Senior Payroll Officer - 18 months maternity cover fixed term

Edinburgh Airport; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Edinburgh Airport is hiring a Payroll Administrator for an 18-month maternity cover to manage payroll and reward activities. You will implement a new HRIS and ensure compliance across payroll processing. Ideal candidates will have experience in payroll delivery and a CIPP qualification. Join a team focused on people and values, supporting your career development while enhancing airport operations.

Benefits

Pension scheme with employer contributions up to 7%

32 days holiday, increasing with service

Annual discretionary bonus

Private healthcare after 1 year

Access to Employee Assistance Programme

Free car parking on site

Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years of hands-on payroll delivery required.
• Strong understanding of current payroll legislation is essential.
• Proven experience managing compliance aspects of payroll.

Responsibilities

• Lead payroll and reward activities for accurate payroll processing.
• Support HRIS implementation with data migration and testing.
• Ensure compliance with HMRC regulations and handle year-end processes.

Skills

Attention to detail

Interpersonal skills

Communication skills

Education

CIPP qualification (or equivalent experience)

Job description

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About the Role

This role is a maternity cover for 18 months. Initially you will be working with the Head of HR Process delivering the payroll set up and implementation of our new HRIS. We will go live in January 2026. You will also work with our Reward Business Partner on our reward and benefit administration. Thereafter, working as an integral member of the airport HR team, you will lead our payroll and reward activities as well as proactively supporting the HR team in the delivery of the people strategy for the airport.

Once implementation is concluded, the role is to process our 4 monthly payrolls so previous payroll administration experience is essential.

This is a great opportunity for someone with payroll experience to develop their knowledge by implementing a brand new HR and Payroll system.

You can find out more about the team here

About the Recruitment Process

The recruitment process for this role will be comprised of two interviews. The first stage will be a Teams interview, to discuss your experience and motivation in applying for the role, with some competency based questions.

If successful, you will then be invited to an in person interview, where you will be asked to complete a task and a competency based interview.

You can find out more about our interview process and the types of questions we may ask here .

What you'll be doing

HRIS Implementation Project

• Working with the Head of HR Process, set up and implementation of new HRIS payroll and reward structures
• Support data migration and testing
• Support parallel runs
• Engage in training activities and development of new process and procedure manuals
• Participate in colleague workshops to ensure seamless implementation and engagement

BAU Payroll

• Deliver 4 monthly payrolls accurately, to service level standards and in line with legislation and corporate governance standards.
• Oversee payroll processing for 4 monthly payrolls, including salaries, bonuses, pensions and deductions and reporting
• Ensure compliance with HMRC regulations, corporate governance and employment laws
• Audit payroll data regularly to identify and correct discrepancies
• Liaise with HR and finance teams to coordinate employee data and reporting
• Manage pension contributions, statutory payments (e.g. SMP, SSP), and benefits
• Handle all year-end processes, including P60s, P11D
• Stay updated on changes in payroll legislation and best practices and ensure implementation

BAU Reward

• Collaborate with HR and finance teams to ensure reward initiatives are integrated and cost-effective
• Manage monthly processes to maintain reward and benefit accuracy
• Support annual renewal process and any new supplier tenders in conjunction with Head of HR
• Manage reward-related communications to ensure transparency and employee understanding and engagement
• Monitor legal and regulatory developments affecting compensation and benefits and advise Head of HR on important updates.

What we're looking for

To apply for this role, you'll need:

• This role requires the successful candidate to obtain a Counter Terrorist Check, so you must have been living in the UK for the last 3 consecutive years
• CIPP qualification (or equivalent experience)
• A strong understanding of current payroll legislation, compliance and technical controls.
• Minimum 3 years of hands on payroll delivery.
• Proven experience managing all compliance aspects of payroll - national minimum wage, auto-enrolment, year end activities etc.
• Strong knowledge of reward management including salary sacrifice schemes desirable.
• Excellent attention to detail, interpersonal, and communication skills.

If your experience looks slightly different to what we've listed here, we encourage you to still apply. You could add something we didn't know we needed.

What we'll offer you

• Pension scheme- employer contributions can be up to 7%
• 32 days holiday, based on full time roles, increasing with service
• Annual discretionary bonus
• Supporting your health and wellbeing- private healthcare after 1 years' service, access to our Employee Assistance Programme and occupational health services
• Free car parking on site and when you go on holiday
• We offer a range of other benefits, find out more here

Why EDI?

We are Edinburgh Airport, where Scotland meets the world. The success of the airport comes down to our people, and you can help us deliver even more big days for our passengers and colleagues. The development of your career is important to us, and we'll support and encourage this every step of the way. As a business we're driven by our values - they're at the core of our culture and everything we do. We're looking for people who will demonstrate these values day-in, day-out. So if this sounds like you, apply now and get ready for your career to take off.

Building a diverse workforce that is inclusive and accessible to all is a priority for our business. As part of this journey, we are proud to be the first UK airport to be endorsed by WORK180. They only recognise great employers for all women. Find out about our policies on our WORK180 employer page .

As a Disability Confident Leader, we are committed to ensuring applicants with a disability can participate fully in our recruitment process. Please let us know in your application form if you require any adjustments, such as parking arrangements or alternative methods of communication.