Lead Project Manager, Payroll & Rostering Transformation Project

Urban Consulting Ltd; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Urban Consulting Ltd is advising a long-established UK provider on a payroll and rostering transformation. A new SaaS rostering and payroll platform is being rolled out across sites with early live deployments and final payments due by year end.

The lead will own the rollout plan and ensure milestones are met, liaising with HR, Finance, Ops and IT. You will escalate issues, maintain a backlog, oversee fixes with the supplier, and provide clear updates to programme and board level stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering system implementations to fixed deadlines, ideally payroll/HR/workforce systems.
• Payroll knowledge is a real bonus; frontline or shift-based workforce experience helps.

Responsibilities

• Own rollout plan and turn it into a live document you manage.
• Capture requirements from HR, Finance, Operations and IT and agree live order.
• Maintain a clear backlog for later phases and manage issue/defect logs.
• Hold the software supplier to account on fixes and escalate quickly when needed.
• Write clear reporting for the programme board and the main board.

Job description

Lead Project Manager, Payroll & Rostering Transformation Project

Remote (UK) with occasional travel to national sites

*Experience in HR, payroll or workforce-system implementation is highly advantageous*

The company

We’re working exclusively with a long-established UK provider of specialist care, supported living and residential services. It is part way through a business-critical change to how its people are rostered and paid. A new SaaS rostering and payroll platform is being rolled out service by service, and the first sites are already live. Everyone needs to be paid through it by the end of the financial year, with no room to slip.

The technology is landing well. What it needs now is someone to take charge of the project.

The role

The organisation needs an independent project manager to bring structure, pace and grip, so that leaders and the board can see exactly where things stand.

Reporting to the CIO, you’ll take over the rollout plan and turn it into a live document you own. You’ll capture requirements from HR, Finance, Operations and IT, agree with each group what goes live first and what follows, and keep a clear backlog for later phases. You’ll run the issue and defect logs, hold the software supplier to account on fixes, and **escalate quickly** when support falls short. You’ll also write clear reporting for the programme board and the main board.

This role isn’t about the technology itself. You’ll work alongside a programme director who leads frontline delivery, while you own the plan, chase what’s due, and make sure every stakeholder group feels heard.

About you

You’ll have a strong record of delivering system implementations to a fixed deadline, ideally in payroll, HR or workforce systems, and you’ll have stepped into projects already underway and brought them under control. You build trust first and apply pressure when it’s needed, and when something blocks progress, you come with options rather than waiting.

Payroll knowledge is a real bonus. Experience of a large frontline or shift-based workforce helps too. You don’t need charity-sector or deep technical experience.

The impact here is real. Every fix you push through means someone on the front line is paid correctly and on time.