Payroll Team Leader

Key Talent Solutions; Epsom; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Key Talent Solutions is seeking an experienced Payroll Team Leader to deliver the UK in-house payroll cycle, lead the payroll team, and ensure governance and compliance within a large engineering and infrastructure organisation.

The role sits at the intersection of hands-on payroll delivery and leadership, handling validation, reconciliations, reporting to senior HR stakeholders, supporting year-end activity, and driving process improvements with HR, Finance and systems teams.

Qualifications

• Proven hands-on experience delivering end-to-end UK payroll.
• Experience in an in-house or similarly complex payroll environment.
• Strong knowledge of UK payroll legislation (PAYE, NI, RTI, minimum wage).
• Experience leading or managing payroll colleagues.
• Governance, audit and controls experience (SOX or similar).

Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of the UK in-house payroll cycle.
• Manage the payroll team’s daily workload, priorities and deadlines.
• Provide guidance, coaching and escalation support to payroll colleagues.
• Own payroll validation, reconciliations, exception checks, approvals and audit controls.
• Ensure compliance with UK payroll legislation, HMRC requirements, PAYE, NI, statutory payments and policy.
• Monitor National Minimum Wage compliance and salary sacrifice / flexible benefits.
• Partner with Reward, Benefits, HR Operations, HR Business Partners, Finance and systems teams.
• Produce payroll service reporting covering accuracy, timeliness, exceptions, SLAs and risks.
• Act as escalation point for complex payroll queries and maintain audit trails.
• Support year-end and statutory payroll activity and data quality improvements.

Skills

End-to-end UK payroll

In-house payroll management

Stakeholder management

Excel

Payroll reporting

Team leadership

Governance/compliance

HRIS familiarity

Education

CIPP qualification or recognised payroll training

Tools

Workday

Oracle

SAP

Dayforce

ADP

Zellis

Job description

Office-based through probation, moving to hybrid after successful completion

We are looking for an experienced Payroll Team Leader to lead the accurate, compliant and timely delivery of a UK in-house payroll service within a large engineering and infrastructure organisation.

This role is ideal for someone who has built their career in calm, controlled payroll operations and is ready to bring that discipline into a structured, multinational environment.

You will sit at the intersection of hands-on payroll delivery and real team leadership, owning the day-to-day payroll operation, maintaining strong governance and controls, supporting legislative and benefit changes, and providing clear reporting to senior HR stakeholders.

The Role

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of the UK in-house payroll cycle
• Manage the payroll team’s daily workload, priorities and deadlines
• Provide guidance, coaching and escalation support to payroll colleagues
• Own payroll validation, reconciliations, exception checks, approvals and audit controls
• Ensure compliance with UK payroll legislation, HMRC requirements, PAYE, National Insurance, statutory payments and company policy
• Monitor National Minimum Wage compliance, especially around salary sacrifice and flexible benefit deductions
• Process and oversee the payroll treatment of flexible benefits
• Partner with Reward, Benefits, HR Operations, HR Business Partners, Finance, pensions and systems teams
• Produce payroll service reporting covering accuracy, timeliness, exceptions, service levels, incidents, risks and improvement actions
• Act as the escalation point for complex payroll queries
• Maintain strong process documentation, controls and audit trails
• Support year-end and statutory payroll activity
• Identify opportunities to improve payroll efficiency, controls and data quality

What we are looking for

• Proven hands‑on experience delivering end-to-end UK payroll
• Experience in an in-house or similarly complex payroll environment
• Strong knowledge of UK payroll legislation, including PAYE, NI, statutory payments, RTI and National Minimum Wage principles
• Experience leading or managing payroll colleagues
• Strong workload control, coaching and escalation handling experience
• Experience with payroll-related benefits, salary sacrifice or flexible benefit schemes
• Confident stakeholder management and payroll performance reporting skills
• Strong attention to detail, numerical ability and deadline discipline
• Good Excel skills and confidence working across payroll systems, HRIS platforms and employee data
• CIPP qualification or recognised payroll training
• Governance, audit and controls experience, including SOX or similar compliance environments
• Experience across pensions payroll, including DB, DC and auto-enrolment
• Ability to translate payroll complexity into clear reporting for Finance, HR and senior leadership
• Experience with process improvement, payroll migrations or fixing fragile payroll operations
• Familiarity with Workday, Oracle, SAP, Dayforce, ADP, Zellis or similar systems

Why this role

• Stable, well‑established organisation with a structured HR operating model
• Real ownership of a meaningful part of the payroll cycle
• Direct visibility to senior stakeholders
• Opportunity to bring calm, controlled leadership into a business that values governance and payroll accuracy