CA Field Compliance & Payroll Audit Specialist

We are currently seeking a detail-oriented and deeply knowledgeable California Field Compliance & Audit Specialist to take full ownership of our California payroll auditing processes, ensuring 100% legal compliance for all CA-based employees.

The primary focus of this role is the monitoring, auditing, and remediation of California's complex labor laws to mitigate costly wage-and-hour violations. As our dedicated subject matter expert, you are not just running reports, you are protecting our business, coaching leadership, and ensuring our hard-working California-based employees are compensated flawlessly.

This role serves as a critical internal control for field compliance and auditing with full responsibility for on-site compliance framework across all California operations (with possible expansion to other areas). The primary focus of this role is the monitoring, auditing, and remediation of California's complex labor laws to mitigate costly wage-and-hour violations. This position will spend substantial time at companies’ California facilities, branches, and job sites comparing digital records with actual workplace practices auditing and reporting of the process’s roadmap. The role enforces compliance, implements corrective measures, and conducts testing to identify and address California wage-and-hour risks, before they result in costly litigation.

RESPONSIBILITIES/DUTIES:

Become subject matter expert of our process roadmap and familiar with all California wage & hour regulations.

Compliance & Auditing

• Daily Time punch Audits: Review and audit non-exempt employee time records daily/weekly to identify missed, late, or short meal periods, as well as missed rest breaks.
• Premium Pay Management: Ensure that a full hour of premium pay is applied for each day a meal or rest period violation occurs, strictly adhering to California's historical and current legal frameworks.
• Regular Rate Calculations: Ensure meal and rest break premiums are calculated correctly using the employee's "regular rate of pay" (inclusive of nondiscretionary bonuses, commissions, and shift differentials) rather than just the base hourly rate.
• Labor Code § 226 Wage Statement Auditing: Perform systematic, recurring audits of itemized employee pay stubs to ensure absolute accuracy of all 9 mandated data points, completely mitigating statutory per-paycheck penalties.
• Final Paycheck Enforcement: Enforce strict timelines for final paychecks (immediate for terminations, within 72 hours for voluntary resignations) to completely eliminate waiting time penalties under Labor Code Section 203.
• Pay Scale Transparency and Hiring Disclosures: Auditing job postings and internal records to ensure compliance with California's pay scale transparency laws and anti-discrimination/Fair Chance Act requirements during recruitment.
• Violation Tracking: Maintain meticulous logs of compliance infractions, identifying trends, departments, or managers with any violation rates.

Site Visits & Field Audits

• On-Site Operational Audits: Conduct regular, scheduled, and ad-hoc physical site visits to California facilities, branches, or job sites to observe real-time timekeeping practices and physical break compliance.
• Physical Environment Verification: Verify that mandated California Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) Wage Orders, minimum wage notices, and breakroom compliance posters are physically posted and visible at all job locations.
• Employee & Supervisor Interviews: Interface directly with field employees and site supervisors during visits to gather feedback on break culture, identify hidden bottlenecks to compliance, and cross-reference physical practices with digital timecard data.
• Provide immediate, corrective guidance to site management when operational compliance gaps (such as delayed lunch waves or inadequate break spaces) are observed during field visits.

Reporting & Process Improvement

• Analyze findings from site visits into actionable compliance reports for executive leadership, highlighting physical infrastructure risks or operational habits that endanger compliance.
• Partner with department and site managers to report time-tracking issues and advise them on structural solutions to guarantee compliant break windows.
• Prepare comprehensive audit trails, reports, and documentation to support the organization in the event of external state audits or private wage-and-hour litigation.

Qualifications & Experience

• Minimum of 3 years of dedicated payroll experience, and or degree in computer science or HR with at least 2 years focusing exclusively or heavily on California non-exempt payroll administration and auditing.
• Travel Flexibility: Ability and willingness to travel up to 25% of the time to various California operations and site locations for field audits.
• Expert-level understanding of California Labor Code, DLSE guidelines, California Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders, and landmark California wage-and-hour court rulings.
• Advanced proficiency in automated time and attendance software and Excel (VLOOKUPs, Pivot Tables).
• Exceptional analytical skills with a zero-mistake mindset given the high financial and legal stakes associated with California payroll penalties.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills to conduct sensitive on-site compliance interviews and coach field management effectively.