About Etched
Etched is building the world’s first AI inference system purpose-built for transformers - delivering over 10x higher performance and dramatically lower cost and latency than a B200. With Etched ASICs, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep & parallel chain-of-thought reasoning agents. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.

Job Summary
We are hiring a General Ledger Accountant, Payroll to own critical elements of our financial close and ensure accurate accounting for payroll, benefits, and related compensation expenses. This role sits at the intersection of People Operations and Accounting, with direct ownership over payroll accruals, reconciliations, compliance, and internal controls.

You will partner closely with People Ops and Finance to ensure compensation activity is accurately recorded in the general ledger and supported by strong documentation and controls. You will own the payroll and benefits close process while helping design systems and workflows that scale as the company grows across entities and jurisdictions. This is a hands-on role requiring strong attention to detail, comfort operating in a fast-scaling environment, and a clear understanding of how payroll and benefits activity impacts financial reporting.

Key Responsibilities

Own and lead the payroll and benefits accounting close process, ensuring accurate accruals, reconciliations, reporting, and strong internal controls over employee compensation and related expenses
Reconcile payroll reports from third-party providers to the general ledger
Prepare and post payroll journal entries, including accruals for bonuses, commissions, and PTO
Reconcile benefits portal data to payroll deductions
Review and reconcile carrier invoices to ensure accuracy of employer and employee contributions
Investigate and resolve discrepancies between HRIS, payroll providers, benefits portals, and ERP
Prepare payroll-related account reconciliations and maintain supporting documentation
Maintain organized payroll and benefits documentation to support internal reviews and audits
Ensure payroll changes, including new hires, terminations, compensation updates, and bonus payments, have proper approval and supporting documentation
Maintain up-to-date process documentation for payroll and benefits workflows
Support periodic internal control reviews and testing
Maintain accurate configuration of earnings codes, deduction codes, tax settings, and pay groups within payroll systems
Support integration between payroll platforms, HRIS, benefits portals, and other connected systems
Support system setup for new states, entities, and pay frequencies as the company expands
Standardize payroll processes to reduce manual intervention and improve efficiency
Maintain payroll tax registrations across federal, state, and local jurisdictions
Track and monitor payroll tax filings prepared by third-party payroll providers
Coordinate state unemployment insurance registrations and rate updates
Support new state registrations as the company expands into additional jurisdictions
Assist with year-end reporting processes, including W-2 reconciliation and distribution oversight
Coordinate responses to payroll tax notices from government agencies
Coordinate with HR on new hires, terminations, compensation changes, and benefit elections to ensure payroll accuracy
Review and validate HR-provided employee data prior to payroll processing
Assist in resolving employee payroll and benefits inquiries in collaboration with HR

You may be a good fit if you have

3 to 5+ years of general accounting experience with ownership of payroll and benefits close processes
Proficiency with ERP systems such as NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, or equivalent, and experience scaling systems in a high-growth environment
Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field
Strong communication and relationship-building skills to work effectively across departments

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
- $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office
Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)
Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
Daily lunch and dinner in our office

How we’re different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We think most of the progress in the AI field has come from using more FLOPs to train and run models, and the best way to get more FLOPs is to build model-specific hardware. Larger and larger training runs encourage companies to consolidate around fewer model architectures, which creates a market for single-model ASICs.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose and Taipei, and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both as needed.