Payroll, HR Systems and People MI Lead

£50,000 - £55,000 + benefits

Permanent

Full-time (35 hours per week)

Wimbledon (flexible and hybrid working)

About us

We’ve been championing better work and working lives for over 100 years. We help organisations thrive by focusing on their people, supporting our economies and societies. We’re the professional body for HR, L&D, OD and all people professionals – experts in people, work and change. With over 160,000 members globally – and a growing community using our research, insights and learning – we give trusted advice and offer independent thought leadership. And we are a leading voice in the call for good work that creates value for everyone.

We offer an inclusive and stimulating culture and a wide range of professional development opportunities, as well as excellent benefits such as 28 days’ holiday with an option to buy and sell days, personal development allowance, access to an award winning pension scheme and a commitment to wellbeing including a cashback health scheme.

The role

As a Payroll, HR Systems and People MI specialist, you will lead the end-to-end delivery and continuous improvement of the CIPD’s global payroll operations, employee benefits administration, and HR systems and MI infrastructure. You will ensure compliance, accuracy, and efficiency across multiple jurisdictions while driving digital transformation through the Microsoft Power Platform and HRIS technologies. You will be acting as the organisational lead for payroll, HR systems, and people related MI, and you will enable data-driven decision-making, reduce manual workload, and enhance the employee experience across the People team.

What you’ll be doing

• Leading the end-to-end delivery of the CIPD’s monthly payroll operations, including UK, Ireland, and Dubai payrolls, ensuring compliance with local legislation, HMRC, and organisational policies. Overseeing all statutory year-end activities, including P11Ds and P60s, to ensure accuracy, audit readiness, and timely submission.

• Acting as the senior subject matter expert on payroll compliance, proactively monitoring and interpreting legislative changes across jurisdictions (e.g. PAYE, NI, SSP, SMP), and ensuring timely alignment with internal systems, processes, and governance frameworks.

• Leading both external and internal audits concerning Payroll and HR data practices. Ensuring the provision of necessary documentation and information to meet audit requirements effectively and efficiently.

• Designing and delivering advanced workforce reporting and analytics, transforming raw payroll and HR data into actionable insights for the senior leadership team. Supporting strategic decisions by contributing to KPI dashboards, gender and ethnicity pay analysis, and annual people data reporting.

• Managing and optimising all employee benefit platforms and schemes, including private healthcare, pensions, salary sacrifice, and wellness providers. Leading vendor relationships and ensuring benefit offerings are accessible, compliant, and aligned with CIPD’s employee value proposition

• Utilising the Hay Methodology to evaluate and structure job descriptions across the organisation meticulously. Leading the calibration of job roles to maintain consistency and fairness in job grading and career progression pathways.

• Providing robust support for all payroll-related queries and managing the pension and benefits schemes. Coordinating staff workshops and other financial awareness initiatives.

• Super-user for HR and payroll systems, including being a first point of contact with the HR and Payroll system providers.

• Provide support to our people and collaborating with the wider HR team, delivering training to meet end users’ needs, resolving issues or referring to helpdesk, creating suitable training materials (instruction guides and videos).

• Maintain stringent oversight of internal database files and the integrity of HRIS tables. Conducting regular audits to ensure the accuracy and functionality of the HR/Payroll systems, implementing updates and adjustments as necessary to support optimal performance.

• Driving process automation and digital transformation within the People Team by leveraging Microsoft Power Platform tools (e.g. Power Automate, Power BI). Creating and maintaining workflows that reduce repetitive admin tasks, improve data accuracy, and increase overall efficiency in HR and payroll processes.

What you’ll need to be successful

• Extensive hands-on experience in payroll and HR systems management, delivering accurate, compliant, and efficient payroll services across multiple sectors and jurisdictions (UK, Ireland, UAE).

• Skilled in process automation and systems integration. Experienced in mapping and improving processes end-to-end across HR and payroll

• Experience working with external auditors, tax bodies, or payroll providers

• Experience troubleshooting issues, liaising with vendors and implementing upgrades or enhancements.

• Confident manipulating data, running queries, and generating reports

• Proven expertise in end-to-end payroll ownership, including benefits administration, tax compliance, statutory reporting, and audit readiness.

• Advanced user of CIPHR and other HR/payroll systems, with a track record of optimising functionality and improving data integrity.

• Innovative problem-solving skills using technology including process automation and systems integration, including the design and implementation of Microsoft Power Platform solutions (e.g. Power Automate flows) to reduce manual admin and enhance team efficiency.

• Strong analytical and data reporting skills, using tools such as Excel and Power BI to support strategic decision-making and people insights.

• Experience supporting system upgrades, compliance reviews, and change initiatives in collaboration with IT and Finance teams.

• Excellent communication, training, and stakeholder engagement skills, with a collaborative approach to working across HR, finance, and external providers.

 

If this role describes you and your career aspirations, click apply before Friday 21 November.

 

CIPD Empowering People-Valuing Difference. At the CIPD, we believe that every person brings unique perspectives, experiences and strengths that enrich our workplaces and communities. We see diversity as the wide range of visible and non-visible differences that make each of us who we are — including, but not limited to: age, colour, disability, ethnicity, education, gender identity, neurodiversity, religion or belief, relationship status, sex, sexual orientation, socio-economic background and other personal and protected characteristics and experiences.

Research continues to show that equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), drives better decision-making, innovation and problem-solving and in turn better organisational business outcomes. By embracing our differences and creating equal opportunities and inclusive cultures we can build environments where everyone feels respected, valued and able to thrive — and where both organisational and individual goals are achieved.

We are determined to ensuring employment policy and practice promote and deliver EDI at every stage of the employment relationship. This includes not only recognising and understanding how each individuals personal and protected characteristics can either advantage or disadvantage employment experiences and outcomes, but also to continually strengthen our understanding and sharing the benefits EDI.

Please note, we reserve the right to close or extend this position depending on application numbers. Therefore, we would urge you to submit an application as soon as possible.