Assistant Payroll Manager

JD Sports- Head Office, Warwick House, Bury, Bury, United Kingdom Req #2094

11 July 2025

Established in 1981 with a single store in the Northwest of England, the JD Group is a leading omni-channel retailer of Sports Fashion, Outdoors and Gyms with our colleagues working in stores across several retail fascias in many markets around the world.

JD Sports Fashion Plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and has been a FTSE100 publicly quoted company since 2019 and continues to grow in the UK and internationally.

We want to be the leading global omnichannel retailer in the sports and outdoor industry. To be a part of this successful company and help us to achieve this you will have the desire to ingrain our strategic goals of being a people-led, innovative and customer-focused organisation which provides operational excellence whilst identifying new areas of growth as part of our day to day objectives.

Assistant Payroll Manager up to 12 months FTC

Responsible to:

Payroll Manager

Department:

People Services

Location:

JD Sports Fashion PLC, Hollins Brook Way, Bury, BL9 8RR

Hours:

The Role:

The payroll team supports our colleagues across the business by ensuring their pay is processed seamlessly. We aim to deliver a first-class service so our colleagues can keep doing what they do best!

The Assistant Payroll Manager will support the Payroll Manager in maximising the effectiveness of the payroll function and the people within it. You will be working with our team leaders supporting the payroll associates and executives in processing the payroll for our 35,000 colleagues, as well as working with management and the wider team on continuous process improvement, streamlining, and achieving our strategic objectives.

We are creating a team with a reputation for being exceptional, with our colleagues at the heart of everything we do. Your role will encompass overseeing the team and assisting them with their ongoing training and development, making sure payroll gets done the right way and right first time, ensuring our colleagues are receiving the right outcome to their queries, and implementing process improvements and streamlining to make what we do even better.

Key Duties/Responsibilities:

• Oversee the day-to-day activities within the Payroll team, ensuring the timely and accurate completion of 9 payrolls for 20,000 colleagues on a monthly basis.
• Empowering, inspiring, and motivating a team of 9 made up of payroll associates, executives, and team leaders.
• Responsible for reviewing, signing off, and owning the quality and accuracy of the allocated payrolls on behalf of the Group
• Responsible for creating and implementing training plans tailored to roles and individuals.
• Ensuring payroll system testing and upgrades are working as expected.
• Supporting the integration of new business acquisitions into the payroll function
• Improve the overall payroll process by innovating and seeking to find better and more efficient working practices
• Review and act upon all customer feedback, acting as a primary point of escalation for customers and making or executing recommendations for actions and improvements
• Responsible for managing third-party queries and reconciliations

Essential skills

• CIPP accredited or similar
• Proven experience of working with complex high-volume payrolls and strong end-to-end payroll knowledge
• Proven experience in high-quality customer service delivery
• Breadth and depth of knowledge in payroll compliance, rules and legislations such as Auto Enrolment, RTI, Apprenticeship levy and PAYE.
• Broad experience of meeting challenging deadlines and responding to urgent needs as they arise
• Broad experience of mentoring and supporting a team and helping them develop in their roles and careers
• A keen eye for detail and accuracy
• Proven ability to communicate clearly and with impact, explain and resolve complex pay and reward issues in a way that is easy to understand.
• Some experience of working with DayForce
• Some experience processing ROI payrolls

What can we offer you?

JD is a large, fast-moving, exciting workplace. As part of the team, we will offer you full training with our in-house expertise on processing a variety of payrolls to deliver a first-class service. We take pride in what we do and who we do it with.

JD champions talent, and there are opportunities to hone and develop your skills and progress within your role and within the business. We offer study support and opportunities to undertake funded training that leaves you with recognised payroll qualifications. We also offer in-house training to support your development of skills in areas like leadership and public speaking.

As a business, JD puts people at the centre. Through the JD foundation, colleagues can take part in charity volunteering opportunities. The business supports your wellbeing through our departmental wellbeing champions, and health and wellbeing events and initiatives. Our employee forum also gives you a voice to tell us what’s important to you and how we can support you.

Alongside that, we offer competitive benefits, including: staff discount at JD and all their fascias, discounted JD gym membership, 33 days holiday (inclusive of bank holidays), pension scheme, discretionary bonus scheme, free onsite secure parking, unlimited fruit, tea, and coffee, and an onsite subsidised canteen.

JD values diversity and inclusion and champions a culture where everyone feels valued, included, and celebrated.

We know our colleagues work tirelessly to make JD Sports the success it is today and in turn, we offer them some amazing benefits including staff Discount On JD Group and other brands within the organisation and personal development opportunities to learn and develop at work.

• JD Sports- Head Office, Warwick House, Bury, Bury, United Kingdom

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