---
title: 'Payroll Manager at Xaira Therapeutics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/payroll-manager-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-francisco-california-cwj1ck4aywe9'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-14'
---

# Payroll Manager at Xaira Therapeutics

- **Company:** Xaira Therapeutics
- **Location:** South San Francisco California, United States
- **Posted:** 2026-08-07
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/xairatherapeutics/jobs/5207121007

## Job description

## About Xaira Therapeutics

Xaira is an innovative biotech startup focused on leveraging AI to transform drug discovery and development. The company is leading the development of generative AI models to design protein and antibody therapeutics, enabling the creation of medicines against historically hard-to-drug molecular targets. It is also developing foundation models for biology and disease to enable better target elucidation and patient stratification. Collectively, these technologies aim to continually enable the identification of novel therapies and to improve success in drug development. Xaira is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and London.

## About the Role

As the Payroll Manager, reporting directly to the Corporate Controller, you are responsible for overseeing all aspects of payroll administration, ensuring employees are paid accurately, on time, and in compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local regulations. This role manages payroll processes, maintains payroll systems, ensures compliance with tax and labor laws, administers payroll-related benefits and deductions, and partners closely with Human Resources, Accounting, and external payroll providers. This is a hands-on, high-impact role where you will have the unique opportunity to create scalable systems, establish best practices, and drive the development of a robust payroll infrastructure that positions Xaira for long-term success.

## Key Responsibilities

Payroll Administration

- Manage the end-to-end payroll process for all employees, including regular payroll, bonuses, and off-cycle payments.
- Ensure timely and accurate processing of multi-state payroll.
- Review payroll registers and perform comprehensive reconciliations across US and UK jurisdictions prior to finalization.
- Maintain payroll calendars and ensure all deadlines are met.
- Process new hires, terminations, salary adjustments, promotions, and other payroll changes.
- Administer Leave of Absence (LOA) payroll calculations, ensuring accurate pay, benefit deductions, statutory leave payments, and return-to-work payroll adjustments in compliance with company policies and applicable federal, state, and local regulations.
- Respond to employee payroll inquiries professionally and confidentially.
- Resolve payroll discrepancies promptly.

Compliance

- Ensure compliance with all federal, state, and local payroll regulations and tax requirements.
- Maintain compliance with wage and hour laws, garnishments, tax levies, and court orders.
- Coordinate payroll tax filings and year-end reporting, including Forms W-2 and related tax documents.
- Support payroll audits and maintain complete payroll documentation.

Accounting & Financial Reporting

- Prepare payroll journal entries and account reconciliations.
- Reconcile payroll liabilities and benefit-related accounts.
- Partner with Accounting during month-end, quarter-end, and year-end close.
- Support internal and external financial audits.

Employee Expense Reimbursements

- Administer the employee expense reimbursement program and ensure timely reimbursement of approved business expenses.
- Review employee expense reports for compliance with company travel and expense policies.
- Verify supporting documentation, coding, receipts, and approvals before processing reimbursements.
- Partner with employees and managers to resolve expense report questions and exceptions.

Corporate Credit Card Administration

- Review corporate credit card transactions for policy compliance, appropriate business purpose, and required supporting documentation.
- Monitor outstanding expense reports and follow up on delinquent submissions.
- Coordinate new card issuance, credit limit changes, and card cancellations with the card provider.
- Investigate and resolve disputed or unauthorized transactions.
- Reconcile monthly corporate credit card statements and support month-end close activities.

Systems & Process Improvement

- Maintain payroll systems and ensure data integrity.
- Partner with Human Resource Team and Accounting teams to improve payroll workflows and automation.
- Recommend and implement process improvements to enhance efficiency and internal controls.
- Maintain payroll policies, procedures, and documentation.

Qualification

- Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Human Resources, or related field.
- 5+ years of payroll experience, including payroll administration in a multi-state environment.
- Experience administering employee expense reimbursement and corporate credit card programs.
- Strong knowledge of U.S. payroll tax regulations and wage and hour laws.
- Experience with payroll and expense management systems (e.g., ADP, UKG Ready, Concur, Ramp, or similar).
- Advanced Microsoft Excel skills.
- Excellent analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
- Strong attention to detail and ability to handle confidential information.
- Experience with ERP systems such as NetSuite is preferred

## Compensation

We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, seeking to provide an open, flexible, and friendly work environment to empower employees and provide them with a platform to develop their long-term careers. A Summary of Benefits is available for all applicants. The base pay range for this position is expected to be $135,000 - $160,000 annually; however, the base pay offered may vary depending on the market, job-related knowledge, skills and capabilities, and experience.

Xaira Therapeutics an equal-opportunity employer. We believe that our strength is in our

differences. Our goal to build a diverse and inclusive team began on day one, and it will never end.

TO ALL RECRUITMENT AGENCIES: Xaira Therapeutics does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias or employees. XairaTherapeutics is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

## About Xaira Therapeutics

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Xaira Therapeutics is an integrated biotechnology company applying artificial intelligence across the entire drug discovery and development process to design next-generation medicines.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: South San Francisco, California, United States (with offices in Seattle, Washington, and London, UK)
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Co-founded and incubated by ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs, with foundational scientific contributions from Nobel Laureate Dr. David Baker (Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington).

