London Borough of Waltham Forest
Payroll Manager
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Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest
Salary: PO6 £54,267 - £57,402 (Cost of living pay award pending)
Contract Type: Full time/Permanent
Working hours per week: 36
Application Deadline: 16/09/2026
Proposed Interview Date(s): w/c 21/09/2026
Reference: 2231
About Us:
Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.
We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.
London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.
The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.
Payroll Manager
We're looking for an experienced and forward-thinking Payroll Manager to lead our Payroll and function and help shape the future of payroll delivery across the Council.
This is a pivotal operational leadership role, sitting within Culture Workforce & Development department, where you will take ownership of payroll and pension services, ensuring the accurate, timely and compliant delivery of payroll for a workforce of approximately 2,600 employees.
You will act as the Council's subject matter expert on payroll and pension matters, making informed decisions, managing risk and serving as the key escalation point for complex issues.
Beyond operational excellence, this role offers a unique opportunity to contribute to a significant transformation programme. You will play a leading role in modernising payroll processes, driving service improvements and supporting the future development of payroll provision.
About the Role
As the Payroll Manager, you will lead a dedicated team responsible for delivering a high-quality payroll and pensions service that supports employees throughout their employment journey.
You will oversee the end-to-end payroll process, ensuring compliance with all statutory and regulatory requirements while delivering an efficient, customer-focused service. Working closely with senior leaders, HR, Finance, Pensions and external providers, you will build strong relationships that enable seamless service delivery and support organisational performance.
The successful candidate will be equally comfortable managing operational delivery, leading people, driving continuous improvement and influencing strategic change.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead and develop a high-performing Payroll team, creating a culture of accountability, customer focus and continuous improvement.
- Ensure the accurate, timely and compliant delivery of monthly payroll services.
- Act as the senior escalation point for complex payroll and pension enquiries.
- Drive service excellence through effective performance management and quality assurance.
- Oversee end-to-end payroll processing through Oracle Payroll.
- Manage HMRC submissions and all statutory reporting requirements.
- Lead year-end activities, including P60s, P11Ds and associated compliance processes.
- Ensure accurate administration of Local Government and Teachers' Pension schemes.
- Manage BACS payments, payroll reconciliations, deductions, salary sacrifice arrangements, overpayments and court orders.
- Ensure compliance with National Minimum Wage, Living Wage and wider legislative requirements.
- Lead payroll improvement initiatives, reviewing processes and controls to enhance efficiency and accuracy.
- Support wider workforce transformation and service modernisation programmes.
- Identify opportunities to automate manual processes and improve the employee experience.
- Contribute to the future design and delivery of payroll services across the organisation.
- Build effective relationships with senior stakeholders, external providers and partner organisations.
- Produce meaningful payroll reporting, analysis and insight.
- Ensure stakeholders receive a responsive, reliable and customer-focused service.
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Essential Criteria
- CIPP Qualification or extensive experience managing an end-to-end payroll function within a large and complex organisation.
- Strong technical knowledge of payroll legislation, taxation, pensions and statutory reporting requirements.
- Experience of leading, coaching and developing payroll teams.
- Significant experience using Oracle Payroll or a comparable enterprise payroll system.
- Knowledge of Local Government and/or Teachers' Pension schemes.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving and reconciliation skills.
- Experience of leading service improvements and change initiatives.
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
Desirable Criteria
- Experience within Local & Central Government. Other public sector organisations and private sector complex organisations experience are also welcomed.
Why Join Us?
This is an opportunity to lead a critical service within one of London's most ambitious boroughs. You'll have the chance to work in a fantastic team and influence how payroll services are delivered, with the sole aim about making a difference to our residents.
In return, we offer:
- Flexible and hybrid working arrangements
- Generous annual leave entitlement
- Local Government Pension Scheme
- Learning and development opportunities
- Employee wellbeing support
- Career progression opportunities within a forward-thinking organisation
Terms and conditions:
The below terms and conditions apply to this role:
- Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
- Satisfactory declaration of interest;
- Continued professional body registration;
- As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.
How to Apply:
Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.
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We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.
To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.
For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.
Contact Information:
If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Caroline McKnight at caroline.mcknight@walthamforest.gov.uk
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk
Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.
Fraud Awareness Notice:
The London Borough of Waltham Forest only advertises vacancies via our official website and approved recruitment platforms (e.g. Jobsgopublic).
We will never ask for payment or request sensitive personal or financial information as part of our recruitment process.
If you are contacted by a third party claiming to represent the Council, please verify the vacancy via our official careers website before sharing any information.
If you have concerns about a job advert or communication, please report it to: fraud@walthamforest.gov.uk
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