Senior Specialist, Payroll Tax

Our Purpose Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re helping build a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential. Title and Summary Senior Specialist, Payroll Tax Position Summary The Tax Implementation Specialist, Payroll, is responsible for leading payroll tax-related activities associated with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and business integrations. This role serves as the payroll tax subject matter expert throughout the M&A lifecycle, ensuring tax compliance, regulatory readiness, employee tax setup accuracy, and successful integration into payroll operations. This role requires deep knowledge of U.S. and global payroll tax regulations, strong project management skills, and the ability to navigate complex tax environments during organizational change. Key Responsibilities Payroll Tax Due Diligence • Assess payroll tax profiles, registrations, and compliance status of acquired entities. • Review existing payroll tax processes, controls, filing practices, and vendor relationships. • Identify tax risks, liabilities, compliance exposures, and remediation requirements. • Support integration planning by providing payroll tax impact assessments. Tax Registration & Entity Setup • Coordinate establishment of federal, state, provincial, and local tax registrations. • Ensure tax IDs, withholding accounts, unemployment accounts, and local registrations are established accurately. • Partner with Corporate Tax and Legal teams to address jurisdictional requirements. • Manage tax account transitions during mergers, consolidations, and divestitures. Payroll Tax Implementation • Validate employee tax setup and election data conversions. • Support payroll vendor implementations and integrations. • Coordinate testing of tax calculations, filings, deposits, and reporting. • Maintain audit-ready documentation for all implementation activities. Vendor & Stakeholder Management • Partner with Payroll Operations, Corporate Tax, Payroll vendors, & M&A COE team on implementation related activities • Serve as the payroll tax workstream lead within integration governance meetings. • Provide status updates, risk assessments, and recommendations to leadership. Post-Go-Live Stabilization • Monitor payroll tax operations following implementation. • Transition ongoing tax activities to payroll operations teams. • Capture lessons learned and update implementation playbooks. Qualifications • Strong expertise in U.S. Federal tax regulations, state withholding requirements, state unemployment insurance, local taxation, wage reporting requirements • Experience with payroll systems such as ADP, Workday Payroll • Strong analytical and reconciliation skills. • Ability to manage multiple implementation projects simultaneously. • Experience supporting mergers, acquisitions, or divestitures. • Experience with multi-national payroll tax compliance. • Experience working with payroll tax vendors and outsourced payroll providers. • Knowledge of tax filing and wage reporting processes across multiple jurisdictions. Mastercard is a merit-based, inclusive, equal opportunity employer that considers applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We hire the most qualified candidate for the role. In the US or Canada, if you require accommodations or assistance to c