

• Maintain and archive payroll records in compliance with City and Court retention policies, ensuring all data is kept confidential and secure.

Recruitment and Onboarding Support

• Assist with the payroll-related aspects of recruitment and onboarding, ensuring new hires are accurately entered into Workday for payroll processing.
• Update and maintain records for payroll-related recruitment activities and ensure new employee records are prepared for payroll entry.

Please note this job advertisement is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job.

Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
Requires three years of accounting/bookkeeping experience

Or

One year of work experience as an Accounting Technician II

Or

A combination of education/training/experience which provides an equivalent background needed to perform the job successfully).

Additional Information
Why Work at the City

The recognizes every City employee must play a role in ending institutional and structural racism. Our culture is the result of our behavior, our personal commitments, and the ways that we courageously share our perspectives and encourage others to do the same. To culture, we seek employees who will engage in dismantling racist policies and procedures, unlearn the way things have always been done, and create and provide equitable processes and services.

Work Environment
This position offers the flexibility of a hybrid work schedule.

Salary
This position is part of the 5-Step Compensation program. The full salary range for this position is $35.72(Step 1) - $41.59(Step 5) per hour.

Benefits

The City of Seattle offers a comprehensive benefits package including vacation, holiday, and sick leave as well as medical, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance for employees and their dependents. More information about employee benefits is available on the City's website at:

For more information on the Seattle Municipal Court, visit

Hiring Process
Qualified candidates must submit the following to be considered. Your application will not be reviewed if any of these items are missing or incomplete.

Completed NEOGOV online application.

Supplemental questionnaire responses.

Cover letter describing how your skills and experience align with the stated job responsibilities and qualifications.

Current resume indicating relevant experience and education.

Additional Information:

• A job offer is contingent upon successfully passing the court's background check. The background check includes a criminal history background review, fingerprinting and reference checks
• This is a full-time position, working 40 hours per week; it is Civil Service and non-exempt from overtime.
• For more information on the Seattle Municipal Court, visit

The City of Seattle offers a comprehensive benefits package including vacation, holiday and sick leave as well as medical, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance for employees and their dependents.

More information about employee benefits is available on the City's website at:
01

How many years experience do you have in accounting or payroll?

• None
• Less than 1 Year
• Less than 2 Years
• More than 2 Years

02

Which of the following best describes your level of Excel ability?

• Beginner: Can enter data, use simple functions like SUM, and organize information in tables. Can sort and filter data, and create basic summaries with Pivot Tables.
• Intermediate: Can use formulas like VLOOKUP, IF, and COUNTIF to check and calculate data. Can make reports with Pivot Tables, set rules for data entry, and automate tasks.
• Advanced: Can use complex formulas like INDEX/MATCH and create custom macros to automate work and create reports. Skilled in combining data from different sources, creating detailed dashboards, and troubleshooting errors.

03

What is your level of experience in analyzing and creating reports?

• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced

04

Please describe your level of experience in a payroll/accounting environment
Required Question