Senior Accountant - Payroll

As a member of the ShipBob Team, you will... 

• Grow with an Ownership Mindset: We champion continuous learning and innovation. You'll take on real problems, create tangible solutions, and drive results that move the needle for ShipBob, our merchants, and for your own professional growth. If you're ready to do the most meaningful work of your career, this is the place. 
• Collaborate with Peers and Leaders Alike: At ShipBob, leaders are accessible; feedback flows in both directions, and everyone, regardless of their seniority or role, steps up to help when needed. We hold each other to high standards because we trust each other to meet them. That combination of transparency and mutual respect is what makes the work here feel worth doing. 
• Experience a High-Performance Culture and Clear Purpose: We are results-driven and clear about what that means: our goals are specific, accountability is shared, and every team member can see how their work connects to our mission. When we hit milestones, we celebrate them together. When we fall short, we learn and move forward. 

Role Description: 

The Senior Accountant is a key member of ShipBob’s Accounting team, responsible for ensuring the accuracy, integrity, and timeliness of all payroll-related accounting activities across our global operations. In this role, you will own end-to-end payroll accounting processes – from journal entry preparation and balance sheet reconciliations to audit support and cross-functional collaboration – playing a critical part in ShipBob’s financial close cycle and internal control environment. This is a highly visible role operating at the intersection of Accounting, Payroll Operations, HR, and Finance, requiring both technical accounting expertise and the ability to work effectively across teams and geographies. This role reports to the Senior Accounting Manager – GL, with a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Global Payroll Manager. 

What you’ll do: 

• Prepare, record, and review global payroll journal entries; own all payroll accruals (PTO, bonuses, commissions, equity impacts, and statutory employer costs) ensuring accuracy and alignment with GAAP. 

• Perform monthly balance sheet reconciliations for payroll, benefits, taxes, and bonus liabilities; identify and resolve variances between payroll results and GL accounts. 

• Prepare monthly financial statement flux analysis and variance commentary for payroll-related accounts, providing clear explanations of period-over-period changes to Finance and senior leadership. 

• Maintain the global accounting payroll close checklist, coordinating with Payroll Operations, Finance, HR, and regional partners; ensure timely/accurate booking of entries for temporary labor, contractors, and agency workers. 

• Serve as a key resource for global financial audits (internal, external, and statutory), owning all payroll accounting-related schedules, documentation, and walkthrough narratives; support SOX readiness and pre-IPO compliance efforts. 

• Assist with payroll tax reconciliations including quarterly and annual filings; support W-2 and global statutory year-end reporting; validate tax setups, withholding rules, and GL account mappings. 

• Work with international payroll providers to ensure reporting feeds are complete and timely; standardize accounting processes across US, India, Australia, UK, Spain, and future expansion countries. 

• Partner with HR, FP&A, Total Rewards, AP, and Legal on compensation changes, benefits updates, and regulatory impacts; act as a subject-matter resource for payroll accounting questions across the organization. 

• Build and maintain formal process documentation, reconciliation schedules, and controls; identify opportunities to streamline and automate payroll-to-GL integrations and reporting workflows. 

• Support special projects including system implementations, integrations, acquisitions, and country expansions. 

• Other duties/responsibilities as necessary. 

What you’ll bring to the table: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance required; CPA or active CPA candidacy highly preferred. 

• 3–5+ years of progressive accounting experience, with at least 2 years focused on payroll accounting or compensation accounting within a multi-entity or global organization. 

• Sound working knowledge of GAAP (accruals, compensation expense recognition, payroll-related liabilities) and experience with ERP systems such as NetSuite, SAP, or Oracle. 

• Hands-on experience with payroll platforms and third-party providers (ADP, Deel, or equivalent); intermediate-to-advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, XLOOKUP, reconciliation modeling). 

• Demonstrated experience supporting financial audits and SOX compliance, including internal controls documentation, testing, and audit deliverable preparation. 

• Familiarity with multi-jurisdiction payroll tax compliance (federal, state, and international); exposure to international statutory reporting (UK, Australia, India, Spain) is a plus. 

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with exceptional attention to detail; excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage competing priorities during high-volume close periods. 

• Collaborative team player with written and verbal communication skills; comfortable operating in a fast-paced, high-growth environment with a continuous improvement mindset. 

ShipBob believes in transparency while providing a competitive total compensation package with a pay for performance approach. We are targeting a salary range of $84,000 - $114,000 for this role. The full base pay range for this position in our compensation architecture is $77,775 - $129,625. In addition to base salary, this role includes the opportunity to be eligible for participation in the Company's discretionary bonus plan based on Company's plans and in accordance with Company’s policies. 

We recognize that people come with a wealth of experience and talent beyond just the technical requirements of a job. If your experience is close to what you see listed here, please still consider applying. Diversity of experience and skills combined with passion is a key to innovation and excellence; therefore, we encourage people from all backgrounds to apply to our positions. 

About You: 

Building the world’s leading full-stack fulfillment platform is challenging work. The problems we solve are complex, the pace is fast, and the bar is high. That means ShipBob’s environment isn’t the right fit for everyone, and that’s okay. If you are ready to take ownership, push boundaries, and grow alongside a team that genuinely supports each other, we would love to hear from you. 

Learn more about our core values and how we perform at a high level in our day-to-day work on our Culture page (https://www.shipbob.com/careers/culture/). 

About Us:  

ShipBob is a leading global supply chain and fulfillment technology platform designed for SMB and Mid-Market ecommerce merchants to provide them access to best-in-class capabilities and to deliver a delightful shopper experience. Merchants can outsource their entire fulfillment operations, utilize ShipBob’s proprietary warehouse management system for in-house fulfillment, or take advantage of a hybrid solution across ShipBob’s dozens of fulfillment center network in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. ShipBob is backed by leading investors like Menlo Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and is one of the fastest-growing tech companies headquartered in Chicago. 

At ShipBob, every full-time employee gets access to our best-in-class AI and productivity tools from Day 1 at no cost. This isn't a pilot or a perk for select teams. It's standard for everyone. We believe innovation isn't owned by one department. Whether you're in Talent, Operations, Finance, Engineering, or Customer Success, we expect you to ask: how can this be done better, faster, or smarter? These tools are our investment in your ability to find those answers.

We may use AI-powered tools during our interview process to support things like notetaking and organizing feedback so our teams can stay focused on getting to know you. These tools help create a more consistent and thoughtful experience. That said, every hiring decision is made by a human.

ShipBob provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. 
 
This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. 

There is no deadline to apply for this position, as ShipBob accepts applications on an ongoing basis.