Payroll Team Leader

We are recruiting a Payroll Team Leader for a large London Local Authority, taking day-to-day responsibility for the delivery of a high-volume payroll service. The organisation processes payroll for approximately 6,500 employees, including teaching staff, alongside around 8,000 pension payments each month. This role sits at the heart of that operation, leading a team of experienced payroll professionals and ensuring payments are accurate, compliant and delivered on time. This is a hands-on leadership position. You will need strong technical payroll knowledge as well as the ability to manage workloads, resolve complex cases and maintain control of the payroll cycle from start to finish. Key responsibilities will include:

• Leading and supporting a team of Senior Payroll Officers
• Taking operational ownership of the end-to-end payroll run
• Ensuring payroll calculations and payments are accurate and completed to deadline
• Providing technical guidance on complex payroll queries and calculations
• Interpreting and applying current payroll legislation and statutory requirements
• Ensuring compliance with HMRC requirements, PAYE, National Insurance and pension regulations
• Monitoring payroll accuracy, identifying errors and putting corrective action in place
• Managing workload and performance across the team
• Reviewing processes and identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and service quality
• Supporting the development and monitoring of payroll Service Level Agreements
• Working closely with schools, HR, Finance, pensions teams and external organisations
• Handling escalated payroll queries and providing clear advice to managers and employees
• Supporting audit requirements and maintaining appropriate payroll controls We are looking for someone with substantial experience working within a large or complex payroll environment. You should have strong working knowledge of payroll legislation and statutory deductions, together with experience dealing with complex calculations and payroll queries. Previous supervisory or team leadership experience is important. You will need to be comfortable allocating work, supporting staff, managing deadlines and maintaining service standards during busy payroll periods. Experience within a Local Authority, education, public sector or similarly complex payroll environment would be particularly useful, especially where you have dealt with multiple terms and conditions, pension schemes and high-volume payroll processing. You will need:
• Strong technical payroll knowledge
• Experience of end-to-end payroll processing
• Experience managing or supervising payroll staff
• Good knowledge of PAYE, National Insurance and statutory payments
• Experience resolving complex payroll issues
• Strong reconciliation and checking skills
• Good understanding of payroll controls and compliance
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to work to fixed deadlines
• Confidence dealing with managers, employees and external organisations
• A practical approach to improving payroll processes and reducing errors This would suit an experienced Payroll Team Leader, Senior Payroll Officer or Payroll Supervisor who is already operating at a senior technical level and is ready to take greater responsibility for a substantial payroll operation