Manager, Employment Tax

About the role

This role is responsible for supporting global employment tax compliance, advisory, risk management, and project execution activities. It serves as a key technical resource working closely with regional stakeholders and external advisors to ensure operational excellence and compliance across global employment tax processes.

Key responsibilities

• Support internal stakeholders on federal, state, and local employment tax compliance activities, such as reviewing tax notices, statutory tax filings, and reconciliations.
• Assist in research to support tax positions, resolve multi‑state withholding issues, reciprocity agreements, nonresident allocation questions, and cross‑border tax implications.
• Assist in taxation and reporting of equity compensation and incentive plans (RSUs, stock options, ESPP, ISIP‑type plans) across jurisdictions, including year‑end true‑ups and recharge arrangement considerations.
• Provide tax guidance to cross‑functional partners on the employment tax implications of compensation, benefits, travel & expense programs, and remote/flexible work arrangements globally.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to develop processes and procedures to ensure accurate tax reporting and withholdings on employee compensation and benefits, including long‑term incentives and bonus plans.
• Assist with tax authority notices and audits across jurisdictions, gathering documentation and supporting worker classification and permanent establishment risk assessments.
• Partner with Payroll Operations and third‑party payroll providers (e.g., ADP, Workday, and local vendors) to validate tax configurations, review payroll tax reconciliations, year‑end reporting, and country‑specific reporting requirements.
• Support M&A due diligence and People & Capability integration activities.
• Monitor changes in employment tax law across regions, analyze impact on Mastercard and communicate changes with management.
• Support SOX and financial statement audit requests related to payroll tax.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Tax, Law, or a related field.
• Prior experience at a Big Four firm, multinational in‑house tax function, or regional shared‑services organization.
• Solid working knowledge of federal and multi‑state/country payroll tax withholding and statutory employer payroll tax and social security obligations in the US and other jurisdictions.
• Experience supporting tax authority audits (U.S. and/or international) and equity compensation tax reporting.
• Track record of identifying and driving operational improvements to enhance global compliance efficiency.
• Experience with payroll systems (e.g., ADP, Workday, SAP) and payroll tax engines.

Required skills

• ADP payroll system.
• Workday payroll system.
• SAP payroll system.
• Payroll tax engines.
• Automation tools for processing and analyzing large volumes of payroll tax data.