Core Payroll Platform Product Manager at Hourly in San Francisco, CA

As the Core Payroll Platform Product Manager at Hourly, you will own the strategy,

architecture, and execution of the foundational systems that power payroll across our

platform.

This includes the end-to-end payroll engine—earnings calculations, deductions, tax

handling, payments infrastructure, and compliance workflows. You will be responsible for

building a scalable, reliable, and flexible payroll backbone that supports all current and

future products.

This role requires deep systems thinking, strong technical fluency, and a high bar for

accuracy and compliance, as you will be responsible for the most critical infrastructure in

the company.

What You’ll Do

Product Strategy & Platform Ownership

• Define and drive the roadmap for Hourly’s core payroll platform
• Build a flexible, extensible payroll architecture that supports multiple products, states, and use cases
• Identify opportunities to unify and standardize payroll flows across jurisdictions
• Own the long-term scalability, reliability, and performance of the payroll engine

Platform Development & Execution

• Tax calculation and filings, leveraging industry partners for tax compliance
• Payment orchestration (ACH, real-time payments, virtual accounts)
• Ledgering and reconciliation
• Partner with Engineering to design robust, fault-tolerant systems
• Ensure auditability, traceability, and financial accuracy across all payroll operations
• Collaborate with banking partners to implement payments at scale, including building and supporting new payment rails such as real-time payments (RTP)

Compliance & Infrastructure

• Work closely with Compliance, Legal, and Finance to ensure adherence to federal, state, and local regulations
• Design systems that abstract regulatory complexity while maintaining flexibility
• Support expansion into new states and jurisdictions
• Cross-Functional Leadership
• Serve as the central point of alignment between Engineering, Operations, Compliance, and GTM teams
• Partner with customer-facing teams to translate platform capabilities into customer value
• Support strategic initiatives such as embedded finance and banking integrations

Customer & Business Impact

• Improve payroll accuracy, reduce processing errors, and eliminate manual reconciliation
• Drive automation and operational efficiency across the platform
• Enable faster product launches by building reusable platform components

Experience

• 10+ years of product management experience
• At least 5 years focused specifically on payroll products or payroll infrastructure
• Proven experience building and scaling complex, mission-critical financial or payroll systems
• Experience working with banking partners, payments infrastructure, or embedded finance (strongly preferred)

Skills

• Strong technical acumen—you can work closely with engineers on system design and tradeoffs
• Deep analytical thinking with a focus on correctness and edge cases
• Ability to manage complex, interdependent systems
• Excellent communication and stakeholder alignment skills

Mindset

• Extreme ownership—you operate as the owner of the core system

• Precision-driven with a strong bias toward accuracy and reliability

• Comfortable operating in ambiguity while building long-term foundations

• Customer-focused, with an appreciation for both end-user and internal platform needs

• Health & Wellness: Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance.

• Future Planning: 401(k) retirement plan.

• Flexibility: Unlimited Time Off (PTO) and 100% remote work environment.