Payroll Team Leader

New Zealand - All Locations Work from where you are; New Zealand; Remote; NZD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is seeking a Payroll Team Leader. Lead a national payroll operation and a team of 7 payroll professionals delivering accurate and timely pay across New Zealand.

This remote-based role offers scale within a complex payroll environment and a chance to influence payroll quality and compliance. You will coach staff, partner with Payroll Managers, HR and systems teams, and ensure adherence to Holidays Act 2003 and employment legislation.

Qualifications

• 10+ years' NZ payroll experience, including at least 5 years in a large, complex payroll environment.
• Experience working with multiple collective agreements and employment legislation.
• Strong knowledge of the Holidays Act 2003 and related payroll legislation.
• Excellent communication skills and a proactive, customer-focused approach.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of 7 payroll professionals responsible for national payroll services.
• Provide day-to-day leadership, coaching and development to your team.
• Act as quality control and escalation point for complex payroll matters.
• Ensure payroll processes are compliant, efficient, and continuously improving.
• Manage risk and compliance, aligning with legislation and internal policies.

Skills

People leadership

NZ payroll experience

Payroll compliance

Communication skills

Tools

UKG Dimensions

AMS Leader

Job description

Permanent, Full-timeLead a high-performing national payroll team and make a real difference for New Zealanders

Support a complex, large-scale payroll operation while building capability, quality, and trust across the organisation

About Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is the country's largest employer, delivering universal public healthcare to over 5 million New Zealanders. We provide essential hospital, specialist and community health services across more than 80 locations nationwide.

Our purpose is to improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders by delivering equitable, accessible and innovative care. Payroll plays a critical role in ensuring our people are paid accurately and on time, enabling them to focus on delivering care to our communities.

About the Role

As Payroll Team Leader, you will lead a team of 7 payroll professionals responsible for the accurate and timely delivery of national payroll services for Health New Zealand. This is a remote-based role offering the opportunity to work at scale within one of New Zealand's most complex payroll environments.

You will provide day-to-day leadership, coaching and development to your team, while acting as a quality control and escalation point for complex payroll matters. You'll work closely with Payroll Managers, HR colleagues, systems teams, and leaders across the organisation to ensure payroll processes are compliant, efficient, and continuously improving.

This role also plays a key part in managing risk and compliance, including ensuring alignment with employment legislation, collective agreements, and internal policies, and supporting system enhancements across Leader and UKG Dimensions.

About You

You will bring strong payroll leadership experience, sound technical knowledge, and a collaborative, service-focused mindset. To be successful in this role, you will have:

• Extensive people leadership experience within payroll
• 10+ years' NZ payroll experience, including at least 5 years in a large, complex payroll environment
• Proven experience working with multiple collective agreements and employment legislation
• Strong knowledge of the Holidays Act 2003 and related payroll legislation
• Excellent communication skills and a proactive, customer-focused approach

Desirable (but not essential):

• Experience in the NZ health sector
• HR qualification or IR/ER experience
• Exposure to AMS Leader and/or UKG Dimensions
• Process improvement or change experience

You’ll also demonstrate a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, equitable outcomes for Māori, and alignment with Health New Zealand values.

Working at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora

We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and values-led workforce where people feel supported to bring their whole selves to work. We welcome applications from our diverse Māori, Pacific, disabled and rainbow communities, and are proud to support flexible and remote ways of working.

The full position description is available on the Health New Zealand Careers site.

We will review applications as they are received and may progress candidates before the closing date.

Job details

Job Reference:

Job Reference: HNZ/1948416

Location:

New Zealand - All Locations - Work from where you are

Job type:

Job type: Permanent Full time

Expertise:

Non-clinical - Human Resources - Human Resources