Senior Payroll & Benefits Associate, Blank Street
Global
$90-110k
+ Equity package
Office located in Brooklyn, NY
Coffee chain
Be an early applicant
Coffee chain
501-1000 employees
Be an early applicant
$90-110k
+ Equity package
Office located in Brooklyn, NY
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To become the defining food and beverage brands of our generation.
Role
Who you are
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Payroll, HR, or a related field
- 2–3 years of hands-on payroll experience, covering the US and exposure to the UK in a multi-entity or fast-growth environment (retail, hospitality, or multi-site businesses preferred)
- Payroll-related qualifications or training (e.g., CIPP, FPC/CPP, or equivalent) preferred but not required
- Strong understanding of payroll fundamentals, including statutory deductions, benefits, employment taxes, and payroll controls
- Experience working with payroll systems, HRIS platforms and Time Tracking systems (e.g., ADP, Deel, Gusto, Workday, Rippling, or similar), and coordinating with external payroll providers
- Comfortable partnering with Finance and Accounting on payroll-to-GL reconciliation and month-end close processes
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel (e.g., VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, PivotTables, basic reconciliations)
- Ability to identify payroll issues, research jurisdiction-specific requirements, and clearly communicate solutions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Ability to work independently, own payroll timelines and deliverables, and proactively escalate risks or issues
- Approaches work with a team-first, service-oriented mindset, understanding the importance of discretion, accuracy, and cross-functional collaboration when handling sensitive employee data
What the job involves
- Blank Street is seeking a detail-oriented Payroll & Benefits Specialist to own and scale our U.S. payroll operations while supporting our growing global business
- You’ll own end-to-end U.S. payroll for our exempt and non-exempt workforce, ensuring payroll is accurate, timely, and compliant across the jurisdictions where we operate
- You’ll manage the full payroll cycle, including payroll processing, reconciliations, statutory requirements, audits, and compliance, while partnering closely with our Finance & Accounting, People, and Operations teams
- You’ll also support U.K. payroll, working alongside our internal teams and external payroll partners, with the opportunity to take on greater ownership as you build familiarity with the market and the role evolves
- In addition to payroll, you’ll support U.S. benefits administration where it intersects with payroll, audits, and compliance, partnering closely with the Finance and People Team to ensure employee deductions, contributions, and benefit-related payroll processes are accurate and well controlled
- Over time, there may be opportunities to expand your benefits responsibilities across both the U.S. and U.K
- This is a hands-on, execution-focused role for someone who takes pride in precision, consistency, and getting the details right
- You’ll work across weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly payroll cycles while helping strengthen our processes, reduce risk, and build a payroll operation that can scale with Blank Street
- Prepare and ensure timely, accurate, and compliant payroll processing across global entities (US, UK), in line with local employment, tax, and statutory requirements for monthly weekly, and bi-weekly payroll cycles
- Manage the day-to-day administration of benefits, pension, and 401(k) plans, including vendor coordination, enrollments, and compliance
- Own payroll period-end activities, including payroll reconciliations, review of payroll journals, variance analysis, and clean handoff of payroll data into the general ledger and month-end close
- Perform ad-hoc payroll research and analysis, pulling data from payroll systems, HRIS platforms, and finance systems to support audits, reviews, employee queries, and management requests
- Research, calculate, and document payroll-related judgments and estimates, including bonuses, commissions, benefits-in-kind, terminations, and statutory accruals across jurisdictions
- Provide day-to-day operational payroll support, including reviewing payroll inputs, resolving employee and vendor queries, and ensuring timely and accurate payments to employees, tax authorities, and benefits providers in accordance with statutory deadlines and company policies
- Develop, document, and maintain payroll policies, procedures, and internal controls, ensuring consistency, audit readiness, and compliance across all regions
- Liaise with internal teams and external payroll providers to support timely preparation and submission of payroll-related filings and remittances, including PAYE/RTI, US federal and state payroll taxes, social security, pensions, and other statutory contributions across jurisdictions
- Be the point of contact for payroll related audit inquires, including but not limited to the corporate financial audit, US 401(k) audit, workers compensation audits, as well as HMRC related inquiries
- Proactively evaluate and implement improvements to payroll processes and systems, including automation, controls enhancement, and vendor management, to support scale and reduce operational risk
- Collaborate with People teams to ensure that payroll and HR master data is kept up to date and in-sync between various financial systems
- Reporting to the Director of Finance
Our take
More people deserve great coffee and Blank Street strives to make this possible. Blank Street’s formula involves technology enabled, micro-footprint brick-and-mortar spaces which operate at a cheap price meaning they can produce excellent coffee, also, at a reasonable price.
What started as one electric-powered coffee cart in 2020 has expanded to over 90 locations across the US and the UK. Blank Street wants to serve coffee cheaper than Starbucks but tastier than Dunkin’ Donuts – its main competitors – and has done so with automation, specifically Eversys espresso makers that can produce 700 drinks an hour.
The chain has received mighty financing too, including from real estate tycoon Tishman Speyer as well as from General Catalyst Partners and Tiger Global Management. This brand is certainly making its mark as its growth has remained at an impressive rate, especially following its entrance into the thriving coffee shop market in the UK.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
11% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Mar 2023
$20m
EARLY VC
Oct 2021
$25m
SERIES A
Total funding: $52m
Company HQ
South Williamsburg, NY
Leadership
Issam Freiha
(Co-Founder & CEO)Issam co-founded Blank Street in 2020 alongside Vinay. Previously, he was a Partner at Reshape Ventures and Graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Economics & Statistics.
Vinay Menda
(Co-Founder & President)Vinay graduated from NYU Stern School of Business with a Bachelor's Degree in Finance in 2015. And he is currently a Managing Partner at Reshape Ventures.
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