Senior Payroll Manager

at; Adelaide; Hybrid; AUD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A large, established national organisation in Australia is seeking an experienced Senior Payroll Manager to lead a sizeable and complex payroll function across multiple entities and platforms. You will shape governance, develop the team, drive process improvements and participate in payroll system transformation, migration or implementation while maintaining compliance and accuracy.

Hybrid working is available, with leadership visibility to senior stakeholders and the opportunity to influence

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading a complex payroll function.
• Experience managing and developing a sizeable payroll team.
• Strong knowledge of Australian payroll legislation, awards, compliance and payroll controls.
• Experience in a high-volume payroll environment.
• Exposure to multiple payroll systems, entities, business units or employee populations.
• Ability to lead with governance, accountability and strong delegation.

Responsibilities

• Leading, coaching and developing a sizeable payroll team across multiple locations.
• Ensuring accurate, compliant and timely payroll delivery across a complex workforce.
• Providing structure, direction and accountability across the payroll function.
• Overseeing payroll activity across multiple systems, employee groups and operations.
• Maintaining strong payroll governance, controls and compliance.
• Collaborating with Finance, HR and operations to resolve issues and improve outcomes.
• Contributing to payroll process improvement and system transformation initiatives.

Skills

Complex payroll leadership

Team development

Australian payroll legislation

High-volume payroll

Multi-system exposure

Stakeholder seniority collaboration

People leadership

Job description

A large, established national organisation is seeking an experienced Senior Payroll Manager to lead a sizeable and complex payroll function through its next stage of development.

This is not simply a role focused on getting payroll out the door. The environment is large, operationally complex and spread across multiple business streams, employee populations and payroll platforms. The successful person will be responsible for ensuring the fundamentals remain strong while also improving the way the function operates, develops its people and uses systems.

You will lead a nationally distributed payroll team of approximately 15–20 people and work closely with senior Finance, HR and operational stakeholders. The role requires someone who can provide strong leadership and structure, remain close enough to the detail to understand what is happening, but avoid becoming the person who personally solves every transactional issue.

There is also a genuine transformation element to the opportunity. The organisation is considering the future consolidation and evolution of its payroll technology environment, creating the potential for the successful person to play an important role in future system implementation, migration and process improvement.

The role would suit an accomplished Payroll Manager or Senior Payroll Manager who has worked in a complex, high-volume environment and enjoys combining technical payroll knowledge with people leadership, operational improvement and systems thinking.

Experience leading payroll across multiple entities, business units, awards or employee populations would be particularly valuable, as would previous involvement in payroll transformation, implementation or migration projects.

What you’ll be doing:

• Leading, coaching and developing a sizeable payroll team across multiple locations
• Taking overall responsibility for accurate, compliant and timely payroll delivery across a complex workforce
• Providing structure, direction and accountability across the payroll function
• Ensuring appropriate delegation while developing capability within the team
• Overseeing payroll activity across multiple systems, employee groups and business operations
• Maintaining strong payroll governance, controls and compliance
• Working closely with Finance, HR and operational leaders to resolve issues and improve outcomes
• Reviewing existing payroll processes and identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, accuracy and control
• Building stronger systems, workflows and operating disciplines within the function
• Remaining sufficiently connected to day-to-day payroll operations to identify issues without becoming consumed by transactional processing
• Contributing to future payroll technology decisions and potentially playing a key role in system migration or implementation
• Supporting the payroll function as the broader organisation continues to evolve and grow

What you’ll bring:

• Significant experience leading a complex payroll function
• Experience managing and developing a sizeable payroll team
• Strong technical knowledge of Australian payroll legislation, awards, compliance and payroll controls
• Experience within a high-volume payroll environment
• Exposure to multiple payroll systems, entities, business units or employee populations
• Strong people leadership skills, with the ability to delegate, coach and empower rather than simply take work back yourself
• Confidence working with senior Finance, HR and operational stakeholders
• Strong judgement, accountability and attention to detail
• The ability to balance strategic thinking with a sound understanding of operational payroll
• Experience improving payroll processes, controls and ways of working
• Exposure to payroll system implementation, migration or transformation would be highly regarded
• Experience withDayforce, Chris21/Frontier or other large enterprise payroll platforms would be advantageous
• Experience in workforce-intensive industries involving large, distributed, casual, award-based or otherwise complex employee populations would be valuable

Why this role?

This is a genuine opportunity to take ownership of a payroll function that matters to the broader organisation.

You will inherit an established team and operating environment, but there is clear scope to strengthen leadership, develop capability beneath you and improve the way payroll operates. You will have visibility with senior leadership and the opportunity to influence decisions rather than simply administer an existing process. The role also offers hybrid working flexibility, supporting a balance of office based collaboration and working from home.

The complexity of the environment also makes the role interesting. There are multiple employee populations, business streams and payroll platforms to manage, meaning this is a position for someone who enjoys understanding how the pieces fit together and improving them over time. There is also the potential for significant payroll technology change ahead. While no future platform decision has been finalised, the organisation is actively considering the evolution of its payroll environment, and experience with major system implementation or transformation would position the successful person to play an important role in that journey.

Culturally, the organisation is looking for someone technically credible, calm, accountable and commercially aware, but equally someone who genuinely enjoys leading people. They want a Senior Payroll Manager who will create clarity and accountability, develop the team and build a function that is not dependent on the manager personally carrying too much of the workload.

This is an important senior appointment and would suit someone looking for broader ownership, genuine organisational influence and the opportunity to lead both the people and evolution of a complex payroll function.