Job Title:
Senior Payroll Manager
Reports to:
Chief Financial Officer
Team:
15 pay & bill professionals (including 2 Senior Managers and 1 Manager)
Role Purpose
Senior Payroll Manager is accountable for the end-to-end payroll operations across Ireland and the UK within the Group. This role provides strategic and operational leadership to ensure accurate, compliant, and timely pay processes across weekly, bi-monthly, and monthly payroll cycles, while delivering an excellent experience for clients, contractors, flexible talent and internal stakeholders.
The role plays a critical leadership position at the intersection of operations, finance, compliance, technology, and client delivery, driving continuous improvement, scalability, and operational excellence.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership & Governance
- Provide overall leadership and direction for Payroll operations across Ireland and the UK, ensuring alignment with business strategy and growth plans
- Establish and maintain strong governance, controls, and risk management frameworks across all payroll and billing activities
- Act as the senior subject matter expert on payroll within the organisation
Operational Excellence
- Oversee the accurate and timely delivery of all payroll cycles, including weekly, bi-monthly, and monthly payrolls
- Ensure end-to-end integrity of time capture, payroll processing
- Drive standardisation, automation, and continuous improvement across Payroll processes and systems
· Lead the resolution of complex payroll issues, driving timely and accurate solutions.
People Leadership
- Lead, develop, and performance-manage payroll personnel of approximately 15 colleagues, including 2 Senior Managers and 1 Manager
- Build a high performing, engaged, and resilient team with clear accountability, capability development, and succession planning
- Foster a culture of accuracy, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement
Compliance & Risk
- Ensure full compliance with all relevant payroll, tax, employment, and regulatory requirements across Ireland and the UK
- Partner with Group Finance, legal, people experience, and compliance teams to manage audits, inspections, and regulatory change
- Monitor and mitigate operational and compliance risks, ensuring robust controls are in place
Stakeholder & Client Engagement
- Act as a senior internal stakeholder, partnering closely with Finance, Sales, Operations, HR, Technology, and Leadership teams
- Build trusted relationships with key clients, providing assurance, insight, and resolution on payroll and billing matters
- Support client onboarding, contract changes, TUPE, and complex commercial arrangements from a Pay & Bill perspective
Systems, Data & Reporting
- Own Payroll systems, data integrity, and reporting, ensuring accuracy and transparency
- Provide meaningful operational and performance reporting to senior leadership
- Lead system enhancements, upgrades, or implementations in line with business needs
Financial & Commercial Oversight
- Ensure payroll activities support commercial outcomes and contractual commitments
- Contribute to budgeting, forecasting, and cost control for the Payroll function
Experience & Capability Requirements
Essential
- Significant senior leadership experience in payroll
- Minimum 7 years of payroll experience
- Proven experience managing multi-jurisdictional payroll (Ireland and UK)
- Strong knowledge of international payroll regulations and compliance requirements.
- Excellent project management, stakeholder engagement, and communication skills.
- Experience with payroll platforms is highly desirable.
- Strong understanding of weekly, bi-monthly, and monthly payroll cycles
- Strong stakeholder management and client-facing experience
- Track record of driving operational improvement, scale, and process optimisation
Desirable
- Experience leading system implementations or payroll transformation programmes
- An understanding of contingent workforce models (temporary, contract, MSP, RPO)
- Experience working in a high-growth or complex matrix organisation
Key Competencies
- Strategic and commercial mindset with hands on execution capability
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
- Operational excellence and attention to detail
- Strong leadership presence and decision-making
- Risk-aware and compliance-focused
- Clear communicator with strong influencing skills
For more information, please contact [email protected]
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