Payroll Specialist, KAYAK
$70-80k
This role is eligible to be considered for an annual bonus
3 days a week in office (Cambridge, MA )
Travel search engine
Be an early applicant
Travel search engine
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$70-80k
This role is eligible to be considered for an annual bonus
3 days a week in office (Cambridge, MA )
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help millions of travelers around the globe make confident travel decisions.
Role
Who you are
- A professional payroll qualification qualification
- Proven experience as a Payroll Specialist, with hands-on experience in your local region
- Solid understanding of local regulations, tax laws, and benefits administration
- Proficiency in payroll software (e.g., ADP, Cloudpay, Workday, etc.) and MS Office (Word, Excel - including VLOOKUP’s, Pivot Tables, etc)
- Excellent attention to detail and a track record of accuracy in data entry and payroll processing
- Strong communication, both verbal and written, to effectively interact with employees and departments
- Solid organizational and time management skills with the ability to manage multiple deadlines
- A process-first mentality, with a focus on controls and consistency
- Excellent interpersonal skills for managing processes and cross-functional relationships
- Ability to maintain strict data confidentiality and demonstrate a strong sense of professional integrity
- Highly analytical capability with strong organization and prioritization skills, and a proven track record of meeting hard deadlines
- A dedicated, flexible, and outspoken mindset, with a creative and pragmatic approach to problem-solving
- A solution-focused, hands-on approach, with the ability to prioritise and deliver multiple tasks in order to meet conflicting timelines
- A proactive attitude: you flag issues and inefficiencies early, challenge the status quo and contribute ideas to improve how we work
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with a strong process improvement mindset and a desire to further develop your career in payroll
What the job involves
- Manage monthly and fortnightly payroll cycles across all international entities via external providers (through Cloudpay and ADP), ensuring accurate and timely salary and statutory payments in multiple currencies
- Own day-to-day payroll administration, including data validation, calculations, and reporting
- Prepare and submit payroll inputs (new hires, terminations, promotions, salary changes, bonuses, commissions, equity, benefits changes, and other deductions)
- Review and validate payroll outputs, resolving discrepancies prior to approval
- Ensure accurate and timely processing of all payroll elements, including salaries, bonuses, commissions, equity, benefits, and statutory deductions
- Assist with year-end processing and related reporting
- Maintain strong internal controls supporting payroll accuracy and completeness across jurisdictions
- Ensure compliance with tax, social security, employment, and other local payroll regulations in each country, staying current on legislative and tax law changes
- Administer and reconcile payroll taxes, ensuring correct employee and employer deductions and remittance to relevant authorities
- Support tax return preparation and indirect tax compliance, including reconciliations and documentation for cross-border transactions
- Contribute to a strong international finance control environment and support payroll setup as we expand into new countries
- Support internal and external audits with accurate, well-organised, and audit-ready documentation
- Prepare, review, and reconcile payroll reports, including variance analysis and period-end reconciliations
- Provide clear, timely reporting and commentary to Finance leadership and other stakeholders
- Act as a primary point of contact for payroll-related employee queries, responding with professionalism and efficiency
- Handle inquiries related to discrepancies, missing hours, deductions, and other payroll issues, providing clear and timely resolutions
- Manage payroll-linked benefits (health insurance, pensions, BIK, and other voluntary deductions) in line with company policies and local requirements
- Provide helpful and responsive support to employees across multiple jurisdictions
- Own relationships with external payroll providers (through Cloudpay and ADP), ensuring strong service delivery, accuracy, and controls
- Work closely with the People team and other departments to ensure employee data is accurate and up to date ahead of payroll cut-offs
- Coordinate on changes such as new hires, leavers, promotions, salary adjustments, benefits changes, and other data impacting payroll
- Identify and implement opportunities to improve processes, automation, accuracy, and efficiency across global payroll operations
Our take
KAYAK is a travel agency and metasearch engine owned and operated by Booking Holdings. KAYAK processes over 6 billion queries across its platforms each year for travel information - as one of the world’s leading travel search engines, KAYAK searches other sites to show travellers the information they need to find the right flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages. It offers a variety of tools and features such as KAYAK trips, explore, and price forecast.
There’s been speculation over the years about online travel companies getting into the hotel business, and KAYAK is no exception. The company is expanding its hospitality offerings beyond its traditional hotel referral and booking services, but despite speculation through the 2020s, has stopped short of opening hotels under its own brand, preferring to partner with preexisting companies on their hotel tech.
Since being acquired by Booking Holdings, the global leader in online travel, in 2013, KAYAK has continued to expand and innovate, enhancing the travel experience for users all around the world. And now KAYAK manages a portfolio of metasearch brands including SWOODOO, checkfelix, momondo, Cheapflights, Mundi and HotelsCombined. With the aim to make it easier for everyone to experience the world - it now operates sites in more than 70 countries and territories.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
6% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company benefits
- Work flexibly: Our global flexible work policy lets our teams decide if they head into one of our offices or work from anywhere else
- Team-wide time off: Most of our team disconnects at the same time each year to recharge and reconnect
- Global volunteer week: Take VTO (Volunteer Time Off) to support the organizations and charitable efforts you believe in
- Wellness: We take care of each other - providing opportunities and spaces to live that work-life balance
- Resource groups: Our five ERGs are employee-led groups for underrepresented communities and their allies
- Career growth: We provide opportunities for our team to develop their skills – or learn new ones – on their own terms
Company HQ
East Side of Stamford, Stamford, CT
Leadership
Steve Hafner
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously Board Member of Trulia, Blade and SeatGeek and currently an Executive at OpenTable.
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