Implementation Consultant

JobSpace; Auckland; Hybrid; NZD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Smartly is seeking an Implementation Consultant to take customers from sign-up through the first successful pay run. You will own the implementation journey, configure the payroll product to fit each business, migrate and validate data, and guide go-live with hands-on problem solving.

Based in New Zealand and working within the Activation team of Go-to-Market, you’ll collaborate across departments to ensure a smooth, value-driven first pay experience for customers, with opportunities to grow

Qualifications

• A relevant tertiary qualification in business, information systems, technology or a related discipline.
• Proven experience owning end-to-end software or SaaS implementations and customer onboarding.
• Experience migrating complex employee or payroll data and conducting data validation.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end customer implementations from kick-off to go-live.
• Configure systems to fit customer payroll and business processes.
• Migrate and validate employee and payroll data, including complex entitlements.
• Guide customers through multi-step setup and ensure successful first pay run.
• Collaborate with Service Delivery, Training, Product, Support and Sales for a seamless experience.
• Manage multiple implementations concurrently with accurate progress records.
• Maintain proactive communication and a customer-first mindset.

Skills

End-to-end ownership

Implementation

Data migration

CRM

HubSpot

Project management

Communication

Training

Go-live

Education

Bachelor's degree in business, information systems, technology or related discipline

Tools

HubSpot

CRM software

Job description

Jora New Zealand will close on 9th September 2026. Thank you for being with us, we are cheering you on as you continue your career journey.

As an Implementation Consultant, you'll take new Smartly customers from sign-up through to their first successful pay run — the moment their payroll actually works and they start getting real value from us. You'll own that journey end to end: understanding how their business and payroll work, configuring Smartly to fit, migrating and validating their employee and payroll data, testing, and guiding them through go-live.

For our smaller customers you'll be the single point of contact through the whole implementation, owning both the relationship and the technical work. On larger or more complex customers you'll partner with a Service Delivery colleague to get them live. Either way, the job is to do whatever it takes to get each customer to a confident first pay run, as quickly and smoothly as possible.

This role sits in our Activation team, part of Go-to-Market. It's a genuinely hands-on role for someone who enjoys combining technical problem-solving with customer relationships, and there's room to grow into more complex, higher-value implementations as our model develops.

Ideally you'll be based in Wellington — our implementation and service delivery teams are at our Lower Hutt head office, and it's the fastest way to learn Smartly and the payroll domain. We'll consider Auckland-based candidates too; once you're up to speed, the role runs largely online with your customers. We like to bring people together in person when we can, but we're mindful of the benefits of working from home for work/life balance.

Own end-to-end customer implementations, from kick-off through configuration and data migration to a successful first pay run

Diagnose each customer's payroll and business-process requirements, and configure Smartly to fit their context

Map, migrate, validate and reconcile employee and payroll data — including complex data like leave balances and historical entitlements — so it's accurate before go-live

Guide customers through each step of a multi-step setup, showing them how to use the product as you go so they're confident well before go-live

Run customers through a first pay or parallel pay against their existing system

Test and troubleshoot the configured system; document and escalater technical issues to our Product and integration teams

Own the customer relationship through implementation — proactive communication, clear expectations, and a confident, professional partner throughout

Keep several implementations moving at once without dropping anything, with accurate records of progress

Spot friction in the implementation journey and help fix it, contributing to repeatable configuration and migration approaches, standards and playbooks

Work closely with Service Delivery, Training, Product, Support and Sales to deliver a seamless customer experience

Handle sensitive customer and employee data securely and in line with privacy requirements

Around 2+ years' proven, hands-on experience owning end-to-end software, SaaS or business-process implementations or customer onboarding — taking a customer from kick-off through configuration and data migration to go-live. We're open on industry; it's the end-to-end ownership we care about

Hands-on system configuration and customer data migration, with accurate, methodical handling of customer data

Strong problem-solving and analytical skills — able to understand requirements, configure a system to fit, troubleshoot issues and know when to escape

Project-management aptitude — able to guide a customer through a multi-step setup to go-live and manage several implementations concurrently

Excellent verbal and written communication, including the ability to explain technical steps clearly to non-technical customers

Comfortable teaching live — walking a customer through the product on a screen-share, fielding questions on the fly, and coaching them through a live first pay or parallel pay

Strong planning, organisational and time management capabilities

A customer-first mindset with a focus on getting customers to value quickly

Energetic, adaptable and calm under pressure; works collaboratively in a small team

A relevant tertiary qualification (bachelor's degree in business, information systems, technology or a related discipline)

Payroll, HRIS, workforce management or payroll process knowledge — a real advantage in our world, though it is learnable and we weight it below proven implementation experience

Experience migrating complex employee or payroll data, including balances and historical records

Exposure to both low-touch self-service onboarding and complex, high-touch customer implementations

Experience driving process improvement or implementation journey optimisation

Familiarity with CRM and customer onboarding platforms such as HubSpot

End-to-end ownership of customer implementation

Contribution to the redesign and continuous improvement of how customers get to value

Room to grow into more complex, higher-value implementations as the model develops