Payroll Benefits & Pensions Specialist (6 MONTH FTC)

Ardonagh Specialty; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading insurance services provider in City Of London is seeking a Payroll Benefits & Pensions Specialist. The role involves managing benefits and pension administration, ensuring compliance with payroll regulations, and providing excellent customer service. The ideal candidate will have 3-5 years of relevant experience, strong communication skills, and the ability to work in a fast-paced environment. The company offers a competitive salary and a flexible working model.

Benefits

Employer pension contribution of 10%

Good work life balance

Competitive salary

Life Assurance at X4 of your base salary

Group Income Protection

Generous Annual Leave

Private Medical Insurance

Group annual bonus scheme

Qualifications

• Demonstrate problem solving capabilities.
• Ability to manage multiple payrolls in a fast-paced environment.
• Understanding of payroll cycles and associated timeframes.

Responsibilities

• Administer employee pension schemes, including auto enrolment.
• Ensure compliance with UK payroll regulations.
• Reconcile and administer daily and weekly data reports.

Skills

Strong written and verbal communication skills

Excellent attention to detail

Problem solving capabilities

MS Office/Excel

Education

3-5 years of experience in Payroll, Pensions & Benefits Administration

Tools

Flexible Benefits platform experience (Benefex)

Dayforce

Job description

Job Title: Payroll Benefits & Pensions Specialist

Location: London/Hybrid (Typically 2/3 days in the office)

Type: Full time-Fixed Term (If you are a job share partnership, work reduced hours, or any other way of working flexibly, please do still get in touch)

At Ardonagh Specialty, we provide much more than just a workplace. We are dedicated to fostering skill development and knowledge within a team that is passionate about their work, values their Employees, and truly celebrates diversity.

Working at Ardonagh Specialty means you’ll be part of The Ardonagh Group. We are proud of our innovative environment offering many opportunities for growth across the wider group. Employees regularly move between our united teams, and we encourage you to make your role your own.

Our offices are lively and exciting places to be, but we understand that life needs flexibility, and offer a genuinely flexible approach to working. If you are looking to join a thriving, energetic business with exciting plans, this role could be an ideal fit for you.

What we can offer

We offer much more than just an inclusive culture with apprenticeships, study support, participation in our annual Spotlight Awards, Community Trust, Sports Teams, office socials, events and so much more. All of this with a supportive management team as well as working alongside some of the industry’s top talent.

Further perks of working with us (Fixed benefits)

• Employer pension contribution of 10% (providing you, the Employee provides 5%).
• Good work life balance - flexibility to suit you.
• Competitive salary.
• Life Assurance at X4 of your base salary.
• Group Income Protection.
• Generous Annual Leave entitlement.
• Private Medical Insurance.
• Group annual bonus scheme.

Purpose of the Role

This role reports into the Specialty HR Operations Manager with a dotted line into the Group Payroll Team Leader and will work closely with the Group HR and Specialty Operations Team to provide an efficient and compliant Benefits & Pension Administration for the Specialty group.

Providing excellent customer service to managers and employees, including:

Key Role Accountabilities

• Responsibility for all benefits & pension administration.
• Reconcile and administer the daily and weekly data reports to support the delivery of the company’s flexible benefits platform and pension necessities.
• Administer employee pension schemes, including auto enrolment, contributions, and reconciliations with various pension providers.
• Ensure compliance with UK payroll regulations, tax laws, and pension auto-enrolment requirements.
• Strive to build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders.
• Proactively manage and facilitate employee pension & benefit queries.
• Support year-end payroll processes, including the production of annual P11D forms and Company Car administration.
• Help drive and support various Pension & Benefit projects within the Payroll team.
• Collaborate with the Group Reward, Compliance and the Internal Audit team to ensure accurate benefits administration and governance.
• Support M&A activity and be able to manage multiple payrolls at one time.
• Work alongside the outsourced benefit provider (Benefex) and other benefit providers to ensure best practice in all related activity, with a focus on continuous improvement.
• Ardonagh Specialty is made up of 6 different UK payrolls with a current employee headcount of 1500.

Qualifications & Experience

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• The ability to work unsupervised and to tight deadlines.
• Demonstrate problem solving capabilities.
• MS Office/Excel.

Desired Skills

• Flexible Benefits platform experience (Benefex).
• Previous experience of using Dayforce.
• Payroll admin experience relating to either pensions or employee benefits.
• Working with multiple payrolls in a fast‑paced environment with vigorous M&A activity.
• Experience of working in the Insurance industry is a plus but not essential.

Person Specification

• Min 3-5 years of experience working within Payroll, Pensions & Benefits Administration.
• High degree of integrity, confidentiality, cultural awareness, empathy, fairness and good judgement.
• Able to deal with ambiguity.
• Ability to effectively manage personal workload, including understanding priorities, delivering to tight timelines and managing customer expectations.
• Able to work in a complex structure, fast-paced environment that constantly evolves and has a can‑do attitude.
• High degree of organisation, efficiency, accuracy & attention to detail.
• Understanding of payroll cycles and the associated timeframes.
• Pragmatic approach to work.
• Effective communication and presenting skills.
• Clear and confident communication skills.
• Build relationships with HR teams across the business with the ability to build strong (often remote) relationships.
• Ability to work as part of a team.

Think you don’t meet every requirement?

We are dedicated to creating a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace where everyone can thrive. If you’re excited about this role, but your experience doesn’t perfectly match what we are looking for, please apply anyway. You might just be the right fit for the job, or other opportunities we may have within the wider Group.

Interview Process

At Ardonagh Specialty, we have a straightforward interview process to ensure the best fit for both you and the company:

• Submit your application with your CV, emphasising your skills and experience related to the job.
• Our Talent Acquisition team will then arrange a call where they can tell you more about the role and the team. We want to learn about your motivation and goals, what you can bring to Ardonagh Specialty, and answer any immediate questions.
• If successful, you will generally be invited to engage in a 1-hour interview with the Hiring Manager and selected team members, via teams or in person. We will discuss our technologies, key skills, and team dynamics and provide further opportunity to ask any questions. This is your chance to voice your thoughts on the role and we will outline our expectations and ensure this role aligns with your ambitions for the future.
• Depending on the role, you may be invited to attend a second stage interview with further members of the team.

If successful or unsuccessful, we always try and move quickly in presenting an offer or providing feedback. We truly value the diversity of our teams and as a Group, we are committed to supporting and welcoming individuals from all backgrounds, as we appreciate every perspective is a significant part of our success. Should you require any reasonable adjustment throughout the recruitment process, please do not hesitate to let a member of the Talent team know.