Government Actuary's Department
Payroll & Systems Manager
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10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 4PU / Edinburgh Government Hub Queen Elizabeth House, Edinburgh EH8 8FT
Job Summary
The Payroll & Systems Manager takes full operational ownership of GAD’s end-to-end outsourced payroll delivery, ensuring complete compliance with statutory regulations, internal controls, and Civil Service pension frameworks.
Crucially, this role acts as the departmental Subject Matter Expert (SME) for HR Information Systems. You will lead on system configuration, data integrity, and advanced workforce reporting to drive efficiency and support financial modelling. Operating within a small, agile team, you will provide critical cross-cover and adapt flexibly to evolving business priorities.
N.B. GAD may work with recruiters on this campaign provided prior agreement is reached for this specific campaign
Job Description
Payroll & Benefits
- Lead the end-to-end monthly payroll cycle, managing the interface with the outsourced provider, conducting data validation, and resolving anomalies prior to final senior management sign-off.
- Oversee GAD's interface with Civil Service Pensions and benefits platforms (including Edenred/Mylifestyle), researching and resolving complex queries.
- Supporting workforce financial modelling, head-count forecasting, and data analysis for the annual HMT Pay Remit submission.
- Co-ordinating implementation of any changes arising from the annual salary review.
- Continuously review, document, and optimise payroll and benefits processes to streamline administration and mitigate risk.
- Keep up to date with regulations, inform stakeholders of changes when relevant and ensure all systems are up to date and compliant.
HR Systems and Data Management
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The Lead On HR Information Systems In GAD (HR/employee Management System, Payroll & Benefits Platform), Oversee The Effective Management & Maintenance Of HR Systems, Including:
- Act as the super-user and lead for our Zellis HR Information System, maintaining configurations, managing vendor relationships, and ensuring optimal user experience.
- Ensure our HR Information System is driven by user needs, and provide timely responses to user queries.
- Design, build, and maintain periodic HR dashboards, for internal and external consumption, tracking management information, key performance indicators, absence rates, and workforce demographics.
- Ensure all HR system data handling and reporting frameworks strictly adhere to GDPR, Freedom of Information, and Subject Access Request compliance guidelines.
Personal Responsibility
- To work in partnership with the whole of the HR team to deliver joined up working in delivery of a comprehensive HR service.
- Line management of 1 staff member
- Take forward own development and network as appropriate with HR/Payroll professionals in other organisations.
This job description is a broad reflection of the current duties. It is not exhaustive, and changes will be made based on GAD’s needs at the discretion of the relevant Function Lead / Director and in conjunction with the post holder.
Person Specification
- Responsibility for collating and then completing all payroll checks prior to submission for approval.
- Responsible for ensuring payroll is delivered correctly and in a timely manner each month.
- Responsible for ensuring professional knowledge is up to date and that legislative/ regulatory changes are planned and implemented in good time.
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External – HR/Payroll System providers, Civil Service Employee Policy (Reward), Capita, auditors
Internal - HR Director, Head of HR, HR Managers, Finance Team, GAD colleagues, Trade Union
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Making Effective Decisions
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
- Developing Self and Others
- Managing a Quality Service
Technical Skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- National Payroll Certificate / CIPP Practitioner Certificate or significant payroll experience (essential)
- Proven experience managing end-to-end payroll operations, including a strong working knowledge of PAYE legislation and statutory regulations (essential)
- Advanced proficiency in MS Excel (e.g., VLOOKUPs, Pivot Tables, data manipulation) with a proven ability to design, extract, and build data-driven reports from system databases (essential)
- Knowledge of GDPR, FoI & Subject Access Requests (essential)
Salary and Benefits
Alongside your salary of £42,127, Government Actuary's Department contributes £12,204 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
As well as competitive salaries, we offer a substantial package of benefits:
- Exceptional learning and development opportunities that you can explore alongside your day-to-day work.
- 25 days annual leave per year, increasing to 30 days after 5 years’ service. In addition, we offer 9 days public and privilege days leave per year (pro rata for part time staff)
- A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
- 5 days of paid volunteering leave
- Up to 9 months maternity leave on full pay + generous paternity and adoption leave
- Staff reward and recognition bonuses that operate throughout the year.
- Occupational sick pay
- Family-friendly policies such as help with caring responsibilities, special leave, generous paid maternity, paternity, and adoption leave.
- Access to employee assistance programme which offers staff 24/7 confidential support and resources such as counselling, debt guidance and management advice.
- The opportunity to join a trade union.
- A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity.
- Salary advances for travel costs, including annual season tickets and cycle-to-work schemes.
- Access to the Edenred employee benefits system which offers discounts to popular retailers and access to various useful resources such as financial and savings advice.
- Complimentary BUPA health check.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection Process Details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Technical skills.
As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:
- A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained.
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- A Personal statement of up to 500-words explaining how you meet the essential criteria for the role, with particular reference to the criteria provided in the person specification of the JD.
Your CV and Personal Statement will be used to assess the essential criteria listed in the job description.
During the interview you will be assessed on the experience and behaviours listed in the Person Specification and detailed in this advert. The interview will include a technical exercise, details of which will be sent to those invited to interview.
Application Deadline:
1200 hrs on 03 August 2026
Shortlisting:
w/c 3 August 2026
Interviews:
w/c 17 August 2026
Interview Location:
In office (Either London, E14 4PU or Edinburgh, EH8 8FT)
Please apply via our recruitment portal below.
As part of the application form process, please submit your anonymised CV and supporting statement. Please do not email your CV outside of this process as it will not be accepted.
Shortlisting criteria is based on the Person Specification as set out in the Assessment Criteria section of the Job Description. Please ensure you provide examples of how you meet the Assessment Criteria; a strong application will also demonstrate that you meet the required criteria that are identified as key for this role. Applications will be shortlisted in line with the essential criteria for the role. The desirable criteria will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process, but will be used in the event of tied scores between candidates. Behaviours will be assessed at sift and interview stage. Candidates who are successful at shortlist will be contacted as soon as possible and advised of the interview process and assessment (exact times and dates will also be confirmed).
A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.
Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Technical skills.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality Requirements
This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway
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