Job title: Payroll Operations & Systems Manager
Working hours: 37.5 hours per week
About the Role: The Payroll Operations & Systems Manager is the strategic engine behind our payroll delivery. While the Head of Payroll ensures compliance, accuracy, and legislative adherence, you are responsible for the operational machinery that allows the department to function efficiently and at scale.
In this pivotal role, you will bridge the gap between technical systems and operational delivery. You will own the resource planning, integration strategy, and workflow optimisation, ensuring that our HRIS connects seamlessly with our payroll software and that our teams are utilised effectively to meet customer requirements.
Requirements
Key Responsibilities:
1. Operational Operations & Resource Planning
- Strategic Capacity Management: Take ownership of the department’s resource modeling. You will analyse sales forecasts, onboarding pipelines, and seasonal peaks to ensure the team is appropriately staffed and skilled to meet demand.
- Work Allocation Strategy: Collaborate with the Head of Payroll to design data-driven work allocation models. You will move the team away from reactive assignment to proactive capacity planning, ensuring deadlines are met without team burnout.
- Efficiency & Utilisation: Implement metrics to track team utilisation and identifying operational bottlenecks. You will constantly analyse the "time-to-process" and drive initiatives that reduce manual intervention.
- Process Engineering: Lead the design of standardised operational workflows. You are responsible for identifying friction points in the payroll cycle and implementing lean processes that maximise speed and consistency.
2. Systems Integration & Technical Strategy
- Integration Architecture: Define and own the operational strategy for integrating customer HRIS platforms with our payroll systems. You ensure the "pipes" that carry data are robust, secure, and scalable.
- Data Integrity & Automation: Establish rigorous automated controls to ensure the synchronisation of data between systems. Your goal is to create a "zero-touch" data transfer environment where the system acts as the source of truth, minimising manual data entry for the payroll team.
- Technical Troubleshooting: Act as the escalation point for complex data transfer or system configuration issues, preventing technical blockers from impacting payroll delivery deadlines.
- Product Liaison: Act as the bridge between the Payroll Department and internal Product/Engineering teams, ensuring that software updates and new features support operational efficiency.
3. Financial Infrastructure & Control
- Payment Systems (BACS): Lead the operational management of payment integration protocols. You will oversee the technical setup and reliability of BACS (or equivalent) transmissions, ensuring the mechanism for payment is fail-safe.
- Statutory & Third-Party Connections: Standardise and manage the integration methods for pension providers and HMRC data exchanges. You ensure the file transfer protocols are compliant, secure, and fully automated where possible.
- Risk & Security: Proactively identify operational risks related to data security and file handling. You will implement the systems-based controls required to protect sensitive client data during transit.
4. Leadership & Stakeholder Partnership
- Partnership with Head of Payroll: Work in lock-step with the Head of Payroll. While they focus on the what (accuracy/legislation), you focus on the how (process/systems), forming a unified leadership front.
- Working alongside the Head of Payroll, foster a culture of technical precision and operational excellence.
Benefits
Here are the benefits of working for SAMpeople and FusionHR.
- 25 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays (increases annually with service up to 29 days)
- Your birthday off work In addition to the above!
- Holiday purchase scheme - you can buy up to an additional 3 days leave
- Pension scheme
- BUPA Healthcare Cashback Plan
- Free onsite parking
- A clear career pathway as soon as you join
- Free fresh fruit and snacks delivered weekly
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Time off for those special events; nativities, school plays, & graduations
- Hybrid working
- Great company social events
Skills Required
- Experience in payroll operations management
- Strong knowledge of HRIS and payroll software
- Experience with data integration and automation
- Proven leadership and stakeholder partnership skills
What We Do
At Arbor, we’re on a mission to transform the way schools work for the better. You’ve probably seen the headlines. Heavy workloads, constant change, admin pressure on teachers and staff at every level… sometimes it feels like this is just part and parcel of school life today. But it doesn’t have to be this way. At Arbor, we passionately believe that there’s a better way to work. And it starts by giving everyone the right tools and technology for the job. Arbor is the fastest-growing MIS today. Over 3,800 schools and MATs use our tools to work more collaboratively, free staff from busywork and drive their schools forward. We know any technology is an investment, in both time and cost, so everything we do is designed with schools to make a real difference. Each year, we measure our impact on the metrics that matter most - like saving staff time and getting greater insight into your data - to hold ourselves accountable. We’re building a platform and products we believe in - as well as strong, diverse team of experienced specialists, ex-teachers and Edtech engineers passionate about making a difference to the sector. Ultimately, we’re here to help make our schools and trusts stress a little less, and focus on what matters most - improving the lives of teachers and outcomes of students everywhere.
