Head of Payroll in London, Greater London

Head of Payroll

£80,000 – £100,000 + benefits | London | Hybrid

An exciting opportunity for an experienced Head of Payroll to take ownership of a complex international payroll operation within a highly established global consumer-facing business.

You’ll lead payroll across 12 countries and c.3,500 employees, with a strong UK focus, managing a team and outsourced payroll providers while playing a key role in transformation, automation and process improvement.

The role

Reporting to the Director of Accounting, you’ll have responsibility for the end-to-end international payroll function, ensuring accurate, compliant and timely payroll delivery.

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead payroll across 12 countries and c.3,500 employees
• Manage and develop the payroll team
• Oversee outsourced payroll providers and SLAs
• Ensure compliance with UK and European payroll legislation, tax, pensions and statutory requirements
• Own payroll-related month-end, year-end and audit activity
• Drive automation, process improvement and transformation projects
• Strengthen payroll controls, processes and audit trails
• Partner with Finance, HR, HRIS and wider business stakeholders
• Support international expansion, new countries and systems
• Work closely with the US-based global HQ on corporate governance and controls

About you

We’re looking for a strong operational payroll leader who can also demonstrate experience in transformation and improving payroll processes.

You’ll ideally have:

• Significant UK payroll experience with strong international exposure
• Experience across multiple European countries
• Experience managing outsourced payroll providers
• Strong knowledge of UK and European payroll legislation
• Proven team leadership and senior stakeholder management experience
• Experience delivering payroll projects, automation or process improvement
• Strong payroll systems knowledge and advanced Excel skills
• CIPP qualification would be advantageous

Experience within a multinational, retail, consumer or similarly complex environment would be particularly relevant.

What's on offer?

• £80,000 – £100,000 salary
• Senior leadership role with genuine ownership of international payroll
• Exposure to 12 countries / 3,500 employees
• Significant transformation and automation opportunity
• Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday in the office
• Friday early finish: 4pm standard / 3pm payday week / 2pm July–August

If you're looking for a senior payroll role combining international leadership, operational ownership and transformation, this could be an excellent next step.

JGA are dedicated to delivering the best possible candidate experience. Due to the high volume of applications, we regret that we are not always able to respond to every individual applicant. If your application is shortlisted, a member of our team will be in touch.

Thank you for your understanding. JGA Recruitment Group Ltd ("We") are committed to equality of opportunity for all applications regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships. We strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply.

We are also committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We are a specialist Payroll and HR recruitment agency and recruitment business as defined in the Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (our business). These statements together with our privacy notices set out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.