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