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Biotechnology, Drug Discovery & Development, Artificial Intelligence
- **Target customers**: B2B (pharmaceutical partners, biotech collaborators) and ultimately patients via its own therapeutic pipeline.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Pioneering the transformative artificial intelligence that will help discover and develop the next generation of life-changing medicines." [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/)

## Products & Services
- **AI-Powered Drug Discovery Platform**: An end-to-end platform integrating advanced AI research, expansive data generation (functional genomics, proteomics, multi-omics), and robust therapeutic product development to shift drug discovery from an empirical science to a precise engineering discipline. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-approach)
- **Computational Protein Design**: Built on foundational work by Nobel Laureate Dr. David Baker, leveraging AI to design entirely new proteins from scratch for previously undruggable targets. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-approach)
- **X-Cell (Virtual Cell Model)**: An AI model trained on billions of genomic data points to simulate and understand cellular biology. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/)
- **Therapeutic Pipeline**: A pipeline of differentiated therapeutics across multiple modalities (small molecules, biologics, protein therapeutics) developed through an integrated AI-driven process.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed. The company launched in 2023 with a $1 billion Series A financing, one of the largest in biotech history.
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of $1 billion (Series A, 2023).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: ARCH Venture Partners (co-founder and lead investor), Foresite Labs (co-founder and incubator), F-Prime Capital, and other top-tier investors. Board includes leaders from ARCH, Foresite, NEA, and Johnson & Johnson. Scientific advisors include Nobel Laureates Carolyn R. Bertozzi and David Baker, and other luminaries. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-team)
- **Growth Signals**: Launched in 2023 with a record $1B Series A; rapidly building a world-class team across three global hubs (South San Francisco, Seattle, London); actively hiring across AI, computational biology, protein design, and drug development roles; announced X-Cell, a virtual cell model trained on billions of genomic data points. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Unprecedented Capital & Talent**: Launched with a $1B Series A, enabling aggressive hiring of top-tier AI and biology talent and long-term investment in infrastructure.
- **End-to-End AI Integration**: Uniquely positioned to apply AI across the entire drug discovery and development lifecycle, from target identification to clinical development, creating a powerful data flywheel.
- **World-Class Scientific Foundation**: Built on foundational AI protein design work from Nobel Laureate David Baker's lab, with a board and advisory board including multiple Nobel Laureates, former FDA commissioners, and industry leaders from Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, and top venture firms. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-team)
- **Massive Data Generation**: Investing heavily in functional genomics and proteomics to generate proprietary, multi-dimensional datasets that fuel AI model development, creating a defensible data moat.

## Strategic Focus
- **End-to-End AI Integration**: Building predictive and agentic AI models across the complete drug discovery and development spectrum to increase probability of success, reduce timelines, and lower costs. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-approach)
- **Data as a Core Asset**: Generating and integrating massive, multi-dimensional biological datasets (from molecular to human scales) to train and improve AI models continuously.
- **Pipeline Development**: Advancing a pipeline of differentiated therapeutics across multiple modalities (small molecules, biologics, protein therapeutics).
- **Talent Acquisition**: Aggressively hiring across AI research, engineering, computational biology, protein design, and drug development to build a world-class, interdisciplinary team.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven**: Opportunity to work at the forefront of AI and biology to fundamentally transform how medicines are discovered and developed, with the potential to impact millions of patients.
- **World-Class Team & Mentorship**: Work alongside and learn from Nobel Laureates, top AI researchers, and experienced drug developers from leading pharma and biotech companies. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-team)
- **Interdisciplinary Culture**: A unique blend of AI/ML engineers, protein designers, computational biologists, and drug hunters all working together in a highly collaborative environment.
- **Global Hubs & Flexibility**: Offices in South San Francisco, Seattle, and London, offering multiple locations for talent.
- **Generous Resources**: Backed by a $1B Series A, providing the resources to pursue ambitious, long-term research without short-term funding pressure.
- **Job Scam Awareness**: The company has issued a warning about fraudulent job offers; all legitimate recruitment is conducted through official channels (Greenhouse) and never via Google Chat or requests for payment. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/work-with-us)

## Sources
1. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/)
2. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-approach)
3. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-team)
4. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/work-with-us)
5. [greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/xairatherapeutics)

## Other roles at Xaira Therapeutics

- [Principal Scientist, Biology](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-scientist-biology-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-francisco-california-2azp7k7sb0b2) — South San Francisco California, United States
- [Lab Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lab-software-engineer-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-francisco-california-mt9p82bbxdfp) — South San Francisco California, United States
- [Principal Associate Scientist, Bioanalytical Science](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-associate-scientist-bioanalytical-science-xaira-therapeutics-south-9a4gcetj8vab) — South San Francisco California, United States
- [AI Scientist Intern, Computational Protein Design](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-scientist-intern-computational-protein-design-xaira-therapeutics-seattle-cwyf0hr1nk3c) — Seattle Washington, United States / South San Francisco California, United States
- [Senior Scientist, Biology](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-scientist-biology-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-francisco-california-am8z6cjwb0xn) — South San Francisco California, United States
- [Facilities Coordinator II  - Lab Operations (Contract)](https://feeny.ai/job/facilities-coordinator-ii-lab-operations-contract-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-z65y9vbqwcce) — South San Francisco California, United States
- [AI in Residence, Computational Protein Design](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-in-residence-computational-protein-design-xaira-therapeutics-seattle-ns335n33bw1n) — Seattle Washington, United States
- [Lab Automation - Robotics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lab-automation-robotics-engineer-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-francisco-dneqyyrnt1j5) — South San Francisco California, United States
- [Vice President, Business Development and Alliance Management](https://feeny.ai/job/vice-president-business-development-and-alliance-management-xaira-therapeutics-vyvtp8b00s9q) — South San Francisco California, United States
- [Senior Manager, Projects and Programs - Research](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manager-projects-and-programs-research-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-j0pcpkzrc2pf) — South San Francisco California, United States