Senior Manager, Workforce Accounting

About the role

We are looking for a Senior Manager, Workforce Accounting to join Anthropic's Corporate Accounting Operations team. You will own every number tied to how we pay, equip and reward the people who work here: payroll and accrued compensation, stock-based compensation benefits and relocation, commissions, contingent workers, and travel and expense. Reporting to the Head of Corporate Accounting, you will lead a team of accountants while staying hands-on; reviewing close materials, owning your own accounts, and serving as the first escalation point for the judgment calls in your domain.

Workforce is one of the fastest-moving areas of our P&L. As headcount grows across new entities and geographies, equity programmes are becoming more complex, and the systems that feed payroll, equity and expense data into the ledger are still being wired together. This is a build role: you will write the policies and SOPs your team operates against, design the controls, shape the system integrations, and use Claude and other tools to automate the work that does not need to be manual. We are looking for someone who has built accounting infrastructure in high-growth environments before and wants to do it again at one of the most important companies in the world.

Key responsibilities

Close ownership

• Own the workforce portfolio through month-end and quarter-end close — payroll and accrued compensation, bonus, vacation, severance and retention accruals, benefits, relocation, commissions, contingent workers, and T&E — including reconciliations, journal entries and variance commentary
• Own stock-based compensation accounting end to end: expense recognition under ASC 718, cash-settlement matching, equity roll-forwards, and reconciliation of preferred stock, common stock and additional paid-in capital to the equity administration platform
• Own the headcount and compensation reporting that underpins close analytics and cost allocations
• Ensure every close deliverable is audit-ready, with clear documentation of positions and supporting evidence

Technical accounting and policy

• Write, own and maintain accounting policies and SOPs across the workforce domain — payroll accruals, ASC 718, commissions (ASC 340-40), contingent worker classification, and T&E — and evolve them as compensation programmes change
• Review technical memos prepared by your team; ensure conclusions are well-supported and consistent with US GAAP
• Partner with Technical Accounting on new or modified equity awards, plan changes and other non-routine compensation arrangements, and translate guidance into procedures the team can execute
• Own the workforce-related footnotes and disclosures — employee benefit plans, stockholders' equity and net loss per share — and the external audit responses that support them

Controls

• Design and operate SOX controls across payroll, equity and T&E; review control evidence and own timely remediation of any gaps
• Establish cut-off and completeness controls around payroll registers, equity administration data and expense platforms so that what hits the ledger ties to source

Systems and automation

• Shape the integrations between our ERP and the payroll, equity administration, commissions and T&E platforms — translating accounting requirements into specifications and test criteria, and owning data integrity once live
• Identify repetitive, rules-based work across the team's workflows and build scalable solutions, including with Claude, to automate or replace it
• Document workflows and controls in a way that supports knowledge transfer, audit evidence and scale

Cross-functional partnership

• Partner with People Operations, Payroll, Total Rewards, Equity Administration, Sales Compensation, Tax and Legal so accounting reflects programme changes before they land in the ledger, not after
• Extend workforce accounting processes to new entities and jurisdictions as Anthropic grows internationally
• Translate complex compensation accounting into plain language for non-finance stakeholders

Team leadership

• Coach and develop a team of accountants, providing timely, specific feedback that raises the technical and operational bar over time
• Hire and onboard as the team grows; set clear expectations and build a culture of precision and continuous improvement
• Move fluidly between reviewing your team's work and doing the work yourself

Minimum qualifications

• Active CPA licence or equivalent professional accounting qualification
• Deep, hands-on experience with payroll accounting and stock-based compensation under ASC 718, including equity roll-forwards and reconciliation to an equity administration platform
• Experience owning a portfolio of accounts through close in a public company or pre-IPO environment, including designing and operating SOX controls
• Experience writing and maintaining accounting policies and SOPs, and being accountable for how a team applies them
• Experience managing or meaningfully coaching other accountants
• Ability to structure ambiguous problems, reach defensible conclusions and document them clearly
• Clear written and verbal communication with non-accounting partners

Preferred qualifications

• Substantial progressive accounting experience that combines Big 4 audit with time at a high-growth or startup company
• Experience with commissions accounting (ASC 340-40), contingent worker accounting, or benefits and relocation programmes
• Experience with complex equity structures — preferred stock, tender offers, modifications, or international equity plans
• Experience preparing or supporting equity, employee benefit plan and net loss per share disclosures for external reporting
• Experience leading or contributing to an ERP, payroll, equity or T&E system implementation or integration, particularly where requirements were evolving mid-project
• Experience extending payroll and equity accounting to new entities or countries
• A clear point of view on how AI tools can eliminate low-value accounting work, and a track record of putting it into practice