Payroll Partner, EMEA

Whereby; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex is seeking a Global Payroll Partner in London to lead regional and international payroll operations. You will ensure accurate processing, tax compliance, and timely month-end close while driving efficiency and cost insights.

The role requires 5+ years in payroll, strong HRIS and vendor-management experience, and the ability to work in a fast-growing, hybrid team. London office, minimum 3 days per week.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, business, or related field.
• Minimum 5 years of regional experience in end-to-end payroll processing.
• Strong time-management and organisational skills; independent working style.
• Familiarity with payroll vendor management and HRIS/payroll integration projects.
• Able to handle confidential information securely.

Responsibilities

• Lead global payroll operations, ensuring accurate processing and compliance.
• Provide insights on payroll data to forecast costs and trends.
• Advise employees on pay issues, policy changes, and inquiries.
• Partner with legal and HR on entity setups and international expansion.
• Drive process improvements to enhance efficiency and accuracy.
• Collaborate with stakeholders via Jira/Slack and maintain knowledge repositories.

Skills

Payroll processing

HRIS integration

Vendor management

Data analysis

Communication skills

Attention to detail

Problem solving

Team collaboration

Time management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Accounting / Business

Tools

HRIS systems

Payroll software

Job description

About Airwallex

Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 250,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more – with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.

Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 2,300 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 27 offices around the globe. Valued at US$11 billion and backed by world-leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you’re ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us.

Attributes We Value

We hire successful builders with founder-like energy who want real impact, accelerated learning, and true ownership. You bring strong role-related expertise and sharp thinking, and you’re motivated by our mission and operating principles. You move fast with good judgment, dig deep with curiosity, and make decisions from first principles, balancing speed and rigor.

You're humble and collaborative; turn zero‑to‑one ideas into real products, and you “get stuff done” end‑to‑end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you’ll tackle complex, high‑visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you, let’s build what’s next.

Looking for a Global Payroll Partner with experience in providing strategic direction to business and leading a team to work towards payroll operations, implementations /system improvements/ cost reduction, advisory, service delivery, control framework, stakeholder management, to shape long term payroll capabilities and contribution to the overall organisational mission.

Our UK team is growing, we are currently 110+ employees, working in a hybrid work environment with a minimum of 3 days per week in our London Office.

Global Payroll Operations:

• Manage global payroll operations, including ensuring accurate and efficient payroll processing, compliance with region‑specific securities regulations and employment tax requirements, reconciliations, month‑end/year end close procedures.

• Provided in‑depth analysis and insights on global payroll data, that can be used by Finance/ HR to forecast/ understand trends in employee costs. Identify and implement improvements to Payroll processes and sub processes.

• Provide advice and education to employees in relation to pay issues, award changes, new policies etc, resolving any payroll enquiries in a professional manner.

• Partner with legal and HR to drive implementation of new entity set up and “Employment of Record” services as part of international expansion efforts.

• Provide advice and education to employees in relation to pay issues, award changes, new policies etc, resolving any payroll enquiries in a professional manner.

• Resolving employee/stakeholder queries raised via JIRA/slack channels.

• Developing process payroll knowledge repository in the form of documents, FAQs, response templates.

• Familiar with private equity, RSU, ESOP schemes and reporting requirements.

• Drive process improvements to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and employee experience in payroll operations.

Global Payroll System Management:

• Lead the implementation of a single & unified global payroll solution for each entity in the organisation.

• Maximise payroll data and workflow automations by leveraging system integrations capabilities of the payroll system.

• Support the evolution of payroll systems and tools to ensure effective optimisation and best practice procedures are implemented and executed.

What we are looking for:

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Business Administration, Human Resources, or a related field preferred

• Minimum 5 years of regional experience working in end‑to‑end payroll processing

• Self‑motivated individual with the ability to work independently and as part of a team, with excellent time‑management and organisational skills.

• Familiarity with payroll vendor management, and HRIS/payroll integration projects.

• Attention to detail and accuracy, with the ability to handle confidential and sensitive information securely.

• Demonstrated problem‑solving skills and ability to identify and resolve payroll discrepancies and issues.

• Strong analytical and numerical skills, with the ability to analyse data and generate meaningful reports for management.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with internal stakeholders at all levels.

• Proven ability to adapt and thrive in a fast‑paced, high‑growth environment.

Equal opportunity

Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Airwallex is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don’t regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.