Finance Manager in Cheltenham

Payroll & Finance Operations Manager

Salary: £60,000–£70,000 Location: Cheltenham Hybrid: 3 days office / 2 days home – likely more office-based initially Contract: Permanent, Full-Time Team: 4 direct reports

The Opportunity

A senior opportunity for an experienced Finance Manager to take ownership of a growing internal payroll function while leading a small Finance Operations team.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end monthly payroll for 600+ employees, with the population continuing to grow.
• Manage more complex pay elements including expenses, commission and Partner-level payrolls.
• Act as the business’s subject matter expert for UK payroll legislation, compliance, pensions and statutory requirements.
• Play a key role in the implementation and rollout of a new HR and payroll system.
• Manage payroll reconciliations, reporting, submissions and controls.
• Lead and develop a team of 4 across payroll and wider finance operations.
• Oversee areas including VAT returns, cash management, banking and balance sheet reconciliations.
• Drive automation and identify opportunities to improve payroll and finance processes.
• Work closely with HR, IT, Finance and senior stakeholders throughout transformation projects.
• Ensure strong governance and controls are maintained throughout the payroll function.
• Ideal Candidate
• Experienced Finance Manager with strong end-to-end UK payroll knowledge.
• Experience managing payroll populations of approximately 500–1,000+ employees.
• Previous involvement in a payroll system implementation or major system change is essential.
• Strong technical knowledge of UK payroll legislation, pensions and compliance.
• Proven experience managing and developing a small team.
• Comfortable handling complex payrolls and working as the senior payroll SME.
• Strong process improvement, automation and project management experience.
• Polished communicator who is comfortable operating within a professional services/corporate environment.
• Dayforce experience would be advantageous but is not required.
• Wider finance operations exposure would be beneficial.
• Due to the office location, the successful candidate will need to drive.

Interested? Apply today!!

JGA Recruitment Group Ltd ("We") are committed to equality of opportunity for all applications regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.

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We are a specialist payroll, HR & Reward recruitment agency and recruitment business as defined in the Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (our business).

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