Payroll Manager

About AQA

At AQA, we're committed to advancing education and we're committed to our people. As the largest provider of academic qualifications in the UK, we mark over 10 million exam papers each year and it's our people who make this happen.

• Job title:
  
  Payroll Manager
• Contract type:
  Permanent
• Location:
  
  Manchester
• Salary: £47,000 - £53,000
• Working arrangements:
  Hybrid – 2 days in office (Mon/Tue preferred, flexible)

You’ll play a critical role in ensuring AQA meets all statutory and regulatory payroll requirements across a highly complex payroll environment. With responsibility for 1,400 monthly salaried staff and an associate workforce of 40,000, you’ll safeguard compliance, accuracy, and efficiency while driving strategic improvements and system enhancements.

In this role, you’ll be responsible for:

• Leading and developing a team of 4 Payroll Administrators (soon to be
  5)
• Managing payroll for salaried staff, weekly temps, and Associates
• Driving system improvements (iTrent now, Workday in future) and process optimisation
• Overseeing payroll governance, year‑end processes, and KPI reporting to ensure accuracy and compliance
• Acting as the subject matter expert on all HMRC‑related matters, advising stakeholders on policy and procedural changes
• Collaborating with HR, Finance and Enterprise Technology teams to deliver system enhancements and lead cross‑department projects
• Driving team development through active management of performance delivery, engagement, ongoing training, coaching and development, and timely management of underperformance
• Creating effective and robust governance of all payroll activity, ensuring effective control frameworks and process documentation are in place and regularly reviewed for the Payroll department
• Leading all year‑end payroll processes and reporting, ensuring the reporting suite is fit for purpose and adapts to changes in the business
• Leading the team to deliver payroll system changes and enhancements to support the direction of the business; managing deliverables from external contractors where necessary and working collaboratively with the Enterprise Technology team to manage the relationship with our payroll support provider
• Producing timely KPI dashboards for Payroll with Root Cause Analysis to drive Right First Time performance and any reporting required to provide payroll visibility and analysis
• Delivering efficient and effective workload management to ensure that established service levels and departmental KPIs are achieved
• Effectively and proactively managing all internal customer requirements and expectations using appropriate communication channels, anticipating queries and issues and escalating where appropriate
• Working collaboratively with other colleagues within the rest of Finance and the wider Corporate Services function to deliver an excellent customer experience
• Enhancing and improving current practices, identifying potential service improvements and working with other areas of AQA to drive and deliver those improvements
• Remaining the subject matter expert and keeping abreast of government legislation relating to PAYE, NIC and pensions; actively advising key stakeholders on any aspect of payroll including areas where policy or procedural changes may be necessary
• Working with both the Employee Payroll and Associate Payments teams to identify and address any training gaps related to payroll

Requirements:

• Recognised payroll qualification (CIPP or equivalent). If you don't currently hold this and are qualified by experience, we will support you to achieve this in‑house.
• Proven leadership experience in high‑volume payroll environments
• Expertise in seasonal payroll and complex structures
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills
• Experience with payroll systems such as iTrent and Workday

• Experience working with various computer payroll packages, i.e. i‑Trent / Workday
• Experience of supporting the successful delivery of business change
• Experience of leading a successful payroll team through organic changes
• Experience of leading large, high transactional Payroll environments for…