Payroll & Equity Adminstrator

Base is America’s next-generation power company. We’re rebuilding the foundation of modern civilization–electricity–by deploying a vast network of distributed batteries that is transforming today’s fragile, centralized grid into a resilient and abundant system. We are engineers, operators, and creatives solving some of the most complex, interdisciplinary challenges of our time.

Base runs payroll for a growing, fully in-person team, and grants equity to employees who join. Both processes need someone who owns them fully and directly — not as a side responsibility bolted onto another role.

This role processes payroll every cycle, ensures the payroll journal entry integration is properly mapped, prepares the payroll departmental allocations that feed the books, and administers Base's equity program end to end: grants, vesting, exercises, and cap table hygiene. You'll also support the transition to a new equity administration platform and own the accounting for stock-based compensation.

You'll work closely with the broader accounting team on the entries that hit the books each period, with People on new hires, terminations, and comp changes, and with Finance office on equity grants and cap table questions.

• Process payroll every cycle for Base's full employee population, including multi-state and hourly or field-team complexity.

• Prepare payroll journal entries and departmental/cost-center allocations, and reconcile payroll to the general ledger each period.

• Administer Base's equity program: process new grants, track vesting, process exercises, and keep the cap table and option ledger accurate.

• Lead the transition from Base's current equity administration process to a new platform — data migration, testing, and employee-facing rollout.

• Own stock-based compensation accounting: expense recognition, forfeitures, modifications, and the accounting treatment for early exercises.

• Answer employee questions on pay, equity grants, and vesting with clear, accurate information.

• Build the SOPs and controls around payroll and equity administration so both processes scale without added headcount.
  

• 3–6+ years in payroll and/or equity administration, ideally both, at a high-growth company.

• Hands-on experience processing payroll end to end, including journal entries and allocations — not just reviewing someone else's output.

• Experience administering an equity program: grants, vesting schedules, exercises, and cap table reconciliation. Experience with an equity platform migration (e.g., Carta, Shareworks) is a strong plus.

• Working knowledge of stock-based compensation accounting, including ASC 718 concepts and early exercise treatment.

• High attention to detail — comfortable being the last check before an employee's pay or equity is wrong.

• Discretion. You'll regularly handle sensitive compensation and ownership data.
  

The Base finance and business operations team is responsible for providing clear visibility on past and future performance across the business, financing our growth, capital allocation decisions, and supporting the broader Base team on key performance drivers. To succeed, Base must raise and deploy tens of billions of dollars, maintain sustainable unit economics, exercise extreme operating leverage, and balance supply/demand and growth/profitability in a complex and high-pace environment. The finance team enables these by building toward omniscience with sharp analytics and tools for observability, integrating with the business to support operational decisions, establishing tight controls and processes to cull complexity, and presenting Base to investors effectively.

Please note: Base is a startup, which means priorities shift and evolve quickly. Your role may expand or change based on the needs of the business at any given time, so the responsibilities listed may not be exhaustive.

• First Principles Thinking: Question assumptions. Principles > rules.

• Operate at Base Pace: Focus on what matters, act quickly, and learn by doing.

• Give & Get Feedback: Be direct, be humble, and maintain a growth mindset.

• Everyone’s an Owner: Follow through on commitments and own results.

• Strong Opinions, Loosely Held: Drive clarity and make calls with imperfect information.

• Committed to the Mission: Rebuilding the grid is a big challenge. We work hard because we care deeply about the impact we’re creating. We work in-person. It’s not a 9-to-5. We are all-in.

• Fun & Optimism Coexist with Grit: Collaboration and celebration coincide with the intensity of building real things.