Payroll Transformation Specialist - 24 months FTC in London

Company Overview: Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) is a global consulting firm that provides services in finance, operations, and technology to help clients reach their potential.

Position Overview: The role focuses on delivering payroll change initiatives across EMEA, supporting payroll implementations, optimisations, and transformation projects with a strong emphasis on ADP GlobalView and ADP Celergo.

Responsibilities:

• Act as the payroll subject‐matter lead within transformation and implementation projects, working alongside the central Project Management Office and EMEA Payroll Team.
• Work closely with the Payroll Operations (BAU) teams to ensure payroll requirements, country nuances, statutory obligations, and operational processes are fully understood, designed, tested, and embedded within project solutions.
• Represent payroll interests across project forums, ensuring payroll impacts are visible, understood, and addressed throughout the project lifecycle.
• Provide governance and challenge to ensure payroll solutions are operationally viable and sustainable post‐go‐live.
• Coordinate payroll team inputs into projects, ensuring timely and high‐quality delivery of payroll activities, including requirements validation, testing, and readiness.
• Ensure effective handover of new processes, systems, and changes into BAU payroll operations, including documentation, controls, and knowledge transfer.
• Ensure all payroll scenarios, exceptions, statutory calculations, and country‐specific nuances are thoroughly tested and signed off.
• Review payroll outputs, reconciliations, and reports to confirm accuracy, compliance, and operational feasibility prior to go‐live.
• Provide hands‐on payroll systems expertise across ADP GlobalView and ADP Celergo, ensuring payroll configuration and integrations meet business and statutory requirements.
• Validate payroll data flows, interfaces, and downstream impacts between Workday, payroll providers, and other systems.
• Support issue resolution related to payroll design, configuration, or data during and after implementations.
• Partner with external payroll vendors to ensure payroll design and delivery meets agreed standards and country requirements.
• Identify and mitigate payroll risks, gaps, or readiness concerns early and pragmatically.
• Ensure payroll controls, audit requirements, and compliance considerations are built into new solutions.
• Contribute to standardisation, documentation, and continuous improvement of global payroll practices.

Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in international/EMEA payroll, with hands‐on knowledge of payroll processing and country‐specific statutory requirements.
• Experience supporting payroll transformation, system implementation, or change projects, acting as a payroll subject‐matter expert with ADP GlobalView or ADP Celergo.
• Ability to translate payroll requirements into clear guidance for non‐payroll stakeholders and project teams.
• Strong experience validating payroll configurations, integrations, and data flows between HR, payroll, and finance systems.
• Experience coordinating payroll inputs and deliverables to meet project timelines and quality expectations.
• Proven ability to raise risks, challenge solutions constructively, and safeguard payroll outcomes.
• Confidence engaging with vendors (e.g., ADP) to validate solutions and resolve payroll‐related issues.
• Strong stakeholder management within complex payroll and transformation environments, ensuring the right people are engaged at the right time.
• Ability to keep key stakeholders informed through clear, timely, and structured communication, escalating risks or gaps appropriately.
• Proven ability to operate within and uphold RACI frameworks, reinforcing accountability across Payroll, HR, Finance, IT, vendors, and project teams.

Equal Opportunity Employer: Alvarez & Marsal provides and promotes equal opportunity in employment, compensation, and other terms and conditions of employment without discrimination because of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, sex or gender, gender identity or gender expression (including transgender status), sexual orientation, marital status, military service and veteran status, physical or mental disability, family medical history, genetic information, or other protected characteristics in accordance with applicable laws.