Payroll Manager

Waltham Forest Council; Greater London; On-site; GBP 54,000 - 57,000; Full time

Job summary

The London Borough of Waltham Forest is seeking an experienced Payroll Manager to lead the payroll function, ensuring accurate, compliant and timely delivery of payroll services. You will oversee end-to-end payroll processing and manage a team of payroll professionals.

Reporting to the Finance Directorate, the role requires strong leadership, extensive payroll knowledge, and a commitment to continuous improvement, with responsibility for HMRC submissions, year-end processes, and pensions

Qualifications

• CIPP certification and continuous professional development required.

Responsibilities

• Overseeing monthly payroll processing for all payrolls.
• End-to-end payroll processing on Oracle Payroll.
• HMRC submissions and year-end tasks (P60s, P11Ds).
• Produce and reconcile reports for stakeholders.
• Pension administration including teachers pensions.
• Lead and develop a payroll team and drive improvements.
• Ensure compliance with NMW and London living wage.
• Handle complex payroll queries and system updates.

Skills

Payroll management

CIPP

Tools

Oracle Payroll

Job description

Job Description

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO6 £54,267 - £57,402 (Cost of living pay award pending)

Contract Type: Full time/Permanent

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 21/08/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): Early September

Reference: 2231

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London's Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

The Council's preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email [e-mail] so we can arrange an alternative application method.

About the role:

We are seeking an experienced and dynamic Payroll Manager to lead our payroll function and ensure the accurate, compliant, and timely delivery of payroll services. This is an exciting opportunity for a payroll professional with strong leadership skills, extensive payroll knowledge, and a passion for continuous improvement.

The successful candidate will oversee the end-to-end payroll process, manage a team of payroll professionals, ensure compliance with statutory requirements, and drive enhancements to payroll systems and processes.

Key Responsibilities:

• Overseeing the monthly payroll processing for all payrolls, both existing and any new customers
• End-to-end payroll processing on Oracle Payroll
• HMRC submissions
• Year end - including P60s and P11Ds
• To produce and reconcile reports at the end of each payroll period for stakeholders
• Pension administration including teachers pensions
• Ensure all pension reports are completed and submitted to the providers within the agreed timeframe
• Managing a team including training and staff development
• Leading and supporting payroll projects
• Driving improvement and positive recommendations
• Ensure all statutory reports for all payrolls are generated and submitted with the correct data within agreed deadlines
• Ensure compliance with NMW and London living wage
• Complete ONS surveys as due
• Manage CHAPs payments, back dated payments, including pay awards, deductions & salary sacrifice elements & court orders, overpayments
• Creating and sending BACS files
• Complex payroll queries
• System updates as and when required
• System configuration

Qualifications and Requirements:

• CIPP
• Evidence of continuous professional development

Terms and conditions:

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
• Satisfactory declaration of interest;
• Continued professional body registration;
• As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace.

• Promoting equality of opportunity
• Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage
• Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels.
• Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Caroline McKnight at [e-mail]

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at [e-mail].