Payroll Lead in London

We power people’s progress. At Preply, we’re all about creating life-changing learning experiences. We help people discover the magic of the perfect tutor, craft a personalized learning journey, and stay motivated to keep growing. Our approach is human-led, tech-enabled - and it’s creating real impact. So far, 90,000 tutors have delivered over 20 million lessons to learners in more than 175 countries. Every Preply lesson sparks change, fuels ambition, and drives progress that matters.

Meet the team! The People team is responsible for the entire lifecycle of the employee journey at Preply. This includes everything from onboarding and offboarding, compliance, total rewards and benefits, HR systems and analytics, as well as key People projects related to employee engagement, career development and frameworks, amongst others.

We are strengthening our global People Operations team with an experienced Payroll Lead. This role will lead and scale a small but high-performing payroll function, ensuring compliance, accuracy, and efficiency across our international footprint. You will oversee payroll across five hubs — the US, UK, Ukraine, Spain, and global EOR partners — each with unique timelines, regulations, and systems. You’ll manage two Payroll Specialists and play a critical role in building scalable processes, driving automation, and ensuring audit readiness in a fast-scaling, high-complexity environment.

What you'll do:

• Lead the end-to-end global payroll process across all hubs, ensuring timely and compliant payroll execution.
• Manage, coach, and develop two Payroll Specialists.
• Establish and continuously improve payroll operations, processes, and controls to meet pre-IPO standards.
• Collaborate closely with Finance, HRIS, and external providers to streamline integrations and improve accuracy.
• Ensure compliance with local tax, social security, and employment regulations.
• Own payroll reporting and reconciliation in coordination with Finance for month-end close.
• Drive automation and standardization initiatives to reduce manual work and error risk.
• Support due diligence and audit preparation as part of IPO readiness.

What you need to succeed:

• 5+ years of payroll experience
• At least 2 years in a leadership role across multiple countries.
• Deep understanding of global payroll operations and compliance.
• Experience with EOR models and multi-entity payroll complexity.
• Proven ability to scale and structure payroll functions in fast-growth environments.
• Skilled in systems and automation — ideally familiar with HRIS, Deel, and Finance integrations.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills.
• Hands-on and proactive — comfortable operating strategically while executing day-to-day tasks.

Why you'll love it at Preply:

• An open, collaborative, dynamic and diverse culture;
• A generous monthly allowance for lessons on Preply.com, Learning & Development budget and time off for your self-development;
• A competitive financial package with equity, leave allowance and health insurance;
• Access to free mental health support platforms;
• Access to Gympass-partnered wellness and gym centers throughout Spain to promote and support well-being and physical health;
• The opportunity to unlock the potential of learners and tutors through language learning and teaching in 175 countries (and counting!).

Our Principles

• Care to change the world - We are passionate about our work and care deeply about its impact to be life changing.
• We do it for learners - For both Preply and tutors, learners are why we do what we do. Every day we focus on empowering tutors to deliver an exceptional learning experience.
• Keep perfecting - To create an outstanding customer experience, we focus on simplicity, smoothness, and enjoyment, continually perfecting it as every detail matters.
• Now is the time - In a fast-paced world, it matters how quickly we act. Now is the time to make great things happen.
• Disciplined execution - What makes us disciplined is the excellence in our execution. We set clear goals, focus on what matters, and utilize our resources efficiently.
• Dive deep - We leverage business acumen and curiosity to investigate disparities between numbers and stories, unlocking meaningful insights to guide our decisions.
• Growth mindset - We proactively seek growth opportunities and believe today's best performance becomes tomorrow's starting point. We humbly embrace feedback and learn from setbacks.
• Raise the bar - We raise our performance standards continuously, alongside each new hire and promotion. We build diverse and high-performing teams that can make a real difference.
• Challenge, disagree and commit - We value open and candid communication, even when we don’t fully agree. We speak our minds, challenge when necessary, and fully commit to decisions once made.
• One Preply - We prioritize collaboration, inclusion, and the success of our team over personal ambitions. Together, we support and celebrate each other's progress.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Preply.com is committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of diverse backgrounds can thrive. We believe that the presence of different opinions and viewpoints is a key ingredient for our success as a multicultural Ed-Tech company. That means that Preply will consider all applications for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or veteran status.