Leads UK payroll administrators and manages a portfolio of payrolls, ensuring accurate, compliant, timely delivery. Responsibilities include resolving complex queries, allocating workloads, coaching team members, leading client governance meetings, reviewing payrolls and reports, monitoring KPIs and SLAs, mitigating risks, and driving process improvements and system implementations.
As a UK Payroll Team Lead, you’ll play a pivotal role in overseeing the day-to-day operations of our payroll function, ensuring the accurate and timely delivery of payroll services across a diverse client base. You’ll lead by example — combining technical expertise with people leadership to drive service excellence, support team development, and contribute to continuous improvement across the department.
In addition to leading the team, you’ll also manage a selection of payrolls directly, maintaining hands-on involvement and ensuring service quality
In addition to leading the team, you’ll also manage a selection of payrolls directly, maintaining hands-on involvement and ensuring service quality
On a typical day you’ll be…
- Leading and coordinating a team of payroll administrators to deliver accurate, compliant, and timely UK payrolls
- Managing a portfolio of payrolls directly, ensuring high standards of accuracy, timeliness, and customer service
- Acting as an escalation point for complex payroll queries and client issues, ensuring swift and effective resolution
- Overseeing the allocation of client portfolios and workload across the team to ensure balanced capacity and consistent service delivery
- Supporting and coaching team members, providing regular feedback, mentoring, and development opportunities
- Hosting and contributing to client governance meetings, reviewing performance and identifying areas for improvement
- Reviewing and signing off payrolls, governance reports, and documentation to ensure accuracy and compliance
- Monitoring service delivery KPIs and SLAs, identifying risks and proactively implementing mitigations
- Driving process improvements and supporting the implementation of new systems, tools, or ways of working
- Fostering a positive, inclusive, and high-performing team culture
Does this sound like you?
- Strong experience in UK payroll processing, ideally with a CIPP qualification and experience in a leadership or supervisory role
- Proven ability to lead, coach, and develop a team in a fast-paced, service-driven environment
- Deep understanding of UK payroll legislation, compliance, and best practice
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills — confident in handling both client and internal conversations
- High attention to detail and a proactive approach to identifying and resolving issues
- Strong systems and Excel skills, with the ability to analyse data and drive insights
- A collaborative mindset, with a passion for continuous improvement and delivering exceptional service
- Comfortable balancing leadership responsibilities with hands-on delivery of payrolls
About
Our Story From our entrepreneurial origins as a founder led start up, to a high performing global player working with some of the world's most recognisable brands, activpayroll has both a fantastic history and masses of future potential. Our story began in 2001, when our founder saw a gap in the market to support the oil and gas industry. Today, we are a leading global professional service organisation, providing integrated global and domestic payroll solutions, expatriate taxation services, global HR services and online HR people management tools to over 1,200 companies in more than 150 countries worldwide. We’ve Got YouHiring people is more than an investment of time and money – it’s an investment of trust. You trust us to help you realise your fullest potential, work with brilliant people and recognise your achievements. In return, we trust your abilities, we trust your instincts and are fully behind you to deliver the great work you are capable of - empowering you to make the tough calls and valuing your opinions, ideas and abilities.
activpayroll Edinburgh, Scotland Office
7 Castle Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, EH2 3AH
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