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Lead Human Resources Specialist (Payroll)

Offices, Boards and Divisions

Washington, DCFull-time$122–158K/yrPosted today

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At a glance

Compensation
$122–158K/yr
Location
Washington, DC
Schedule
Full-time
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Job overview

The Lead Human Resources Specialist (Payroll) serves the Justice Management Division’s Office of Human Capital, handling payroll and personnel processing for its customers. The role processes sensitive actions through the National Finance Center and payroll/personnel systems, serves as the agency’s focal point for these functions, and leads a team’s workload and problem-solving. New Department of Justice employees work onsite in Washington, D.C.; current employees may be allowed to remain at their duty station.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Payroll ProcessingPersonnel ProcessingPayroll AnalysisPayroll MonitoringProblem SolvingLeadershipCompensationProject Management

Qualifications

One Year Specialized ExperienceGS-12 Equivalent ExperienceTime-in-Grade Requirement

Full job description

Summary

This announcement is for a Lead Human Resources Specialist (Payroll) position located in Justice Management Division (JMD), Office of Human Capital (OHC) in Washington, DC. The primary purpose of this position is to serve as a Lead Human Resources Specialist in applying the full range of all payroll/personnel processing matters for OHC customers.

Duties

The duties and responsibilities for a Lead Human Resources Specialist generally include, but are not limited to, the following: Process sensitive payroll/personnel actions for OHC customers through the National Finance Center (NFC) and the payroll/personnel systems. Serve as the principal focal point within the agency for payroll/personnel functions. Communicate assignments, projects, or problems to be solved, and/or program issues under review, and deadlines for completion. Advise the team and individual members in identifying the parameters of a viable solution for payroll or HR Personnel Actions. Lead a team in identifying, distributing, and balancing workload regarding tasks among employees in accordance with established work flow and specialization. Train or arrange for the training of team members in methods and techniques of team building for working teams to accomplish tasks or projects. Qualifications

To qualify for the position of Lead Human Resources Specialist (Payroll), at GS-0201-13, you must meet the qualification requirements listed below. There may also be a positive education requirement for some occupations, please see the Education section for details. If there are licensing or certification requirements, please see the Required Documents section for details on how to verify you license or certificate. For the GS-13: Specialized Experience: For the GS-13, you must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service which demonstrates providing leadership in researching, analyzing and monitoring payroll and personnel processing to resolve problems or issues. You MUST meet all qualification requirements, including time-in-grade, by 11/12/2026 of this announcement. Your resume must support your responses to the application questionnaire and the qualification requirements. Failure to do so may result in an ineligible rating. See the Required Documents section for important notes about what must be included in your resume.

Education

Some federal jobs allow you to substitute your education for the required experience in order to quality. For this job, you must meet the qualification requirement using experience alone. No substitution of education for experience is permitted. How You Will Be Evaluated

Once the job opportunity announcement closes (at 11:59 pm ET on Monday, November 2, 2026, your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents) along with the results of the applied assessment. Qualified applicants who pass the Job Knowledge Test, which is used to determine proficiency, will be referred to the selecting official for consideration. The Hiring Official may select any qualified candidate. CTAP/ICTAP applicants must be rated well-qualified for the position with a score of 80 or above based on the competencies and/or Job Knowledge Test listed above." Additionally, you must meet the area of consideration (see above). Applicants who do not meet this are ineligible for consideration. Basis of Rating: DOJ's Merit Promotion Procedures will be used to evaluate candidates. Your qualifications will be evaluated on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, and other characteristics): Compensation Project Management Problem Solving Due Weight for Performance: Any performance appraisal/evaluation and award documentation you provide will be forwarded to the selecting official. The selecting official will review this documentation and give it due weight consideration during the overall selection process. Due weight for performance applies to federal and non-federal work. If you would like to preview the application questionnaire, please see: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13099711 Other Information

Additional selections may be made from this announcement. This position is located in Washington D.C. New employees to the Department of Justice will be required to work onsite in the Justice Management Division office located in Washington, D.C. Current employees of the Department of Justice may be allowed to remain in their duty station. Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution. Candidates will not be hired based on their race, sex, color, religion, or national origin. EEO Statement/Policy: The United States government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service or other non-merit factor. More information can be found here: https://www.justice.gov/jmd/media/1425556/dl?inline. DOJ Reasonable Accommodation Policy: Federal agencies must provide reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities where appropriate. Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process should contact the hiring agency directly. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. The DOJ Reasonable Accommodation policy can be found here: https://www.justice.gov/jmd/reasonable-accommodation#policy Selective Service: If you were born male, on or after December 31, 1959, you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law. Additional information is found at: www.sss.gov. Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs: The Fair Chance Act prohibits Federal agencies from requesting an applicant's criminal history information before the agency makes a conditional offer of employment. If you believe a DOJ employee or Federal contractor acting on its behalf has violated your rights under this Act, you may submit a written complaint within 30 days of the date of the alleged non-compliance directly to [email protected]. Note: In accordance with 5 U.S. Code § 9202(c) and 5 C.F.R § 920.201(b) certain positions are exempt from the provisions of the Fair Chance Act.

How this job compares

Set against the 616 open Payroll Specialist jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 5, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$122–158K/yr
  • US median$65–90K/yr87 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $140K, is 81% above the US median midpoint ($78K) — in the top quarter of Payroll Specialist salary ranges across the US.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 616 open Payroll Specialist jobs across the US. 4% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most across the US
Experience
This posting asks for at least 1 year of experience; Payroll Specialist postings that state a minimum ask for 3 years at the median (429 postings).
Education
35 of the 616 open Payroll Specialist jobs (6%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 5, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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