Payroll Specialist

We're delighted to be recruiting a Payroll Specialist on behalf of a well-established and growing retail business. The Payroll Specialist is a standalone role reporting to the Financial Controller and offers the opportunity to take full ownership of a high-volume payroll function, ensuring the accurate and compliant processing of payroll for a workforce of over 1,000 employees. The successful candidate will play a key role in maintaining payroll integrity, delivering high-quality reporting, and supporting continuous improvement across payroll systems and processes.

• Up to £45,000
• 37 hours per week
• 23 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year to a maximum of 27 days, plus Bank Holidays
• Company pension scheme
• On-site parking

Duties and responsibilities:

• Manage the end-to-end payroll process for a workforce of 1,000+ employees, ensuring accuracy and timely completion
• Process starters, leavers, contractual changes, statutory payments (SSP and SMP), and holiday pay calculations in line with current legislation
• Validate, reconcile and audit payroll data, maintaining robust payroll controls, checks and procedures
• Process BACS payments and investigate and resolve payroll discrepancies and employee queries
• Maintain accurate employee records within Sage 50 Payroll and SAP HR systems, ensuring data integrity and GDPR compliance
• Produce payroll, labour cost, pension, National Insurance, bonus and commission reports to support business decision-making
• Identify and implement process improvements, automation opportunities and efficiencies within the payroll function

Required skills and experience:

• Previous experience in a Payroll Manager, Payroll Supervisor or similar payroll position with responsibility for high-volume payroll processing
• Proven experience managing payroll for 1,000+ employees, including statutory payments, holiday pay calculations and payroll reconciliations
• Strong working knowledge of Sage 50 Payroll is essential
• Experience of SAP HR systems would be advantageous
• Strong understanding of payroll legislation, compliance requirements, audit controls and GDPR principles
• Excellent organisational, analytical and communication skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and build effective relationships across departments