Job description
Location: Council HouseHours: 37 hours per week Closing Date: 31st May 2026 Contract Type: Permanent Derby City Council is looking for a Payroll Manager to lead three key functions within the Council’s HR Shared Services team; these are payroll, pensions and employee benefits. The role is critical to ensuring that the Council’s employees and sold-service customers are paid on time. Based at the Council House in Derby, the role presents an opportunity to make a real impact within the organisation by identifying and leading projects to deliver efficiencies across the Council’s processes and systems. This is a varied role: the Councils pays 4670 people across 17 payrolls, administers 3 pension schemes and manages several employee benefits contracts. Who We Are Here at Derby City Council, we’re dedicated to delivering nearly 250 first-class services to citizens and businesses in the heart of the Midlands. People are at the centre of all that we do, and we have an outstanding track record of recruiting and developing talented individuals by providing them with varied and fulfilling career opportunities. What We Offer You too could be part of something brilliant by becoming a colleague at Derby City Council; in addition to making a difference to the lives of people across the city, you’ll also receive: • Flexible work/life balance scheme • Hybrid working • Modern office environment • Continued professional development opportunities & career conversations • 27 days annual leave (rising to 32 days after 5 years' service), plus bank holidays • Local Government Pension Scheme • Team Derby Rewards – retail and leisure discounts • Tusker Car Benefit Scheme • Cycle2Work Scheme & free cycle training • Employee Assistance Programme, Wellbeing Calendar and Support • Access to our Equality Employee Networks – LGBTQ+, Disabled Employee Network & Carers and our Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic Employee Support Network and Neurodiversity Network • Support for colleagues who are carers The Opportunity In the role of Payroll Manager, here’s an example of what you’ll be doing to make an impact: • Effectively leading a multi-disciplined team of 12 across Payroll, Pensions and Employee Benefits, embedding a culture of high performance and building resilience across the teams • Ensuring accurate and timely end-to-end payroll processing, compliant with legislation and Council policies – this includes full accountability for the end-to-end payroll cycle, BACS production, RTI submissions and finance interfaces • Managing the Council’s employee benefits contracts to deliver best-value whilst helping to strengthen the organisation’s reward offering • Maintaining and developing sold services, such as with schools that utilise the Council’s Payroll service • Identifying and initiating projects to deliver savings and efficiencies across the function • Updating and delivering policy and process updates across the team, to the organisation or externally when required • Staying up-to-date with payroll, pensions and benefits legislation and relevant employment law • Proactively developing and upskilling the team to build resilience and ensure the function maintains a high level of service provided to the organisation About You To be successful in this role, you’ll ideally have… • Experience of managing end-to-end payroll processing in a large/complex organisation (including running payroll, BACS production, RTI submissions and costing ledger interfaces • Skilled in interpreting and applying payroll, pensions and benefits legislation • A motivational people leader that can develop skills and drive performance within the team • Project management skills and the ability to influence and a wide range of stakeholders • Good IT skills, with the ability to analyse and interpret data • The excellent interpersonal and customer service skills that are essential to successfully managing sold-services Next Steps If you would like to apply for this vacancy via an