Payroll & Benefits Team Leader UK

The Payroll & Benefits Team Leader UK will lead a team of 3 Payroll & Benefits Specialists and will be accountable for the operational delivery, quality, compliance, controls, and continuous improvement of UK Payroll & Benefits activities. 

This is a hands-on leadership role, combining people leadership, UK payroll expertise, operational ownership, vendor/service management, and transformation support. 

We’ll count on you to: 

Team Leadership & Capability Development 

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of 3 Payroll & Benefits Specialists. 

• Establish clear roles, accountabilities, priorities, and performance expectations. 

• Manage workload and ensure appropriate coverage across payroll cycles. 

• Build team capability through coaching, cross-training, and knowledge sharing. 

• Ensure appropriate backup arrangements and business continuity. 

• Conduct regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and career development discussions. 

• Foster a culture of accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement. 

Payroll & Benefits Service Delivery 

• Own end-to-end operational Payroll & Benefits delivery for the UK. 

• Ensure payroll is processed accurately, compliantly, and on time. 

• Manage payroll calendars, cut-offs, input readiness, validation, and approvals. 

• Oversee payroll reconciliations, controls, payroll accounting, and post-payroll activities. 

• Ensure statutory reporting and year-end activities are completed accurately and on time. 

• Oversee Benefits-related payroll inputs and processes. 

• Ensure payroll exceptions and employee-impacting issues are resolved promptly. 

• Maintain complete and current SOPs, work instructions, and process documentation. 

Compliance, Controls & Risk 

• Ensure compliance with UK payroll legislation, tax requirements, company policies, and internal controls. 

• Ensure payroll controls are consistently executed and supported by appropriate evidence. 

• Identify payroll risks proactively and implement mitigation actions. 

• Support internal and external audits and ensure remediation actions are completed. 

• Ensure appropriate User Access Management and segregation-of-duties controls. 

• Support compliance requirements arising from collective agreements and local employment practices. 

Issue & Root-Cause Management 

• Take ownership of operational issues through resolution. 

• Lead root-cause analysis for material or recurring payroll errors. 

• Ensure corrective and preventive actions are implemented and tracked to closure. 

• Identify recurring trends and eliminate root causes rather than repeatedly correcting symptoms. 

• Ensure the team escalates issues with a clear problem, impact, root cause, recommendation, and decision required. 

Vendor & Service Management 

• Manage the day-to-day relationship with Payroll, Time, Benefits, and other relevant providers. 

• Monitor vendor performance against SLAs and KPIs. 

• Challenge service-quality issues and ensure providers take accountability for errors. 

• Monitor ticket volumes, aging, recurring issues, and resolution quality. 

• Support monthly service reviews and performance reporting. 

• Escalate material vendor issues to the Regional Payroll Lead with clear recommendations. 

Continuous Improvement 

• Identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate Payroll & Benefits processes. 

• Reduce manual activities, reconciliations, and unnecessary handoffs. 

• Improve controls, documentation, and operational ways of working. 

• Coordinate improvement opportunities with Global Payroll Experts, HRIT, and providers. 

• Ensure lessons learned from payroll issues result in sustainable process improvements. 

Payroll & Time Transformation 

• Represent UK Payroll within Payroll & Time initiatives. 

• Provide UK business, statutory, CBA, and operational requirements. 

• Support future-state process and solution design. 

• Participate in testing, parallel payroll, reconciliation, cutover, and hypercare. 

• Support implementation of the future Time-to-Payroll solution. 

• Ensure local requirements are appropriately incorporated without unnecessary customization. 

• Support transition to the future Payroll Operating Model. 

You Will Bring :  

• 5+ years of UK payroll experience, preferably within a complex organization. 

• Strong knowledge of UK payroll legislation, taxation, statutory requirements, and year-end processes. 

• Experience leading, coordinating, or coaching payroll professionals. 

• Experience working with outsourced payroll providers. 

• Strong understanding of payroll controls, reconciliations, and payroll accounting. 

• Experience supporting hourly/manufacturing populations and complex Time-to-Payroll processes is preferred. 

• Experience working within a union/CBA environment is advantageous. 

• Strong analytical and root-cause problem-solving capability. 

• Ability to take ownership of issues through resolution. 

• Strong stakeholder and vendor-management skills. 

• Ability to manage multiple priorities within a payroll-critical environment. 

Must-Have Skills 

• UK payroll expertise 

• Payroll operations and statutory compliance 

• People leadership and coaching 

• Payroll controls and reconciliation 

• Vendor/service management 

• Root-cause analysis 

• SOP and process documentation 

• Continuous improvement 

• Strong stakeholder management 

• Fluent English 

Nice-to-Have Skills 

• SAP Payroll/SAP SuccessFactors 

• Time Management / Time-to-Payroll experience 

• Manufacturing payroll 

• Payroll transformation or implementation experience 

• CIPP qualification or equivalent 

You will get: 

• The UK-based annual base salary reasonably expected to be paid for this new hire is £51,440 to £64,000. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors such as skills, experience, qualification and internal equity and can ultimately be more or less than the posted salary range. 

• Benefits package 

• 16, or more, weeks of maternity/paternity and co-parenting leave, according to local regulations 

• Training platform for all employees 

• Free well-being sessions (physical and psychological) 

Additional information:   

• Location: Wrexham, UK 

• Working model: Hybrid working model possible (3 days per week)