Upstream Risk Management is a security and risk management consultancy which provides a range of business-to-business services, including risk assessment, strategic security design, operational facilitation, security training, and provision of long term and interim embedded professionals.
Our team is characterised by an entrepreneurial spirit and an ownership mentality. In eight years, we have built an international business, opening offices in USA, South Africa, India, Dubai, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Luxembourg, Israel, and Czechia. We have enjoyed profitable growth year on year, and our success has been based on delivering exceptional service to our customers.
We are currently in an exciting, organisation-wide technology change project that will automate and standardise process, increasing our efficiency and allowing us to spend more time with customers and our amazing embedded consultants.
We are looking for a dynamic and entrepreneurial colleague to join the HQ team in Berkhamsted and help take the business through the change process. In this high impact role you would work right at the core of the organisation, collaborating with teams from all departments to deliver this mission critical scope of work while helping to build a new system. In return for your energy and enthusiasm, you can expect a positive, flexible working environment and a strong commitment to work-life balance.
Job Summary
With over 100 employees embedded in consultancy roles with our customers, payroll operations and benefits form a critical link in our service offering and business operations. Accurate and on time payment of salaries, and diligent management of benefits are non-negotiable elements of our support to our people, and the data outputs form the basis for customer billing.
We are looking for someone to own the end-to-end payroll and billing operations across multiple countries by managing payroll inputs, validating outputs, and ensuring all payroll and benefit-related liabilities are correctly reconciled and invoiced to customers.
This role does not calculate payroll, but is accountable for payroll and billing accuracy, timeliness, and vendor coordination. This is a one year fixed term contract at 40 hours per week.
Role purpose
Own the end-to-end payroll-to-billing lifecycle, ensuring that employees are paid accurately and on time, and that all payroll-derived costs are correctly translated into accurate, timely customer invoices and cash collection.
This is a mission-critical control role, linking:
* Employee pay
* Cost of sales
* Revenue generation
* Cash collection
The role ensures:
What we pay is correct → what we bill is correct → what we collect is complete.
Key responsibilities
1. Payroll operations management
* Collect, validate, and submit payroll inputs across all countries:
* Timesheets (where applicable)
* Salary, bonus, and allowance changes
* Expense reimbursements
* New starters and leavers
* Maintain payroll calendars across jurisdictions
* Ensure all inputs are approved, complete, and submitted on time
2. Third-party payroll provider coordination
* Act as primary contact for all payroll providers globally
* Manage payroll cycles, queries, corrections, and escalations
* Monitor provider performance and SLA adherence
* Maintain payroll instructions and audit trail
3. Payroll validation & sign-off
* Review and validate payroll outputs:
* Net pay
* Taxes and statutory deductions
* Reimbursements
* Perform variance analysis vs:
* Prior periods
* Submitted inputs
* Investigate and resolve discrepancies, communication with employees where necessary
* Approve payroll for release
4. Payroll-to-billing translation
* Convert payroll outputs into structured billing data:
* Employee / contractor
* Client
* Country
* Assignment
* Cost components
* Ensure all payroll costs are:
* Correctly allocated to clients
* Complete and captured
* Ready for invoicing
5. Invoice production & issuance
* Generate customer invoices based on:
* Payroll costs
* Contractual mark-ups
* Rebillable expenses
* Validate invoice accuracy:
* Rates and mark-ups
* Cost completeness
* Tax treatment
* Issue invoices in line with client schedules
* Maintain full audit trail and supporting documentation
6. Accounts receivable & collections
* Monitor accounts receivable aging
* Reconcile incoming payments to invoices
* Investigate:
* Short payments
* Disputes
* Delays
* Follow up on overdue balances
* Work with account teams to resolve billing issues
7. Reporting & financial support
* Produce reporting on:
* Payroll costs (cost of sales)
* Billing and revenue
* Cash collection and DSO
* Support: Forecasting of cost of sales, month-end close (revenue and payroll data)
8. Governance, controls & process improvement
* Maintain and develop end-to-end process documentation
* Ensure clear audit trail from payroll input → invoice → cash
* Identify and implement process improvements, supporting a strategic technology change process
* Support audits and compliance reviews
9. Other tasks as required
* Assist with expenses management, bookkeeping, accounts payable
Key stakeholders
* Payroll providers
* HR / Operations (inputs)
* Sales / Account Management (forecasts and estimates)
* Customers (finance teams)
* Finance leadership
Skills & experience
* Experience in payroll operations and billing / AR (ideally staffing, consulting, or services)
* Strong reconciliation and data integrity mindset
* Experience working with third-party vendors
* Ability to manage multi-country processes
* Strong Excel / systems capability
* High attention to detail and ownership mindset