Payroll Specialist

Hunter Adams; Staines-upon-Thames; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Hunter Adams is recruiting an experienced Workday Payroll Specialist to own accurate UK payroll delivery across multiple sites. You will act as the payroll SME, managing end-to-end UK payroll with a focus on compliance, efficiency and data integrity within Workday, and collaborating with HR Operations and Finance.

You will drive reconciliation, year-end processes and support the move to a consolidated payroll service while maintaining strong relationships with external providers.

Qualifications

• Extensive end-to-end UK payroll experience (3–5 years).
• Strong knowledge of UK payroll legislation and statutory requirements.
• Hands-on Workday payroll experience with HR data.
• Experience in payroll reconciliations, controls and audits.
• Analytical, detail-oriented and proactive with a process-driven mindset.

Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end UK payroll processing across multi-site organisation.
• Validate payroll outputs and complete reconciliations.
• Ensure compliance with HMRC, PAYE, NIC and pension requirements.
• Oversee year-end processes including P60s and P11Ds.
• Maintain payroll data and workflows within Workday.
• Support transition to consolidated managed payroll service.
• Manage relationships with external payroll providers.
• Resolve complex payroll queries and discrepancies.
• Identify opportunities to improve accuracy, efficiency and automation.
• Support wider payroll and HR transformation initiatives.

Skills

End-to-end payroll

UK payroll compliance

Workday payroll

Payroll reconciliations

Audit controls

Analytical mindset

Stakeholder management

Process improvement

Education

CIPP qualification (preferred or in progress)

Tools

Workday

Job description

Hunter Adams are delighted to be supporting our client with recruiting an experienced Workday Payroll Specialist to take ownership of accurate, compliant and efficient UK payroll delivery across a multi-site organisation. Acting as the payroll subject matter expert, you’ll manage the end-to-end payroll process while helping to optimise Workday, consolidate payrolls and reduce manual processes. You’ll work closely with HR Operations, Finance and external payroll providers to deliver an excellent employee experience.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Managing end-to-end UK payroll processing
• Validating payroll outputs and completing reconciliations
• Ensuring compliance with HMRC, PAYE, NIC and pension requirements
• Managing year-end processes, including P60s and P11Ds
• Maintaining accurate payroll data and workflows within Workday
• Supporting the transition to a consolidated managed payroll service
• Managing relationships with external payroll providers
• Resolving complex payroll queries and discrepancies
• Identifying opportunities to improve accuracy, efficiency and automation
• Supporting wider payroll and HR transformation initiatives

About you

• Strong end-to-end UK payroll experience, ideally gained over three to five years
• Excellent knowledge of UK payroll legislation and statutory requirements
• Hands-on experience using Workday for payroll or payroll-related HR data
• Experience of payroll reconciliations, controls and audit requirements
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail
• Confidence working with HR, Finance and third-party providers
• A proactive, process-driven and continuous-improvement mindset

Experience of outsourced payroll, multi-site organisations, payroll consolidation or M&A environments would be particularly valuable. A CIPP qualification, or progress towards one, would also be advantageous.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced payroll professional who enjoys combining operational delivery with systems optimisation and process improvement.