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 45,00037 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

Life Assurance x 2 salary

Staff discount

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 Specialist, 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

Intermediate Excel skills, including VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, pivot tables

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