Head of Payroll

Head of Payroll
£400 - £500 per day - Outside IR35
Remote / Hybrid (London)

We re partnering with an exciting, venture-backed technology startup building an AI-powered payroll solution for frontline industries. Designed to support complex, high-volume shift work, their platform is reshaping payroll delivery across sectors like hospitality, care, and recruitment.

They re now seeking a Head of Payroll to lead operations and play a critical role in onboarding early-stage clients, refining the payroll engine, and shaping the customer journey. This is an opportunity for an experienced payroll leader to join a product-led business and make a tangible impact from day one.

Engagement Type: Contract (with future potential to go permanent and earn equity)

Responsibilities include:

• Managing payroll operations for new clients and internal testing environments
• Ensuring compliance with HMRC, RTI, pensions, and all statutory deductions
• Supporting new customer onboarding, parallel runs, and pay configuration
• Providing real-world feedback to the product and engineering team to shape features and resolve edge cases
• Acting as a subject matter expert during implementation and post-sale support
• Representing the business at industry events, webinars, and online forums to engage the payroll community

Skills & experience required:

• Deep experience managing UK payroll either in-house or within a bureau environment
• Familiarity with shift-based, variable pay environments such as retail, hospitality, or care
• Strong technical understanding of payroll platforms and modern SaaS tools
• Confident collaborating with developers and non-payroll teams
• Excellent communication and documentation skills
• Passion for payroll innovation and a potential interest in product or strategy leadership

Apply today or reach out to Freddy Moorhouse at JGA Recruitment Group to learn more

JGA Recruitment Group Ltd ("We") are committed to equality of opportunity for all applicants regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, and marriage and civil partnerships. We strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply.
We are also committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We are a specialist payroll, HR & Marketing recruitment agency and recruitment business as defined in the Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (our business). These statements together with our privacy notices set out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.