Senior Payroll Accountant
Seattle, WAJob$81–101K/yrPosted 5 days agoStill listed 5 days ago
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At a glance
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Job overview
Lyft is seeking an experienced Senior Payroll Accountant to own payroll accounting and month-end close work across US and North American entities. The role partners with Payroll, FP&A, and Accounting teams to maintain accurate reconciliations and controls, resolve discrepancies, and improve recurring processes. It is based in Seattle and follows a hybrid schedule with three required in-office days each week.
Skills & qualifications
Skills
Qualifications
Benefits
Full job description
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 discretionary paid time off, hourly team members have 15 days paid time off
- 18 weeks of paid parental leave. Biological, adoptive, and foster parents are all eligible
- Subsidized commuter benefits
- Monthly Lyft credits and complimentary Lyft Pink membership
Lyft is an equal opportunity employer committed to an inclusive workplace that fosters belonging. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, age, genetic information, or any other basis prohibited by law. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Lyft highly values having employees working in-office to foster a collaborative work environment and company culture. This role will be in-office on a hybrid schedule — Team Members will be expected to work in the office 3 days per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Lyft considers working in the office at least 3 days per week to be an essential function of this hybrid role. Your recruiter can share more information about the various in-office perks Lyft offers. Additionally, hybrid roles have the flexibility to work from anywhere for up to 4 weeks per year. #Hybrid The expected base pay range for this position in the Seattle area is $80,960 - $101,200, not inclusive of potential equity offering, bonus or benefits. Salary ranges are dependent on a variety of factors, including qualifications, experience and geographic location. Your recruiter can share more information about the salary range specific to your working location and other factors during the hiring process.
How this job compares
Set against the 3,477 open Accountant jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 4, 2026.
- Pay
- This posting$81–101K/yr
- Washington median$83–114K/yr22 salary ranges
- US median$76–100K/yr1,034 salary ranges
This range's midpoint, $91K, is 8% below the Washington median midpoint ($99K) — in the middle half of Accountant salary ranges in Washington.
- Openings
- Olive Jobs lists 47 open Accountant jobs in Washington and 3,477 across the US. 4% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
- Hiring the most in Washington
- Robert Half Accountemps6 open
- Robert Half Finance & Accounting6 open
- City of Seattle5 open
- Experience
- This posting asks for at least 4 years of experience; Accountant postings that state a minimum ask for 3 years at the median (2,296 postings).
- Education
- This posting asks for a bachelor's degree; 1,860 of the 3,477 open Accountant jobs (53%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.
Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 4, 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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