Payroll Delivery Team Leader

MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people, and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing, and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners including MI6 and GCHQ, to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses, and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you'll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.

As Payroll Delivery Team Leader, you’ll lead our pay delivery team, providing strategic direction that supports both day-to-day delivery and longer-term planning within HR Services. This is a key role where you’ll have the opportunity to shape how we work, develop your team, and enhance our payroll services. Using payroll expertise, you’ll oversee operations, champion continuous improvement, and help ensure we deliver an efficient and high-quality service.

As a payroll specialist, you’ll oversee the end-to-end delivery of payroll, ensuring all processing, audit checks and record updates are completed accurately and on time. With compliance at the forefront, you’ll ensure information is reported correctly to HMRC, support the adoption of new technologies and maintain effective processes that align with established policies and procedures. You’ll also use your judgement and foresight to anticipate potential challenges, enabling teams to resolve issues proactively and maintain a seamless payroll service.

Working across a wide range of stakeholders, you’ll build strong relationships with colleagues, customers and external partners, becoming a trusted source of payroll expertise and advice. Leading by example, you’ll champion excellent customer service and provide clear direction in a fast-paced environment. As a Team Leader, you’ll support the development and wellbeing of your team, helping colleagues build their capability, manage competing priorities and deliver a high-quality service. Acting as a point of escalation where needed, you’ll also foster a culture of continuous improvement and accountability. By identifying new initiatives, enhancing controls and refining processes, you’ll play a key role in shaping and strengthening payroll delivery, making a meaningful contribution to the wider mission.

CIPP Level 3 qualified, with experience across the full in-house payroll lifecycle, supported by a sound understanding of payroll legislation, controls and compliance requirements. Experience working with payroll and HR systems is essential. Proven experience of leading and developing payroll teams, alongside driving continuous improvement initiatives, is essential. Proactive and knowledgeable, you’ll use your specialist expertise to solve problems, resolve complex pay disputes and queries, and implement effective solutions.

To perform this role effectively, employees must be able to understand and communicate information in English, both verbally and in writing, including emails, workplace communications, meetings, discussions and other work-related documents.

In your first few weeks, you’ll receive a full induction to MI5 and our ways of working, as well as a separate induction to the HR Services team. You’ll have the support of an assigned ‘buddy’ to help you settle into the role, as well as your line manager and experienced colleagues to answer any questions you might have. We’ll support your ongoing professional development, too. You’ll have access to internal and external training courses, including management training and role-specific learning. Plus, you’ll have support if you wish to pursue your CIPP Level 4 qualification.

You’ll receive a starting salary of £49,346 in London or £46,918 in Cheltenham, plus a range of benefits including:

• 25 days’ annual leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service and an additional 10.5 days’ public and privilege holidays
• Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• A dedicated development budget
• An interest-free season ticket loan
• A cycle to work scheme
• Facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• Paid parental and adoption leave

At MI5, diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: people from different backgrounds, age groups, ethnicities, gender identities and sexual orientations, as well as those with different ways of thinking and people with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce, such as women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions Disability Confident scheme. This aims to encourage employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident employer, we aim to offer a fair and proportionate number of person-to-person interviews to any candidate who self-identifies as disabled and meets the essential criteria for the role.

To secure an interview for this vacancy, the essential criteria (in order of application process) are:

• You’ll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses criteria important for all roles in our organisation
• Recent and substantial payroll experience, with strong knowledge of payroll legislation, compliance and controls
• Experience leading payroll teams and delivering continuous improvement in payroll operations and service delivery

The qualification and experience criteria will be assessed at application sift. There is a wide range of support available throughout the recruitment process to help you perform at your best.

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

• An initial online application form, including pre‑screening questions to ensure you meet our eligibility criteria.
• An online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), in which you’ll rate the appropriateness of responses to a series of short scenarios.
• An application sift, assessing your motivation for both the role and the organisation.
• An HR Competency Interview. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment.

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 9 to 12 months to process, including vetting, so we advise that you continue in your current employment until you have received your final job offer.

To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs, and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage. Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your correspondence with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate.

The role is based in Central London or Cheltenham, so you’ll need to live within commuting distance of your chosen location. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application. An interest‑free loan is available to assist with relocating to privately rented accommodation to take up the offer of employment. We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in person appointments during the recruitment and vetting process.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK before launching an application. You should not discuss your application with anyone other than your partner or a close family member.

Please submit your application as soon as possible to avoid missing out. If you have a disability (as defined under the Equality Act 2010) and need additional time to complete your application, please submit your initial application and then contact us via the email provided as soon as possible, using the subject line "Reasonable Adjustments Extension" and briefly outline the support you require.