Hours: 37.5 hours, Mon – Friday
Location: Hybrid, 3 days per week at VHQ, Crawley
Contract: Permanent
Closing Date: 19th July 2026
Start Date: 1st September 2026
In a nutshell
At Virgin Atlantic, we believe everyone can take on the world. Behind every incredible customer experience is a team of talented people who make it happen—including our Payroll team, who ensure our colleagues are paid accurately, on time and with confidence.
We're looking for a Senior Payroll Coordinator to join our Payroll team. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced payroll professional who enjoys solving complex challenges, driving continuous improvement and ensuring the highest standards of payroll governance and compliance.
Day to day
As a Senior Payroll Coordinator, you'll play a key role in delivering an accurate, compliant and efficient payroll service. Acting as a subject matter expert, you'll oversee payroll controls, support audit readiness, resolve complex payroll queries and work closely with colleagues across People, Finance and external providers to continuously improve our payroll processes.
You'll also:
• Own and maintain payroll compliance processes and internal controls.
• Lead the review and standardisation of payroll processes to ensure they remain compliant and efficient.
• Investigate and resolve complex payroll issues, identifying root causes and implementing long-term solutions.
• Produce payroll reconciliations, variance analysis and reporting to support payroll accuracy and performance.
• Monitor payroll trends, identify opportunities for improvement and help deliver process enhancements.
• Partner with internal stakeholders and external providers to ensure a seamless payroll experience for our people.
• Share your expertise by supporting and coaching colleagues on payroll policies, processes and best practice.
About you
You'll be an experienced payroll professional with a passion for accuracy, compliance and delivering exceptional service.
You'll bring:
• Significant experience delivering end-to-end payroll in a complex, multi-country or international environment.
• A strong understanding of payroll legislation, governance, controls and audit requirements.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to interpret payroll data and resolve complex issues.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including PivotTables, XLOOKUP, SUMIFS and data analysis.
• Experience using Oracle Fusion HCM and Payroll or a similar enterprise HRIS/payroll system.
• Outstanding organisational skills with exceptional attention to detail.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to influence and build trusted relationships across the business.
• A continuous improvement mindset and a proactive approach to identifying better ways of working.
A CIPP qualification (or equivalent) is desirable but not essential.
Be yourself. Our differences make us stronger.
Virgin Atlantic are committed equal opportunities employers and positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible applicants regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, pregnancy and maternity. Diversity brings strength which is why we strive to provide an inclusive environment where individuality is celebrated, and we can ignite the potential of our forward-thinking mix of people.
Please be aware as part of our recruitment process we may look to use a variety of resourcing tools to help us understand your skills and experience in relation to the role you have applied for. These may include application questions, video interviews or online testing. Please feel free to contact us at [email protected] if there are any reasonable adjustments to our process that you would like us to consider, for example use of hearing loops, sign language interpreter etc. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if there are any issues preventing you from being at your best during your application or assessment process. Any issues raised after your assessment is completed or once a decision has been made will be too late for us to consider within our process.
Skills Required
- Significant experience delivering end-to-end payroll in a complex, multi-country or international environment.
- Strong understanding of payroll legislation, governance, controls and audit requirements.
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with ability to interpret payroll data and resolve complex issues.
- Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including PivotTables, XLOOKUP, SUMIFS and data analysis.
- Experience using Oracle Fusion HCM and Payroll or a similar enterprise HRIS/payroll system.
- Outstanding organisational skills with exceptional attention to detail.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with confidence to influence and build relationships.
- Continuous improvement mindset and proactive approach to identifying better ways of working.
- CIPP qualification (or equivalent).
What We Do
Virgin Atlantic first took to the skies in 1984 to shake things up, bringing a sparkle of red, a touch of wit and a passion for flying to the grey world of airlines. We fell in love with creating the best experience in the skies for our customers, and they fell in love with us right back. Since then we’ve become Britain’s second largest carrier, with non-stop transatlantic routes including New York, Orlando, the Caribbean, Delhi and Johannesburg. And thanks to our hugely successful joint venture with Delta, Air France and KLM, we can seamlessly connect our customers to over 350 cities across North America, Europe and the UK. Today, we want to empower everyone to take on the world. The customers we proudly fly and our people who go the extra mile. As we embark on a brand spanking new era of travel, it gives us more opportunities to do things differently and lead the way with fresh ideas. This means becoming more sustainable for our planet and our destinations, and working hard to make travel open to everyone, no matter who you are, who you love or where you go. And of course never, ever, forgetting the small stuff - like the clink of champagne glasses on a special occasion or a cheeky cream tea at 30,000 feet.
