Payroll/Compensation Specialist

Job Description

Job Description

Northern Light Radiology Associates is seeking an experienced Payroll/Compensation Specialist to join our growing team. We are a successful hospital-based medical management company dedicated to operational excellence and collaborative teamwork. We’re looking for a highly analytical, detailed oriented, organized, driven professional who values partnership, leadership, and high-quality outcomes to support our continued growth.

The Compensation Specialist is responsible for end-to-end compensation processing for a large, multi-site radiology practice with a workforce of Independent Contracted Physicians. This role combines deep payroll expertise with advanced data analysis skills to ensure accuracy, compliance, transparency, and actionable insights across payroll, compensation, and labor metrics. The ideal candidate is highly analytical, detail-oriented, and experienced in leveraging payroll and HR data to support leadership decision-making, operational efficiency, and financial performance.

Key Responsibilities

Payroll Operations

• Process monthly payroll for a large physician population across multiple entities, states, and pay structures.
• Ensure accurate calculation of compensation, differentials, bonuses, call pay, productivity-based compensation, shift premiums, stipends, and deductions.
• Manage payroll for complex physician compensation models, including productivity, RVU-based, and incentive plans (as applicable).
• Maintain payroll calendars, cutoffs, approvals, and audit trails.
• Coordinate payroll funding, reconciliations, and general ledger interfaces.

Compliance & Controls

• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local wage and hour laws, tax regulations, and reporting requirements.
• Partner with HR, Finance, and Legal to support audits, internal controls, and policy adherence.
• Prepare and review 1099 year-end reporting in collaboration with our Finance department.

Data Analysis & Reporting (Core Focus)

• Develop, maintain, and automate compensation and labor analytics dashboards and reports.
• Analyze compensation trends, labor costs, overtime, call coverage, productivity, and compensation variances.
• Perform reconciliations and root-cause analyses to identify discrepancies, inefficiencies, and risk areas.
• Support physician and leadership inquiries with clear, data-driven explanations and visualizations.
• Provide ad hoc analysis to support budgeting, forecasting, staffing models, and compensation planning.
• Translate complex compensation data into actionable insights for non-technical stakeholders.

Systems & Process Optimization

• Serve as a subject matter expert for compensation and timekeeping systems.
• Partner with HRIS, Finance, and IT to enhance data integrity, integrations, and reporting capabilities.
• Lead or support compensation system upgrades, implementations, and testing.
• Identify and implement process improvements to increase efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.

Collaboration & Support

• Work closely with HR, Finance, Revenue Cycle, and Operations teams in a physician practice environment.
• Support leadership with compensation transparency and data-driven storytelling.
• Respond to physician compensation inquiries with professionalism, discretion, and accuracy.
• Provide training or documentation related to compensation processes and reporting tools.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, Accounting, Analytics, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 5+ years of progressive compensation experience in a large, complex organization; healthcare or physician practice experience strongly preferred.
• Advanced data analysis skills with demonstrated experience using Excel (advanced formulas, pivot tables, Power Query), and/or SQL.
• Experience building reports or dashboards using various analytical tools.
• Strong understanding of Independent Contractor compensation compliance.
• Proven ability to manage large datasets with high accuracy and attention to detail.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting physician compensation and productivity-based pay models (e.g., RVUs, call pay, incentives).
• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) designation.
• Experience with healthcare-specific labor analytics or benchmarking.
• Familiarity with financial modeling, budgeting, and forecasting.
• Experience working with private equity–backed or multi-entity healthcare organizations.

Key Competencies

• Analytical mindset with strong problem-solving skills
• High level of discretion and confidentiality
• Ability to communicate complex data clearly and concisely
• Strong project management and prioritization skills
• Collaborative, service-oriented approach
• Continuous improvement orientation

Work Environment

• Fast-paced, data-driven large radiology practice environment
• In office position
• Occasional extended hours during payroll cycles, audits, or year-end processing
• Salary determined upon experience.

To learn more about Northern Light we encourage you to visit our website: www.northernlightmm.com.