Payroll Platforms & HR Operations Specialist in Farnborough

This role supports the administration, configuration, optimisation and operational effectiveness of AVI-SPL’s global payroll and HR operations platforms, with an initial primary focus on Deel Payroll, EOR, Time Tracking and Time Off. The role works across Payroll, HR, HR Platforms, Finance, local country teams and external vendors to support platform configuration, technical change, data quality, hypercare, issue resolution, reporting, training and ongoing operational effectiveness. The position can be located either in the USA or UK (Farnborough, Hampshire). This role is predominantly remote, with some occasional travel to a centralized office as required.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

The Payroll Platforms & HR Operations Specialist supports the administration, configuration, optimisation and operational effectiveness of AVI-SPL’s global payroll and HR operations platforms, with an initial primary focus on Deel Payroll, EOR, Time Tracking and Time Off. The role acts as a key operational SME between Payroll, HR, HR Platforms, Finance, local country teams and external payroll vendors, ensuring platform issues are resolved, configuration and data requirements are understood, agreed actions are completed, and payroll-related processes operate accurately, compliantly and consistently. You will independently manage significant areas of day-to-day platform activity including configuration, hypercare, tickets and escalations, payroll controls, invoice administration, SOPs, documentation, training, reporting and support for local HR and Payroll teams. The role is expected to investigate risks, issues and data discrepancies through to root cause, challenge incomplete or incorrect responses, and drive actions through to completion with minimal supervision. Working closely with HR Platforms, you will also support HRIS-to-payroll data requirements, initially including UKG-to-Deel reporting, new field requirements, data structures and future interfaces or integrations required to provide accurate and sustainable payroll data. Accurate and compliant employee pay remains central to all platform, data and operational activity.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Payroll Platform Operations & Hypercare: Coordinate post-go-live hypercare for countries transitioning onto Deel and other global payroll platforms. Support countries through transition from implementation into stable business-as-usual operations. Act as a key operational contact for local HR and Payroll teams using the platform. Monitor payroll-impacting issues, defects, dependencies and operational risks and drive agreed actions through to resolution. Follow up with local teams on data validation, policy decisions, readiness requirements and outstanding actions. Maintain clear visibility of open issues, workarounds, dependencies and risk.
• Ticket & Vendor Management: Manage and coordinate payroll-platform support tickets, ensuring issues are appropriately categorised, prioritised and progressed. Manage day-to-day queries and escalations with Deel and other payroll vendors. Follow vendor defects, configuration changes and outstanding actions through to completion. Challenge vendor responses where explanations, configuration or proposed solutions do not meet documented requirements. Identify recurring issues and work with HR Platforms and vendors to address root causes. Escalate critical payroll, compliance or employee-pay risks appropriately.
• Platform Administration & Configuration: Perform and coordinate ongoing configuration of payroll-related functionality including Time Off, Time Tracking, pay components, workflows, security and employee-related settings. Translate approved policy, legislative, compliance and operational requirements into clear system and configuration requirements. Support and coordinate platform changes resulting from policy, legislative or operational requirements. Validate configuration against documented business requirements prior to deployment. Lead or perform testing of configuration changes and retain appropriate evidence and sign-off. Maintain appropriate access, security and segregation-of-duties controls. Maintain strong working knowledge of Deel functionality, configuration, defects, enhancements and roadmap items. Work with stakeholders to determine whether identified issues require process, policy, data or system changes.
• Payroll Governance & Controls: Perform payroll readiness and operational control checks across employee data, earnings and deductions, GL mappings, leave balances, payroll calendars, approvals and payment readiness. Coordinate with Payroll and local teams to investigate and resolve issues identified during payroll processing. Support reconciliation and validation activities required to demonstrate payroll accuracy. Track corrective actions following payroll errors, control failures or system defects. Review configuration and operational processes for continued alignment with local policy, payroll requirements and compliance expectations. Identify recurring control weaknesses and ensure appropriate actions are escalated and tracked.
• Documentation, SOPs & Training: Create and maintain country-level payroll-platform documentation. Develop and maintain SOPs, workflows, configuration records, process maps, decision logs, user guides and support guidance. Translate Time Off, Time Tracking and other payroll-related policies into clear documented system requirements. Maintain auditable records of key platform decisions, exceptions, configuration choices and manual workarounds. Develop and maintain employee, manager, HR and Payroll training materials. Deliver platform and process training to different user groups as required. Support employee and manager deployment communications and platform enablement. Maintain relevant payroll and platform content within SharePoint or other approved knowledge repositories. Ensure documentation and training materials enable teams to operate consistently and reduce dependency on individual knowledge.
• Reporting, HRIS & Data Quality: Produce and maintain operational reporting covering payroll-platform activity, tickets, defects, hypercare, exceptions and risk. Reconcile and validate payroll-related data across HRIS, payroll platforms and other relevant systems. Maintain alignment between HRIS and payroll platforms, initially including UKG and Deel, ensuring required fields, data structures, reports and downstream payroll requirements remain accurate and in sync. Identify and implement required HRIS field, reporting and data changes needed to support payroll operations. Support the design, testing and validation of interfaces, APIs, SFTP/file feeds and other data-transfer mechanisms between HRIS and payroll platforms. Investigate data discrepancies and recurring data-quality issues through to root cause and resolution. Identify opportunities to replace manual data movement with sustainable reporting or integration solutions. Ensure payroll data requirements are considered as part of wider HRIS configuration and change activity.
• Invoice & Financial Administration: Coordinate administration and oversight of Deel Payroll and EOR invoices. Review, route and follow up invoices, credits, funding requests and payment deadlines. Work with Finance, Payroll, HR and Deel to resolve discrepancies, unexpected charges and missing credits. Maintain clear visibility of invoice status, outstanding actions and payment risk. Escalate issues that could affect payroll funding, service continuity or financial controls. Support reconciliation of vendor charges against agreed services and contractual arrangements.
• Implementations & Continuous Improvement: Support and coordinate future Payroll and EOR country deployments across discovery, requirements, configuration, testing, parallel payroll, readiness, training, go-live, hypercare and BAU transition. Manage assigned implementation workstreams, timelines, risks, dependencies, actions and stakeholder follow-up. Ensure local teams understand and complete agreed implementation and readiness activities. Escalate blockers and readiness risks where requirements have not been met. Capture lessons learned from implementations and incorporate them into future processes and standards. Identify opportunities to automate, simplify and strengthen payroll-platform processes and reduce manual workarounds. Support broader payroll-platform, HRIS, data and HR technology projects as priorities evolve.
• AD HOC PROJECTS & OTHER DELIVERABLES: Support ad hoc projects, initiatives and other reasonable duties aligned to the scope and level of the position.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Works closely with: Head of Employee Experience & HR Platforms, Global and regional Payroll teams, HR Platforms / HRIS, Local HR teams, Compensation & Benefits, Finance, Deel and other payroll vendors, IT / Security, Other internal and external stakeholders as required.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

