Payroll Consultant Full Time NEW

British Council Payband 6

Department: Payroll and Operations

Contract Type: 12 months Fixed Term Contract

Contract Hours: 36 hours per week, Monday to Friday

Salary: £25,520 – 28,470. In addition, there will be an annual London Market Allowance of £3,300 for London based candidates.

Location: London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast only

Closing Date: 19th April 2026

You must have the legal right to work in UK at the time of application.

There is no relocation or sponsorship support.

Role Purpose

• The Payroll Consultant is responsible for delivering and monitoring efficient, accurate, and compliant payroll operations across the region. This includes managing day-to-day payroll processes, ensuring statutory compliance, and maintaining high-quality employee payroll services.

Main accountabilities

Payroll Operations

• Deliver accurate, timely, and compliant payroll processing across all countries in scope.
• Complete payroll processes independently to ensure timely and accurate processing of payroll transactions, including salaries, allowances and other deductions.
• Ensure all pay awards, salary increments, and other salary changes are implemented accurately.
• Check pre-payroll calculations and payroll calculations, including manual adjustments and system-generated outputs.
• Provide detailed specialist payroll instructions, for our UK employees on international assignments, to internal and external payroll teams including assignment allowance, hypothetical tax and NIC and pension payment calculations.
• Review payroll changes, output files, reports, and accruals to ensure accuracy.
• Ensure maintenance of live checklists and SOP documents for all workstreams to reflect current steps, responsibilities and timelines.
• Check and validate the results of ‘provisional’ payroll runs with reference to exceptions and variation reports and taking appropriate remedial actions to ensure accuracy.
• Check and reconcile all necessary payroll reports and seek appropriate approvals for payroll processing and BACS authorisations.
• Confidently handle all aspects of statutory leave, payments and deductions and carry out manual calculations of statutory payments and Tax/NI calculations if required (SSP, SMP, SAP, ShPP, Parental Leave, Tax, NI and overpayments etc.).

Stakeholder & Vendor Collaboration

• Partner with MSP, Finance and other People Function teams to ensure smooth payroll execution and reporting.
• Collaborate with in-country teams, approvers, and external vendors to resolve payroll issues.
• Maintain proactive communication with the payroll service providers via scheduled monthly/quarterly/annual meetings.
• Partner with our external vendor for payroll/tax advice for our UK employees on international assignments
• Support cross-functional initiatives for payroll-related data accuracy and process alignment.

Case & Employee Query Management

• Respond to payroll-related and hr operations related queries from employees via case management systems (C4C).
• Handle and resolve complex employee payroll issues. Strive to understand stakeholder queries and resolve tickets in a customer centric manner.
• Investigate discrepancies, exceptions, and one-off payments, ensuring timely resolution.
• Provide clear feedback to team members and pre-payroll teams on issues and improvements.

Compliance & Audit

• Ensure compliance with local legislation, global policies, and internal controls.
• Review, and ensure timely submission of statutory reports, accruals, and tax filings.
• Maintain audit-ready documentation, payroll records, and reference files.
• Liaise with third parties, government and statutory bodies as required.

Continuous Improvement & Automation

• Identify inefficiencies, recurring issues, and process gaps, proposing corrective actions.
• Lead process automation, digitalisation, and system improvements.
• Share lessons learned from audits and reconciliations to enhance payroll service quality.
• Support review and implementation of SOPs, variance sheets, and knowledge documentation.
• Participate in error calibration and feedback sessions with the MSP to prevent recurring issues.

Communication & Reporting

• Communicate payroll deadlines, changes, and issues proactively to stakeholders.
• Proactively communicate with all approvers and key personnel to ensure effective coordination and approvals of payroll payments.
• Ensure proper logging and tracking of payroll activities in internal systems.

Collaboration & Teamwork

• Support colleagues with workload, sharing knowledge and best practices.
• Promote consistency and adherence to payroll cut-off timelines.
• Participate in projects, initiatives, or activities beyond core payroll duties when required.

Role specific knowledge and experience:

Minimum / Essential Requirements

• Extensive UK payroll knowledge – Minimum 3 years’ experience in a high-volume payroll environment
• Experience of delivering payroll operations, processes and practices.
• Strong understanding of HMRC processes and regulations affecting payroll including Real Time Information processing, PAYE, National Insurance and rules
• regarding direct payment and benefits
• Strong knowledge of current UK payroll related legislation and employment laws.
• Experience of supporting the payroll activities of international assignee roles overseas.
• Experience of maintaining/administrating employee benefits and wider payroll administration processes
• Highly Proficient in Excel, with excellent numeracy and literacy skills.
• High level of customer service and ability to deal with people at all levels
• Exceptional organisational skills, able to plan and prioritise work effectively, deal with multiple demands, manage competing deadlines and remain calm under pressure.
• Excellent attention to detail and high levels of accuracy.

Desirable Requirements

• Certified Payroll Qualification (e.g. CIPP or similar)
• Knowledge of automation in payroll
• Experience working with an outsourced payroll vendor.
• Expertise/Experience of payroll operations across several countries in the region, including designing tools, processes and procedures.
• Experience of working with SAP Success Factors
• Experience in HR operations in a shared service environment.
• Ability to demonstrate critical thinking skills and initiative.
• Preferably experience in a shared service/outsourcing environment.