Senior Payroll Manager

JR United Kingdom; Kettering; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A prestigious financial institution is seeking a Senior Payroll Manager for a 12-month full-time contract in Northampton. This role involves leading a high-scale payroll operation, ensuring compliance, and driving process improvements while developing a team of payroll professionals. Ideal candidates possess extensive payroll operations experience and strong leadership skills.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in payroll operations within Financial Services.
• Demonstrated leadership, motivating and developing teams.
• Strong decision-making ability in compliance and operational performance.

Responsibilities

• Lead UK Payroll delivery, ensuring compliance and accuracy.
• Develop and mentor payroll professionals for career progression.
• Oversee complex payroll issue resolution and process improvements.

Skills

Leadership

Payroll Operations

Compliance

Stakeholder Management

Decision Making

Transformation Leadership

Education

CIPP Level 5 qualification

Job description

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Meraki Talent are delighted to be supporting the appointment of a Senior Payroll Manager for a prestigious financial institution on a 12-month full-time contract based in Northampton. This is a high-impact leadership role managing a large-scale payroll operation.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of the UK Payroll, ensuring timeliness, accuracy, and compliance with all applicable regulations and internal governance standards
• Inspire, coach, and develop a team of payroll professionals, ensuring a robust succession plan and a strong focus on team wellbeing and career progression
• Oversee the resolution of escalated and complex payroll issues, including risk events and service delivery exceptions
• Ensure full compliance with Barclays policies, controls, SLAs, and external legislation through effective management of all payroll operations
• Drive and deliver strategic change and process improvements affecting payroll systems and procedures, in collaboration with Transformation and Strategy teams
• Contribute to the execution of the Global Payroll strategy, ensuring UK payroll activities are fully aligned and integrated
• Establish and maintain productive relationships with senior stakeholders, both internally and externally
• Ensure risk mitigation, governance, and policy adherence in all aspects of payroll operation
• Deliver insightful analysis and reporting to support decision making and continuous improvement across the function

Candidate Profile

• Extensive experience in payroll operations, with strong technical knowledge and proven delivery in complex, large-scale environments, ideally within Financial Services
• Chartered Institute of Payroll and Pensions (CIPP) Level 5 qualification (or equivalent) highly desirable
• Demonstrated leadership experience with a strong ability to motivate, mentor, and develop teams
• Experience managing large payrolls with significant compliance and regulatory responsibility
• Strong decision-making ability with a focus on operational performance, policy adherence, and risk management
• Proven track record of leading transformational change across payroll processes and systems
• Excellent stakeholder management, with the ability to influence and negotiate at a senior level
• Confident in resolving sensitive, complex, and high-impact situations

If you or someone you know is interested in this role, reach out to Nick Nikitin: