Senior Associate, Payroll

About Bridgewater Bridgewater Associates is a premier asset management firm, focused on delivering unique insight and partnership for the most sophisticated global institutional investors. Our investment process is driven by a tireless pursuit to understand how the world’s markets and economies work — using cutting edge technology to validate and execute on timeless and universal investment principles. Founded in 1975, we are a community of independent thinkers who share a commitment for excellence. By fostering a culture of openness, transparency, and inclusion, we strive to unlock the most complex questions in investment strategy, management, and corporate culture. Explore more information about Bridgewater on our website here. Our Culture Our culture is anchored in excellence, meaning constant improvement, and it is deeply tied to our mission. Because markets are objective, competitive, and getting smarter everyday, we need to keep rapidly improving to have any chance of beating them. Truth is our most essential tool for engaging with the markets and constantly improving because once you know what's true about your problems and opportunities, you can determine how to get better. Valuing truth means being transparent about your decision-making and mistakes, giving and receiving feedback with humility, and fighting for the best answers over hierarchy, ego, or self-interest. Operating this way is hard – it's only possible because we build meaning in our work and relationships. This meaning comes from the audacity of the mission, and the joy of working alongside people who make you a better version of yourself. The culture, like Bridgewater itself, is always evolving. In 1997 our founder Ray Dalio wrote down his lessons, starting with a Philosophy Statement which remains our foundation. This later evolved into a set of 300+ Principles. In 2022, when Ray transitioned the company, we re-underwrote several of those principles and evolved others, with a specific focus on Meritocracy. Today the culture sits, alongside our people, as our most important edge. When we get it right, it’s the engine that powers everything else. Explore more information about Bridgewater’s culture on our website here. The Finance Department Finance leads Bridgewater’s financial strategy and serves as a strategic advisor to businesses across the firm. We partner with leaders to translate strategy into financially sound plans, evaluate growth opportunities, and make informed decisions about how to allocate capital. Our work builds financial resilience and drives long-term shareholder value, supported by rigorous analysis, reporting, and controls. We are also transforming how Finance operates, using AI and automation to deliver faster insights and focus more of our expertise on the decisions that shape the firm’s future. About the Role We are seeking a high-agency operator to serve as the right hand to our Director, Payroll and help reshape how payroll runs at one of the world’s premier asset management firms. The role has two aims: provide real leverage to payroll leadership and reduce key-person risk, and partner with the Director to redesign the payroll operating model through better process, technology, and controls. Strong operational, analytical, and cross-functional skills matter most — payroll or payroll-tax depth is a plus, and we will invest in building it for the right person. Because the team is a daily resource for employees’ pay questions, a service mindset and clear communication matter as much as technical rigor. Key Responsibilities Payroll Operations - Run and review end-to-end bi-weekly payroll, including data validation, reconciliation, and balancing - Analyze payroll reports to identify discrepancies, trends, and improvement opportunities - Work with internal teams and outsourced partners to resolve payroll and withholding issues - Review complex transactions such as off-cycle payments, supplemental wages, and executive compensation items - Support administration of complex compensation programs (deferred comp, bonuses, equity, fringe benefits, imputed income), coordinating with Finance, HR, Tax, and vendors Employee Support & Pay Communications - Be a responsive, service-minded resource for employee questions about pay, withholding, and multi-state wage allocation. - Help build and roll out employee-facing pay communications, including standardized pay statements that supplement the W-2 and explain how different types of pay are allocated and taxed. - Turn recurring questions into clearer documentation, FAQs, and self-service tools that reduce inquiry volume over time. Payroll Tax & Compliance - Serve as a key resource for federal, state, and local payroll tax compliance, including interactions with tax agencies (notices, amendments, registrations, and filings) - Maintain expertise in multi-state payroll tax regulations, with demonstrated knowledge of New York and Connecticut withholding, reciprocity, and wage sourcing rules - Ensure accurate withholding, reporting, and remittance of payroll taxes across jurisdictions, including year-end activities such as W-2 review and quarter/year-end balancing - Contribute to the development, documentation, and maintenance of payroll tax procedures and controls - Manage state tax wage allocation for multi-jurisdictional employees, analyzing work location and residency scenarios to ensure compliant withholding and reporting Process Improvement, Technology & Transformation - Partner with the Director to design the future-state payroll operating model, including building an enhanced in-house capability - Actively drive process reengineering — mapping workflows, removing manual steps, and redesigning around scalable technology - Help shape and execute the payroll technology roadmap with the Technology team, including automation and reporting - Build documentation and controls that reduce key-person dependency and support a leaner operating model - Support system enhancements, internal audits, and compliance reviews Cross-Functional Partnership & Continuity - Act as a fully cross-trained partner to the Director, Payroll, stepping in to keep payroll running without interruption - Collaborate across Tax, Technology, HR, Treasury, Accounting and the business to operationalize new compensation programs, surface risks and drive shared improvements - Serve as an escalation point for complex payroll and withholding matters, coordinating stakeholders to resolution Qualifications - Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, HR, Business, or a related field - 5+ years in operations, HR, finance operations, or a related function, with a track record of running processes well - Demonstrated experience improving processes, and ideally leading change or transformation efforts - Strong analytical skills and advanced Excel, comfortable working with large data sets and complex scenarios - Strong communication and the ability to collaborate and build trust across teams and partners - A service mindset and the ability to explain complex pay and tax topics clearly to non-specialists. - High ownership, integrity, discretion, and attention to detail Physical Requirements The anticipated onsite requirement for this role is 4 days per week at our Westport, CT office. Compensation The wage range for this role is $165,000 - $250,000 inclusive of base salary and discretionary target bonus. The expected base salary for this role is between 80% - 90% of this wage range. Why Choose Bridgewater? It takes all types to make Bridgewater great. We seek a diverse group of innovative thinkers and push them to engage in rigorous and thoughtful inquiry. We develop people through an honest examination of their abilities and performance, enabling personal growth and professional development. We strive to provide you opportunities that will challenge you and unlock your potential. One of our core priorities at Bridgewater is to enable our employees to build a great life and career, and we believe our benefits are an important extension of that philosophy. As such, currently Bridgewater offers a competitive suite of benefits. Explore more information about Bridgewater’s benefits on our website here. Bridgewater reserves the right to change its current benefits program at any time, in a manner that is consistent with applicable federal and state regulations. This job description is not a contract and confers no contractual rights, privileges, or benefits on any applicant or potential applicant. Bridgewater has the right to change any and all terms of this job description, including, but not limited to, job responsibilities, qualifications and benefits. Nothing in this job description constitutes an offer or guarantee of employment. Please note that we do not provide immigration sponsorship for this position. Bridgewater Associates, LP is an Equal Opportunity Employer