Frontline work keeps the world running. Restaurants, hospitals, schools, nurseries, airlines, stores, emergency services. Together they employ 80% of the global workforce, over 3 billion people, and they're among the hardest businesses anywhere to run. By-the-minute scheduling, HR and payroll make them far more operationally complex than the average office, yet just 1% of venture funding has ever gone to software built for them.
Rising costs, wage increases, labour shortages and tighter regulation have made fixing that urgent. Sona is the AI-native workforce management platform for frontline organisations, with agents that match staffing to real demand and take the admin load off managers. That's a $500bn+ market the software industry has mostly walked past.
We've raised over $100M from N47, Felicis, Gradient and Northzone, signed more than 100 enterprise customers across the UK and US, and opened offices in London, New York, Austin and Lisbon. More on working at Sona here.
About the Role
As a Payroll Implementation Manager at Sona, you're the person a customer deals with directly as their payroll goes live: discovery, system configuration, parallel runs, training, go-live. You're the face of Sona at the moment that matters most to them, and everything you configure has a direct, visible effect on someone's payslip.
You'll work day-to-day with a project manager, the payroll implementation team and our payroll bureau colleagues, one of the most collaborative groups in the business, with direct access to the product team.
We use AI in ways most payroll providers haven't got close to yet: in reconciliation, in configuration checks, in the everyday admin that eats weeks. You'd be using this now, not waiting on a roadmap or permission. Sona's just been shortlisted for Tech Product of the Year 2026 and selected for Tech Nation's Future Fifty cohort, real recognition of the pace this team moves at.
There's a genuine path up from here too. With more customers every day this function grows, and that's the shape of what's opening up: more implementers, more structure, more senior roles as the team scales.
Responsibilities
Own payroll implementations end to end: discovery, system configuration, parallel runs, training, and go-live
Configure and troubleshoot UK payroll setups, including GL and pensions configuration and RTI processing
Spot opportunities to improve the process and see them through yourself
Work alongside Project Managers and Solutions Architects on the wider implementation journey
Travel to customer sites for training and launch support, alongside remote delivery
Use AI in your day to day work: reconciliation, communication, wherever it actually speeds things up
Requirements
Hands-on experience implementing UK payroll systems end to end
Real working knowledge of UK payroll legislation and processing
Curious, and genuinely comfortable with ambiguity
High attention to detail and real accountability
Excited about using AI in everyday tools like spreadsheets, communications, and reconciliation
Bonus: CIPP (or equivalent) qualification, or working towards one
Benefits
Salary: £50,000 - £60,000
London, hybrid - 2 days a week in the office, with occasional travel to UK customer sites for training and launch support
Share options
35 days annual leave (25 days standard plus 10 flexible public holiday days)
Extra day of leave for every year of service
Pension contributions matched up to 5%
Comprehensive health insurance
Enhanced parental leave & pay
Workplace nursery salary sacrifice scheme
Annual all expenses paid team retreats
The latest Macbook and equipment budget for your home office
Professional development budget
Unlimited free books
Note: this represents a typical benefits package for a UK-based, full-time employee. Exact details may vary based on location and employment type but we try to be as fair as possible to all of our team members. Please ask your contact in the Talent team to clarify the available benefits for you.
Skills Required
- Proven, hands-on experience implementing UK payroll systems end-to-end
- Deep working knowledge of UK payroll legislation and processing
- Experience configuring and troubleshooting UK payroll setups including GL and pensions configuration and RTI processing
- High attention to detail and strong sense of accountability
- Comfortable operating with ambiguity and adapting to fast-moving startup environments
- Comfortable using AI tools in everyday work (spreadsheets, communications, reconciliation)
- Willingness to provide occasional on-site customer support and travel to customer sites
- CIPP (or equivalent) qualification, or working towards one
What We Do
The employee empowerment revolution has arrived. Sona is the modern app for the new era of frontline work, combining powerful productivity tools with a sleek, simple and intuitive user experience. Empower your people to see their schedule at a glance, book holiday from anywhere, pick up extra shifts, communicate with colleagues, find information and give feedback instantly. Empower your managers to slash admin time by 5 hours per week, drastically reduce agency and payroll spending, and elevate your employee experience. Sona is transforming the way trailblazing organisations across health and social care, retail, logistics, charities and non-profits manage their teams and budgets and engage and retain their staff.
