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Payroll Associate

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley

Accounting & Finance
Alpharetta, GA, USA
Posted on Mar 17, 2026

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment, and wealth management services. The Firm's employees serve clients worldwide, including corporations, governments, and individuals from more than 1,200 offices in 43 countries

We are searching for an Associate that will support the day-to-day operations of our North American Payroll team. The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 1 to 2 years of full-time, hands-on payroll operational experience supporting US and Canadian workforce. The role will serve as a steward to deliver on our 3 Pillars of Success: 1). Timely and accurate payroll processing; 2). Foster and extend our service-first approach; 3). Promote and advocate continual progression of our capabilities. The candidate must leverage their exceptional organizational skills to manage their assignments to ensure timely payroll processing and be sincerely passionate about Customer Service. This role will play an integral part to resolve issues and delivery payroll services to the nearly 50,000 colleagues across North America.

What you'll do in the role:
- Supports with processing activities for Morgan Stanley's semi-monthly (i.e., on-cycle) and monthly Commissions payroll cycles.
- With guidance, completes payroll transactions; prepares reconciliation and auditing reports for review and approval by the VP of Operations or Team Lead.
- Will support Morgan Stanley's Payroll Incident Management area to ensure requests and inquiries are fulfilled and responses are completed timely to requestors which may include cross-functional partners.
- Supports auditing of preview payroll registers and fulfill assigned duties and activities including, but not limited to corrections/adjustments of identified variances.
- Be hands-on by supporting the team with preparing necessary documentation and pay data templates for payroll transactions such as, but not limited to: employee withholding, check/payment adjustments, tax withholding and garnishments.

How You'll be SUCCESSFUL:
With your analytical thinking abilities and personal knowledgebase of payroll operations, you will have the opportunity to create, empower and enrich an essential part of Morgan Stanley's business. You will have the opportunity to showcase your responsibilities which may span across both functional and technical areas; involve various internal and external stakeholders with a focus and drive to support and deliver on the complex payroll needs for our customers.

What you'll bring to the role:
- Skills using Excel functions to analyze data (e.g., lookup, pivots).
- Fundamental knowledge of wage and hour laws and taxability of wages - especially for California-based employees (EDD).
- Previous experience supporting Canadian payroll concepts such as, but not limited to: ROE, RRSP, and provincial tax filing (e.g., Quebec).
- Exemplary customer service skills with a genuine desire to provide exceptional customer service to our business partners and most importantly, our employees.
- Minimum of 1 year working within a payroll operations team as an individual contributor to the overall processing lifecycle.
- Self-driven with exceptional time management skills and the ability to work collaboratively within a team.

How You'll Standout
- Previous experience with business process design principles and terminology; contributed to drafting supporting documentation such as operating/desktop procedures.
- Basic understanding of the payroll technology ecosystem (e.g., HRMS, Benefits, Finance, Comp)
- Have worked with ADP Globalview.
- Bachelor's degree; advanced degree in lieu of experience.
- CPP or FPC designation is ideal!

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM MORGAN STANLEY:

At Morgan Stanley, we raise, manage and allocate capital for our clients – helping them reach their goals. We do it in a way that’s differentiated – and we’ve done that for 90 years. Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren’t just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work-life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There’s also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

To learn more about our offices across the globe, please copy and paste https://www.morganstanley.com/about-us/global-offices​ into your browser.

Morgan Stanley's goal is to build and maintain a workforce that is diverse in experience and background but uniform in reflecting our standards of integrity and excellence. Consequently, our recruiting efforts reflect our desire to attract and retain the best and brightest from all talent pools. We want to be the first choice for prospective employees.

It is the policy of the Firm to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, sex stereotype, gender, gender identity or expression, transgender, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, marital and civil partnership/union status, pregnancy, veteran or military service status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversifying its workforce (M/F/Disability/Vet).