Payroll and Pensions Manager

Are you an experienced payroll leader looking for an opportunity to shape the future of payroll delivery while leading a critical service?

COPFS is recruiting for a Payroll and Pensions Manager to lead payroll and pension services for approximately 2,900 employees across Scotland's prosecution service. This is a rare opportunity to combine operational leadership with the delivery of a significant payroll transformation programme.

Reporting to the Senior Pay and Reward Manager, you will lead a specialist payroll team, oversee end-to-end payroll operations and act as a trusted expert on payroll legislation, compliance and pension administration.

Alongside ensuring the accurate and compliant delivery of payroll services, you will play a leading role in bringing payroll delivery in-house, helping to shape future operating arrangements, processes and controls across the organisation.

Working closely with senior leaders across the People Directorate, you will have the opportunity to influence strategic decisions, develop your professional expertise and contribute directly to service improvement and organisational change.

This role would suit an experienced payroll professional with strong technical knowledge, proven people leadership skills and a passion for delivering high-quality payroll and pension services.

Salary £45,472 plus a £5,000 pensionable Recruitment and Retention Allowance.

If you are interested in learning more, please refer to the attached application pack for further details on the role, salary and assessment process.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of monthly payroll for two PAYE references, ensuring accuracy, timeliness and compliance with UK legislation.
• Manage Civil Service Pension processes, including providing guidance on pension related queries.
• Ensure compliance with HMRC regulations, payroll legislation, maintaining up to date knowledge of legislative changes.
• Identify, assess and mitigate risks, ensuring appropriate controls and audit trails are in place.
• Support internal and external audit activity and ensure all findings are appropriately addressed.
• Build strong relationships with our third-party payroll service provider, highlighting any operational issues that may impact on the customer experience.
• Act as an escalation point for complex payroll and pension issues, ensuring timely resolution.
• Lead, develop and support the payroll team, setting clear objectives, prioritisation and managing performance.
• Identify opportunities to improve payroll and pensions processes, systems and service delivery.
• Lead the transition from COPFS's current semi-managed payroll model to a fully in-house payroll service, shaping future payroll delivery arrangements and embedding new processes, controls and ways of working.

Please note these are not exhaustive lists, and other duties may be required as appropriate to the role

• Managing end-to-end payroll delivery, with responsibility for ensuring accurate and timely payroll processing within strict deadlines.
• Leading and developing a payroll team, including managing workloads, priorities and performance to deliver an effective service.
• Manage end-to-end payroll delivery (either in-house or bureau) ensuring accuracy, compliance and adherence to strict deadlines
• Investigating and resolving complex payroll issues, working with relevant stakeholders and/or payroll providers to achieve effective resolution.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Selection will be Success Profiles based. See Application Pack for more details.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.