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Supervising Accountant (Payroll)- Department of Finance

City of San Jose
San Jose, CA Full Time
POSTED ON 5/28/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 6/5/2026

The Finance Department is currently seeking to fill one (1) full-time Supervising Accountant vacancy in the Accounting Division. If you are interested in this position, please apply!

The mission of the Finance Department is to manage, protect, and report on City of San José financial resources to enhance the City’s financial condition for residents, businesses, and investors.

The Finance Department has five core divisions:

  • Accounting
  • Administration
  • Debt & Treasury Management
  • Purchasing & Risk Management
  • Revenue Management

The Finance Department works in partnership with the departments of Human Resources, Information Technology, and Public Works as the City’s Strategic Support City Service Area to effectively develop, manage, and safeguard City fiscal, physical, technological, and human resources to enable and enhance the delivery of City services and projects. The Finance Department has a $27.4 million operating budget and 128 budgeted full-time equivalent (FTE) positions.

This position performs critical supervisory, operational, compliance, reporting, and system-coordination functions that are essential to maintaining accurate and timely payroll processing, labor distribution, retirement reporting, financial reporting support, and Citywide compliance requirements. This position also serves as a key liaison between Payroll, Human Resources, Retirement Services, Information Technology, Budget Office, external auditors, and departmental fiscal staff.

The main functions are as follows:

  • Oversight of State Controller’s Office reporting, Annual Compensation reporting, Public Records Act (PRA) requests, and audit support
  • Retirement prefunding calculations, reconciliations, pension rate updates, and coordination with retirement system requirements
  • Review and implementation of Payroll memoranda, labor agreement changes, and MPP retroactive payroll reviews
  • Oversight of executive payroll, fiscal/calendar year-end payroll processing, and emergency payroll support
  • Development and maintenance of payroll queries, reporting tools, and payroll reconciliations, and support for payroll system issue resolution through the PaySuper email alias
  • Oversight of vehicles imputed income calculations, military leave reconciliations, sick leave payoff projections, and other complex payroll-related analyses
  • Supervision and development of payroll accounting staff, including oversight of labor distribution, General Ledger activity grouping, payroll system changes, internal controls, and EOC payroll reporting responsibilities
(These qualifications are typically required.  An equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to satisfactorily perform the duties of the job may be substituted.) 
 
Education
Completion of a Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college or university in Accounting, Business Administration, or related field, including at least 18 semester units in accounting subjects.
 
Experience
Five (5) years of experience at the working level of a professional accountant, including two (2) years in a supervising position.
 
Acceptable Substitution
None
 
Licenses/Certificates
Possession of a valid State of California driver's license may be required.

Competencies:

Job Expertise Demonstrates knowledge of and experience with applicable professional/technical payroll principles and practices, Citywide and departmental procedures/policies and federal and state rules and regulations.

Analytical Thinking - Approaches a problem or situation by using a logical, systematic, sequential approach

Communication Skills - Effectively conveys information and expresses thoughts and facts clearly, orally and in writing; demonstrates effective use of listening skills; displays openness to other people's ideas and thoughts.

Fiscal Management - Understands the relationship of the budget and resources to the strategic plan.

Planning - Acts to align own unit's goals with the strategic direction of the organization; Defines tasks and milestones to achieve objectives, while ensuring the optimal use of resources to meet those objectives.

Problem Solving - Approaches a situation or problem by defining the problem or issue; determines the significance of problem; collects information; uses logic and intuition to arrive at decisions or solutions to problems that achieve the desired outcome.

Supervision - Sets effective long and short-term goals based on a good understanding of management practices; establishes realistic priorities within available resources; provides motivational support; empowers others; assigns decision-making and work functions to others in an appropriate manner to maximize organizational and individual effectiveness.

Teamwork & Interpersonal Skills Develops effective relationships with co-workers and supervisors by helping others accomplish tasks and using collaboration and conflict resolution skills.

Social Awareness - Demonstrates the ability to read or sense other people’s emotions and how they influence the situation of interest or concern; demonstrates empathy and organizational awareness.

Selection Process:

The selection process will consist of an evaluation of the applicant's training and experience based on the application and responses to all the job specific questions. You must answer all the following supplemental questions to be considered, or your application may be deemed incomplete and withheld from further consideration. Only those candidates whose backgrounds best match the position will be invited to proceed in the selection process. Additional phases of the selection process will consist of one or more interviews. 



Salary : $130,472 - $158,952

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