Total Rewards and Payroll Manager

What you'll do

Giga is hiring a Sr. Manager, Total Rewards & Payroll to be the first dedicated owner of the employee rewards stack: payroll, benefits, compensation, and equity administration. Today, payroll sits inside a busy accounting team, benefits and compensation work is spread across People and Finance, equity administration sits with external counsel, and no single person is accountable for the whole system. You will change that.

You will run payroll end to end for a growing, multi-state workforce: scheduled cycles, off-cycle corrections, per diems, bonuses, deductions, garnishments, and the day-to-day questions that come with hundreds of employees. You will own the controls around it, from pre-close reconciliation and payroll tax coordination with accounting to year-end processing and audit-ready records. You will operationalize benefits, from enrollment and eligibility through employee issues, broker and vendor management, renewals, and utilization, so employees understand and use what Giga offers. And you will administer Giga's compensation, incentive, and equity programs: maintaining salary bands with People leadership, supporting benchmarking, running bonus eligibility, calculations, communications, and payouts with a clean trail, and bringing equity administration in-house, owning grant records, vesting schedules, exercises, and reporting with support from external counsel.

You will not design Giga's compensation philosophy or incentive architecture; those principles stay with company leadership. Your job is to turn them into programs and processes that operate reliably at scale, and to be the first line of defense on pay and rewards questions.

This role works at the center of Giga's People and Finance teams. Payroll execution and controls stay tightly connected to Giga's Controller and accounting team, and benefits direction and the compensation calendar run with People leadership. The reporting home for this role will be confirmed with the selected candidate. Either way, you will own the outcomes below end to end.

In your first 90 days, you will take over the payroll cycle, stabilize the recurring calendar, and document the existing processes, controls, and exceptions. By the end of your first year, Giga should have clean payroll operations, benefits employees understand and use, compensation and equity administration that runs on schedule, and reporting leadership trusts.

Where you'll work

This is a full-time, 100% remote role with no recurring office requirement. You may work from any location in the United States where Giga is able to employ you. You will work with teams across U.S. time zones and occasionally with Giga's international operations, so reliable overlap hours, strong written communication, and clear handoffs matter.

Occasional travel may be required for company onsites or team planning.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end payroll for a multi-state workforce: regular cycles, off-cycle runs, corrections, bonuses, per diems, deductions, and garnishments, with every cycle accurate and on time.
• Maintain payroll controls: reconciliations, variance review, payroll tax registrations and filings with the accounting team, year-end processing, and audit-ready records.
• Own benefits administration: enrollment, eligibility, employee issues, broker and vendor relationships, renewals, and utilization.
• Administer compensation, incentive, and equity programs: maintain salary bands and leveling data with People leadership, support benchmarking, run bonus eligibility, calculations, communications, and payouts, and own day-to-day equity administration (grant records, vesting, exercises, and reporting) with external counsel support.
• Own Giga's payroll and rewards systems and data, including Rippling configuration for payroll and related data, reporting, and the quality of employee and pay records.
• Answer employee payroll and benefits questions with accuracy, urgency, and confidentiality, and fix root causes when the same issues repeat.
• Partner with the Controller and accounting team on payroll accounting, cash funding, and controls, and with People leadership on benefits strategy and the compensation calendar.

Requirements

• Demonstrated end-to-end ownership of payroll for a multi-state workforce, including hands-on processing, corrections, garnishments, and year-end. You have personally run payroll, not just overseen a vendor.
• Strong payroll controls and compliance fundamentals: reconciliations, multi-state tax coordination, approval and segregation rules, year-end processing, and audit-ready records working alongside accounting.
• Working depth in benefits administration: enrollment, eligibility, broker or vendor management, renewals, employee issues, and utilization, not just plan selection.
• Experience administering compensation and equity programs: salary structures or bands, benchmarking support, and bonus or incentive calculations and payouts with a clean audit trail, including day-to-day equity administration (grant records, vesting, exercises, and reporting) with external counsel support.
• Systems fluency with modern payroll and HRIS platforms such as Rippling or comparable tools, including configuration, reporting, and data quality.
• Discretion and judgment with sensitive employee and compensation data, and clear, direct communication with employees, executives, and vendors.

Bonus points

• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) or a comparable payroll certification.
• You have built or rebuilt payroll operations at a scaling company, including taking payroll over from a distributed or part-time model.
• Experience with mixed hourly and salaried workforces, field or project-based teams, or multiple legal entities.
• Hands-on experience with equity administration platforms such as Carta or Shareworks, or comparable cap-table tools.
• Experience in energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, construction, or another physical operating environment.