Vanilla Recruitment
Payroll Manager

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We're delighted to be recruiting a Payroll Manager on behalf of a well-established and growing retail business.
The Payroll Manager is a standalone role reporting to the Financial Controller and offers the opportunity to take full ownership of a high-volume payroll function, ensuring the accurate and compliant processing of payroll for a workforce of over 1,000 employees. The successful candidate will play a key role in maintaining payroll integrity, delivering high-quality reporting, and supporting continuous improvement across payroll systems and processes.
£38,000 - £45,000
37 hours per week
23 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year to a maximum of 27 days, plus Bank Holidays
Company pension scheme
Staff discount
On-site parking
Duties and responsibilities:
- Manage the end-to-end payroll process for a workforce of 1,000+ employees, ensuring accuracy and timely completion
- Process starters, leavers, contractual changes, statutory payments (SSP and SMP), and holiday pay calculations in line with current legislation
- Validate, reconcile and audit payroll data, maintaining robust payroll controls, checks and procedures
- Process BACS payments and investigate and resolve payroll discrepancies and employee queries
- Maintain accurate employee records within Sage 50 Payroll and SAP HR systems, ensuring data integrity and GDPR compliance
- Produce payroll, labour cost, pension, National Insurance, bonus and commission reports to support business decision-making
- Identify and implement process improvements, automation opportunities and efficiencies within the payroll function
Reasons to use Rodeo
I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
Honest answer — it depends on where you want to end up. A lot of top grad schemes (Big 4, civil service, banking) don’t need a masters. Let’s look at the ones you’d be competitive for now, and we can decide if a masters actually adds anything.
Also worth knowing: most autumn 2026 applications are open now. Timing matters more than you think.
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Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
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Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
Experience fit
Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
Required skills and experience:


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- Previous experience in a Payroll Manager, Payroll Supervisor or similar payroll position with responsibility for high-volume payroll processing
- Proven experience managing payroll for 1,000+ employees, including statutory payments, holiday pay calculations and payroll reconciliations
- Strong working knowledge of Sage 50 Payroll is essential
- Experience of SAP HR systems would be advantageous
- Intermediate Excel skills, including VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, pivot tables
- Strong understanding of payroll legislation, compliance requirements, audit controls and GDPR principles
- Excellent organisational, analytical and communication skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and build effective relationships across departments
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