Payroll Administrator

King's College London; Greater London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

King's College London is seeking a Payroll Administrator to join the Payroll & Pensions team. You will administer payroll activity for a designated employee population, ensuring changes are processed accurately and in line with deadlines, statutory requirements and university policies.

Working in a collaborative, customer-focused environment, you will maintain records, resolve payroll queries, handle confidential data and contribute to delivering compliant payroll services across the University.

Qualifications

• Educated to GCSE standard (Maths and English).
• Knowledge of payroll legislation and statutory requirements (PAYE, NI, pensions).
• Strong organisational and time management skills with ability to work proactively in a team.
• Strong attention to detail with accuracy in high-volume data.
• Ability to analyse information and perform numerical calculations accurately.
• Experience in administrative/dataprocessing environments with competing priorities.

Responsibilities

• Administer payroll activity for a designated employee population.
• Process starters, leavers, contractual changes, absence-related pay adjustments and one-off payments.
• Maintain accurate payroll records and resolve enquiries.
• Ensure payroll activities comply with deadlines, policy and statutory requirements.
• Provide professional, customer-focused service to employees and stakeholders.

Skills

Payroll legislation knowledge

Organisational skills

Attention to detail

Numerical ability

Data processing experience

Communication skills

Confidential information handling

Education

GCSE Maths & English

CIPP Qualification (desirable)

Tools

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Word

Job description

As part of a supportive and collaborative team, you will help deliver accurate, timely and compliant payroll services to a large and diverse workforce. The team is responsible for processing payroll changes, maintaining employee records, supporting payroll enquiries and ensuring payroll activities are completed in line with statutory requirements, University policies and payroll deadlines. Working closely with colleagues across Payroll & Pensions, Human Resources and other departments, you will contribute to providing a professional, customer-focused service while developing valuable knowledge and experience within payroll administration. We are committed to continuous improvement, teamwork and service excellence, creating an environment where colleagues are supported to learn, develop and build rewarding careers.

We are seeking a Payroll Administrator to join the Payroll & Pensions team and support the delivery of accurate, timely and compliant payroll services across King's College London. In this role, you will be responsible for administering payroll activity for a designated employee population, ensuring payroll changes are processed accurately and in line with payroll deadlines, statutory requirements and University policies. Working as part of a collaborative team, you will process a range of payroll transactions, including starters, leavers, contractual changes, absence-related pay adjustments and one-off payments. You will maintain accurate records, help resolve payroll queries and contribute to providing a professional and customer-focused service to employees and stakeholders across the University. This role would suit someone with strong organisational skills, a high level of accuracy and attention to detail, and the ability to manage competing priorities in a busy environment. You will work closely with colleagues across Payroll & Pensions, Human Resources and other departments, gaining valuable experience within a specialist payroll function while contributing to a service that supports employees throughout the University. The successful candidate will be confident handling sensitive and confidential information, committed to delivering excellent customer service, and motivated to learn and develop within a supportive team environment.

We welcome applications from candidates with relevant administrative, customer service, finance, HR or payroll experience who are keen to build a career in payroll administration. This is a full-time post (35 hours per week). The successful candidate will be offered a fixed-term contract for 12 months.

At King's, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university. The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension. We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination. When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King's guidance.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly, and we recognise its growing role in professional work. Applicants may use AI tools to support preparation of their application, for example to research the role or structure written responses. However, applications must reflect the applicant's own work and experience. AI tools should not be used during interviews or assessment activities unless this has been agreed in advance as a reasonable adjustment. Further guidance on the use of AI in recruitment can be found. We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

Essential criteria

• Educated to GCSE standard (or equivalent), including Mathematics and English
• Knowledge of payroll legislation and statutory requirements, including PAYE, National Insurance, pensions and statutory payments.
• Strong organisational and time management skills with ability to work proactively as part of a team
• Strong attention to detail with the ability to maintain accuracy when working with high volumes of data and deadlines
• Ability to analyse information and perform numerical calculations accurately
• Experience of working in an administrative or data-processing environment with competing priorities and deadlines
• Ability to communicate effectively and provide professional customer-focused support when responding to queries
• Ability to handle confidential information appropriately and work in accordance with data protection, audit requirements and internal controls and policies

Desirable criteria

• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel, Outlook and Word
• Experience of working in a payroll, HR, finance or similar administrative environment.
• CIPP Qualification, or working towards a recognised payroll qualification
• Experience of University or public sector payroll & pension arrangements

Grade and Salary : £34,713 - £38,127 per annum inclusive of London Weighting Allowance Job ID : 155425