Director of Payroll (12 month FTC)

Director of Payroll

Location: Fully Remote (very occasional travel to London for SLT meetings)
Contract: 12-Month Fixed-Term Contract
Salary: £110,000 - £125,000 depending on experience

Altum Consulting are partnering with a private equity-backed technology business to appoint a Director of Payroll for an initial 12-month contract. This is a critical leadership role responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of accurate, timely and compliant monthly payroll operations, while simultaneously leading a programme of payroll stabilisation, optimisation and transformation.

The role offers a unique blend of hands-on operational leadership and strategic transformation. The successful candidate will take ownership of the day-to-day payroll operation, provide leadership to the existing payroll team, manage operational risks and escalations, and ensure business continuity across a complex, multi-country environment.

Alongside this, they will lead a programme of improvement focused on reducing manual processes, strengthening controls and governance, maximising existing payroll provider capabilities, improving vendor performance, and defining the future Payroll Target Operating Model (TOM).

This is an ideal opportunity for an experienced payroll leader who is comfortable operating at both a strategic and highly hands-on level and who can deliver tangible improvements within a fast-paced and changing organisation.

Role:

• Provide hands-on operational leadership to ensure payroll continuity and stability throughout a period of organisational change.
• Take overall ownership of the accurate and timely delivery of monthly payroll cycles across supported countries.
• Oversee payroll issues, risks and escalations, ensuring timely resolution and appropriate escalation where required.
• Establish and monitor payroll KPIs, service levels and operational performance metrics.
• Act as the senior escalation point for complex payroll matters and operational issues.
• Conduct a detailed review of the existing payroll operating model, processes and service delivery arrangements.
• Define the future-state Payroll Target Operating Model (TOM), including organisational structure, resource requirements, technology, processes and service delivery approach.
• Assess the appropriate balance between internal payroll activities and outsourced provider capabilities.
• Take ownership of relationships with third-party payroll providers and outsourced service partners.
• Assess current provider capabilities and identify opportunities to make better use of existing contracted services.
• Hold providers accountable for service delivery, accuracy, responsiveness and continuous improvement.
• Identify opportunities to improve both service quality and value from existing payroll contracts and arrangements.
• Strengthen the payroll control environment, governance framework and audit readiness.
• Provide day-to-day leadership and direction to the payroll team.
• Lead the team through a period of organisational change and transformation.
• Partner closely with senior stakeholders across HR, Finance, Benefits and Operations.
• Act as the organisation's senior payroll subject matter expert.

Key Deliverables - First 12 Months

By the end of the assignment, the successful candidate will be expected to have delivered:

• Stable, accurate and consistently high-quality payroll operations.
• Stronger day-to-day payroll leadership and operational accountability.
• A measurable reduction in manual payroll processing and intervention.
• Increased utilisation of existing payroll provider capabilities.
• Improved payroll controls, governance and process documentation.
• Greater transparency through meaningful payroll KPIs, reporting and performance metrics.
• Improved vendor performance, accountability and service quality.
• A clear and deliverable payroll transformation roadmap.
• A defined future-state Payroll Target Operating Model.
• Clear, evidence-based recommendations regarding the optimal long-term payroll structure, resource requirements and delivery model.
• Improved value from existing payroll contracts and service arrangements.

For further information on this new role please contact Jen McMurray on the attached details. Candidates will be considered immediately for interview and start.