Payroll Consultant

SAGE GROUP PLC; Newcastle upon Tyne; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Sage Group plc in the UK is seeking a confident Payroll Consultant to lead payroll implementations and optimise processes across large organisations. You’ll guide customers, partners and internal teams through the implementation journey, ensuring high-quality delivery and compliance with UK payroll legislation.

You’ll manage projects from planning to go-live, configure solutions, test data, and resolve complex payroll issues, while building strong stakeholder relationships.

Qualifications

• Proven experience implementing payroll solutions within large or complex organisations.
• Strong understanding of UK payroll legislation, compliance requirements and payroll operations.
• Experience managing payroll or HR systems projects from requirements gathering through implementation.
• Strong project planning, organisation and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent analytical skills with experience interpreting payroll and operational data.
• Experience working with payroll systems, integrations and data flows.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support Sage People Payroll implementations, ensuring successful, high-quality delivery.
• Act as a payroll subject matter expert, providing guidance to customers, implementation partners and internal teams.
• Manage payroll projects from planning through to deployment, taking ownership of timelines, risks, dependencies and deliverables.
• Support pre-sales activities by providing expert input on payroll-related customer requirements.
• Configure payroll solutions, perform testing, validate data and support go-live activities.
• Investigate and resolve complex payroll, system and data-related issues.
• Analyse payroll data to identify risks, trends and opportunities for optimisation.
• Ensure payroll processes remain fully compliant with UK payroll legislation and regulatory requirements.
• Drive improvements in payroll efficiency, controls, automation and employee experience.
• Create implementation guides, process documentation and training materials, including video content.
• Build strong relationships with customers, partners and key internal stakeholders.
• Provide commercially focused recommendations that deliver measurable business value.

Skills

Payroll implementations

UK payroll legislation

Project management

Stakeholder management

Data analysis

Communication

Excel

Education

CIPP qualification or equivalent payroll accreditation

Tools

Sage People Payroll

Sage 50 Payroll

Job description

As a trusted payroll expert, you'll lead customers through the implementation journey while driving continuous improvement across payroll processes and systems.

You'll:

• Lead and support Sage People Payroll implementations, ensuring successful, high-quality delivery.
• Act as a payroll subject matter expert, providing guidance to customers, implementation partners and internal teams.
• Manage payroll projects from planning through to deployment, taking ownership of timelines, risks, dependencies and deliverables.
• Support pre-sales activities by providing expert input on payroll-related customer requirements.
• Configure payroll solutions, perform testing, validate data and support go-live activities.
• Investigate and resolve complex payroll, system and data-related issues.
• Analyse payroll data to identify risks, trends and opportunities for optimisation.
• Ensure payroll processes remain fully compliant with UK payroll legislation and regulatory requirements.
• Drive improvements in payroll efficiency, controls, automation and employee experience.
• Create implementation guides, process documentation and training materials, including video content.
• Build strong relationships with customers, partners and key internal stakeholders.
• Provide commercially focused recommendations that deliver measurable business value.

We're seeking a confident and customer-focused payroll professional who thrives in a project environment and enjoys turning complex requirements into practical solutions.

Essential experience

• Proven experience implementing payroll solutions within large or complex organisations.
• Strong understanding of UK payroll legislation, compliance requirements and payroll operations.
• Experience managing payroll or HR systems projects from requirements gathering through implementation.
• Strong project planning, organisation and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent analytical skills with experience interpreting payroll and operational data.
• Experience working with payroll systems, integrations and data flows.
• Advanced problem-solving skills with a meticulous attention to detail.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences alike.
• Experience supporting organisations with large employee populations, often numbering in the thousands.

Desirable experience

• Sage People Payroll and/or Sage 50 Payroll implementation experience.
• CIPP qualification or equivalent payroll accreditation.
• Experience working with HCM, Finance or ERP systems.
• Payroll data migration, reconciliation and testing experience using Excel.
• Previous experience in a consultancy, professional services or customer-facing project environment.
• Formal project management qualifications or equivalent project delivery experience.

What makes you a great fit

You’ll be someone who:

• Takes ownership and delivers results.
• Builds credibility quickly with customers and stakeholders.
• Challenges existing processes and seeks smarter ways of working.
• Enjoys combining payroll expertise with technology and project delivery.
• Thinks commercially and understands the wider business impact of payroll solutions.
• Brings a proactive, solutions-focused mindset to every challenge.

Why Sage?

At Sage, we help millions of customers around the world manage their business with confidence. As our Sage People Payroll offering continues to grow, we're looking for an experienced Payroll Consultant to join our team and play a pivotal role in delivering successful payroll implementations for our customers.

This is an exciting opportunity for a payroll professional who combines deep payroll expertise with strong project delivery skills and a passion for helping organisations get the most from their technology. You'll work with customers, implementation partners, sales teams and internal stakeholders to deliver payroll solutions that are accurate, compliant and scalable.

If you enjoy solving complex challenges, working with large and sophisticated payroll environments, and influencing the future of payroll delivery, we'd love to hear from you.

This is a Hybrid role with three days per week in our Newcastle office, At Sage, you'll join a collaborative, innovative and customer-focused organisation where your expertise can make a genuine impact. You'll work alongside talented colleagues, contribute to meaningful customer outcomes and help shape the future of payroll technology.

Whether it's improving payroll experiences, delivering successful implementations or driving operational excellence, you'll have the opportunity to make your mark from day one.

Advert Working at Sage means you're supporting millions of small and mid-sized businesses globally with technology to work smarter and move faster. We build software that reduces busywork so customers can spend less time on admin and more time building their business.

Our colleagues are high-performers who prioritise growth, make bold choices, and focus and galvanise to get things done. They work on meaningful, market-shaping initiatives that stretch their skills, sharpen your craft, and create real customer impact.

Explore your culture and benefits: sage.com/careers/working-at-sage

We celebrate individuality and welcome you to join us if you embrace all backgrounds, identities, beliefs and ways of working. We're a Disability Confident employer - if you're applying through this scheme or need adjustments at any stage, contact [e-mail].