Payroll Project Lead
| Posting date: | 12 March 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £53,000.0 to £63,000.0 per year |
| Additional salary information: | £53-63k per annum |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 11 April 2026 |
| Location: | City of London, London, EC2V 6DN |
| Company: | Hays Specialist Recruitment |
| Job type: | Contract |
| Job reference: | 4779333_1773340428 |
Summary
2 Year Fixed Term Contract Vacancy
Central London
Hybrid working
Our client is seeking an experienced Payroll Project Lead to join their busy team on a 2-year FTC basis.
Duties include;
- Lead and develop the Payroll Analytics Team
- Manage multiple concurrent payroll projects using the organisation's Agile Working framework.
- Lead end‑to‑end delivery of transformation initiatives focused on payroll digitisation, process efficiency, and systems improvement.
- Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, and milestones.
- Act as the primary escalation point for all project-related issues.
- Coordinate resource planning, capacity management, and task allocation across project teams.
- Ensure all project activities, risks, KPIs, and deliverables are monitored and managed effectively.
- Oversee system configuration and user acceptance testing (UAT), including scenario creation and documentation.
- Build, analyse, and present management reports to support decision-making and highlight key insights.
- Identify process and policy updates required to support improvements.
- Produce high‑quality documentation including process maps, workflow diagrams, and functional specifications.
- Ensure compliance with payroll legislation, audit requirements, and data protection (GDPR).
- Communicate effectively with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders across Payroll, Pensions, HR, Finance, IT, and external partners
You will have:
- Strong, up-to-date payroll technical knowledge (statutory payments, tax, RTI, pensions, GL).
- Experience managing a large team in a fast-paced environment.
- Proven experience configuring HR/Payroll systems.
- Experience of system testing (patches, functional testing, scenario-based testing).
- Skilled in report writing and data analysis.
- Experience with process mapping and documenting workflows.
- Excellent communication skills, able to translate complex issues into clear, simple messages.
- Strong stakeholder management, with the ability to influence and build productive relationships.
- Proactive, innovative, and solutions-focused approach.
- Excellent time management and ability to meet competing deadlines.
- Strong understanding of GDPR legislation and data governance.
If you have all of the above, are seeking a new challenging role and are available immediately, then please apply now.
NO sponsorship available for this post
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