About this role
At Lyft, our purpose is to serve and connect. We aim to achieve this by cultivating a work environment where all team members belong and have the opportunity to thrive.
Lyft’s Accounting team is looking for an experienced Senior Payroll Accountant to join us in Seattle. You’ll own core payroll accounting and month-end close work across our US and North American entities, keeping everything accurate, on time, and well controlled.
You’ll work closely with our Payroll, FP&A, and broader Accounting teams, and we’ll count on you to take ownership of your close tasks and help make our processes better over time. If you enjoy a clean reconciliation and a smooth close, we’d love to meet you.
Responsibilities:
• Own payroll-related journal entries for our US (HQ) and North American international subsidiaries, from preparation through booking.
• Prepare payroll accruals, including monthly payroll, bonus, workers’ compensation, PTO, and commissions.
• Complete month-end and quarter-end close activities on schedule, in line with our internal close calendar.
• Reconcile and analyze payroll-related GL accounts in accordance with GAAP and Lyft’s accounting policies, and perform flux analysis to explain monthly and quarterly movements.
• Investigate and resolve reconciling items in partnership with FP&A and the Payroll team.
• Build a deep understanding of our pay classes, pay codes, and payroll processing activities so you can connect what happens in payroll to what lands in the GL.
• Keep payroll records organized and audit-ready, and help maintain and strengthen our internal controls.
• Identify opportunities to streamline or automate recurring close work, and help bring them to life.
• Support ad hoc projects as they come up.
Experience:
• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance; CPA is a plus.
• 4+ years of general ledger accounting experience, including 2+ years in payroll accounting.
• Hands-on experience owning month-end close in a fast-paced, multi-entity environment.
• Strong command of GAAP.
• The ability to work independently, stay organized, and hit deadlines without sacrificing accuracy.
• Clear, friendly communication and a collaborative approach with cross-functional partners.
• A deep respect for confidentiality and data integrity.
• Advanced Excel skills (lookups, pivot tables, and clean, reviewable workpapers).
• Experience with finance and payroll systems such as Workday, Oracle, ADP Globalview, or similar.
• Nice to have
• Experience at a public company and familiarity with SOX controls.
• Experience supporting a payroll system implementation or process improvement project.
Benefits:
• Great medical, dental, and vision insurance options with additional programs available when enrolled
• Mental health benefits
• Family building benefits
• Child care and pet benefits
• 401(k) plan with company match to help save for your future
• In addition to 12 observed holidays, salaried team members have disc