• Must-Haves: Experience working in payroll operations, payroll systems, HRIS or payroll technology within a complex or multi-country environment. Strong understanding of payroll processes, controls, deadlines and the importance of accurate and compliant employee pay. Ability to operate independently within assigned areas with minimal supervision. Experience supporting or coordinating payroll-platform implementations, parallel testing and post-go-live hypercare. Hands-on experience with system configuration, testing and user acceptance validation. Ability to translate payroll, policy and operational requirements into technical and system requirements. Strong analytical and reconciliation skills, with experience investigating system and data issues through to root cause and resolution. Strong organisational and project-management skills across timelines, dependencies, risks, actions and concurrent priorities. Experience working across HRIS and payroll-platform data and understanding downstream impacts. Experience working directly with system vendors, managing escalations and challenging incomplete or incorrect responses. Strong stakeholder-management skills across HR, Payroll, Finance, local country teams and external vendors. Ability to prioritise critical payroll, compliance and employee-pay risks appropriately. Strong judgement, critical thinking and attention to detail, with a willingness to investigate rather than accept assumptions at face value. Experience creating workflows, SOPs, user guides and training materials to support platform enablement and adoption. Strong written and verbal communication skills and comfort working within a changing global environment.
• Nice-To-Haves: Experience with Deel Payroll, Deel Time Off, Deel Time Tracking and/or Deel EOR is preferred. Experience with UKG, Workday or another enterprise HRIS. Knowledge of global payroll governance and statutory payroll requirements. Experience with Excel, Power BI or similar reporting and analytical tools. Experience operating in a global or matrix organisation. Experience with interfaces, APIs, SFTP, file feeds or other HRIS/payroll integration methods. Experience supporting payroll audits, controls reviews or compliance activities.

WHY YOU’LL LIKE WORKING HERE

Enjoyable and dynamic company culture. Training and professional development opportunities.