Payroll Team Leader - Managed Payroll Services - UK

Introduction

A career in IBM Consulting is rooted by long-term relationships and close collaboration with clients across the globe. You'll work with visionaries across multiple industries to improve the hybrid cloud and AI journey for the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. Your ability to accelerate impact and make meaningful change for your clients is enabled by our strategic partner ecosystem and our robust technology platforms across the IBM portfolio

In this role, you'll work in one of our IBM Consulting Client Innovation Centers (Delivery Centers), where we deliver deep technical and industry expertise to a wide range of public and private sector clients around the world. Our delivery centers offer our clients locally based skills and technical expertise to drive innovation and adoption of new technology.

Your role and responsibilities

We are seeking an experienced and initiative-taking Payroll Team Leader to oversee the delivery of accurate, compliant, and customer-focused payroll services. This role is responsible for managing day-to-day operations, supporting, and developing team members, and ensuring that processes run efficiently in line with legislation, policies, and service standards.

Key Responsibilities

Customer Service
• Deliver responsive, efficient, and positive service to internal and external stakeholders.
• Set clear expectations with customers and ensure follow-through.
• Adapt communication style to suit varying levels of technical understanding.
• Maintain consistently high levels of customer satisfaction.

Payroll Expertise
• Resolve payroll queries from employees, HMRC, and third-party providers.
• Provide advice and guidance on payroll legislation.
• Oversee the running of Oracle Payroll and associated tasks.
• Ensure compliance with payroll processes, policies, and ISMS standards.

Reporting & Documentation
• Deliver scheduled payroll reports and support service delivery reporting.
• Document customer processes, workflows, and changes to ensure clarity and compliance.

Team Leadership
• Plan team workloads, allocate tasks, and manage monthly checklists.
• Supervise data input, monitor SLA adherence, and ensure high service quality.
• Conduct regular 1:1 catch-ups, performance development reviews, and set clear objectives.
• Manage team performance, provide coaching, and support professional development.
• Monitor annual leave and ensure effective team resource planning.

Collaboration & Communication
• Work closely with cross-departmental teams and external customers to ensure smooth operations.
• Support customer onboarding activities and user acceptance testing (UAT).
• Perform UAT for payroll system changes and updates.

Continuous Improvement
• Identify and implement process improvements to enhance payroll service delivery.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement within the team.

Compliance & Confidentiality
• Always safeguard data confidentiality.

What We Offer
• Opportunity to lead a high-performing payroll team.
• Involvement in continuous improvement and system development initiatives.
• A supportive environment focused on professional growth and collaboration.

Required education

Bachelor's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

• Strong background in payroll operations, ideally with Oracle Payroll experience.
• Proven leadership skills with experience in managing, coaching, and developing teams.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to adapt to different audiences.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Knowledge of payroll legislation, compliance standards, and best practices.
• An initiative-taking approach to problem-solving and process improvement.

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM Consulting is IBM's consulting and global professional services business, with market leading capabilities in business and technology transformation. With deep expertise in many industries, we offer strategy, experience, technology, and operations services to many of the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. Our people are focused on accelerating our clients' businesses through the power of collaboration. We believe in the power of technology responsibly used to help people, partners and the planet.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you'll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you'll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.