Oakleaf Partnership
Head of Payroll
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Payroll Consultant/Head of Payroll
Location: London - Hybrid Working
Contract Type: 1-Year Fixed Term Contract
Work Pattern: Full Time
Salary: paying up to £100,000 plus benefits (with potentially some flexibility on salary)
About The Role
Oakleaf Partnership are partnering with a leading financial services organisation to recruit an experienced Payroll Consultant for a 1-year fixed-term contract.
This is a broad and varied role, managing a small team, and combining payroll operations, transformation, governance, and stakeholder management. You will take ownership of multiple UK and international payrolls within a co-sourced model, whilst also playing a key role in upskilling your team, and improving processes, systems, and controls across the function.
The role would suit an experienced Payroll Leader who enjoys working in a changing environment and has a genuine interest in payroll transformation and continuous improvement.
What the Role Is:
- Managing the end-to-end delivery of multiple UK and international payrolls, ensuring accurate, compliant, and timely processing.
- Overseeing payroll inputs, outputs, reconciliations, approvals, and exception reporting.
- Acting as a key escalation point for complex payroll queries and issues.
- Managing relationships with external payroll providers, ensuring strong service delivery and governance.
- Leading regular governance meetings and monitoring performance against agreed SLAs and KPIs.
- Driving payroll transformation and process improvement initiatives across systems, processes, and operating models.
- Identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, automation, controls, and standardisation.
- Supporting HR and payroll system implementations, upgrades, and integrations.
- Working closely with HR, Finance, Tax, Reward, and wider business stakeholders.
- Managing and overseeing pension administration, Auto Enrolment requirements, and provider relationships.
- Maintaining robust payroll controls, processes, and documentation, ensuring compliance with UK legislation and statutory requirements.
- Supporting payroll audits and ensuring any recommendations are effectively implemented.
- Developing reporting and payroll analytics to improve visibility, governance, and decision-making.
- Providing guidance and support to Payroll Advisors, helping to build capability and reduce key-person dependency.
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Skills & Experience
We are looking for an experienced payroll professional who can combine strong technical knowledge with the ability to manage change and improve processes. You will ideally have:
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- Proven experience managing multiple UK and international payrolls within the Financial Services sector.
- Experience working within a co-sourced payroll model and managing external providers.
- Strong knowledge of UK payroll legislation, HMRC requirements, pensions, and Auto Enrolment.
- Experience delivering payroll transformation, systems implementation, or process improvement projects.
- Strong vendor and stakeholder management skills.
- Excellent attention to detail and a structured approach to payroll governance and controls.
- The ability to work confidently in a changing and evolving environment.
- Strong Excel skills; experience with Workday would be advantageous.
- Previous experience within financial services or another regulated environment would be beneficial.
This is an excellent opportunity for a payroll professional who enjoys being hands-on whilst also having the opportunity to influence how payroll operates, improve processes, and support wider transformation. If you are an experienced Payroll Leader looking for a role where you can make a genuine impact, please apply now!
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