Manager - Payroll in London

Overview

Connecting clients to markets – and talent to opportunity.

With 4,500+ employees and over 300,000 commercial, institutional, payments, and retail clients, we operate from more than 70 offices spread across six continents.

As a Fortune 100, Nasdaq-listed provider, we connect clients to the global markets – focusing on innovation, human connection, and providing world-class products and services to all types of investors.

Whether you want to forge a career connecting our retail clients to potential trading opportunities, or ingrain yourself in the world of institutional investing, Stone X Group is made up of four business segments that offer endless potential for progression and growth.

Business Segment Overview

Corporate

Engage in a deep variety of business-critical activities that keep our company running efficiently.

From strategic marketing and financial management to human resources and operational oversight, you’ll have the opportunity to optimize processes and implement game-changing policies.

Responsibilities

Position Summary

The Manager, Payroll & Benefits - EMEA is responsible for the delivery, governance, and continuous improvement of payroll and benefits administration across 13+ countries throughout the EMEA region.

This role leads a geographically dispersed team of payroll and benefits professionals and serves as the regional subject matter expert for payroll operations, benefit administration, vendor management, compliance, and employee experience.

In addition to overseeing day-to-day operations, the Manager plays a critical leadership role in the execution of the EMEA Payroll Consolidation project, a strategic initiative designed to transition multiple country payrolls and vendors onto a single global payroll platform.

The role partners closely with HR Operations, HR Technology, Finance, Legal, and external vendors to standardize processes, improve controls, enhance reporting capabilities, and support future scalability.

Key Responsibilities

• Payroll Operations Leadership
• Lead end-to-end payroll processing across 13+ EMEA countries, ensuring accurate and timely payroll execution.
• Maintain payroll governance frameworks, controls, and audit readiness across all jurisdictions.
• Ensure compliance with country-specific payroll, tax, employment, and statutory reporting requirements.
• Partner with Finance on payroll accounting, reconciliations, accruals, and year-end activities.
• Establish and monitor payroll KPIs, SLAs, controls, and service delivery metrics.
• Drive process standardization and operational efficiency across regional payroll activities.

Benefits Administration

• Oversee administration of regional employee benefit programs, including health, retirement, risk, wellbeing, and country-specific benefit offerings.
• Manage annual renewals, enrollment activities, benefit communications, and vendor relationships.
• Collaborate with Total Rewards and local stakeholders to ensure benefit programs remain competitive and compliant.
• Support integration of acquired entities into existing payroll and benefits programs.
• EMEA Payroll Consolidation Program
• Serve as the EMEA operational lead for the Payroll Consolidation initiative.
• Partner with HR Technology, Finance, Oracle HCM teams, and implementation vendors to support deployment of the consolidated payroll platform.
• Lead payroll harmonization efforts across countries, including process design, data validation, testing, migration, and go-live activities.
• Identify opportunities to simplify vendor management and improve operational consistency through centralized processes.
• Drive change management, stakeholder communication, training, and adoption of new payroll processes and technology solutions.
• Manage risks, issues, dependencies, and milestone delivery throughout the implementation lifecycle.
• Leadership & Team Management
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of onsite and remote payroll and benefits professionals located throughout EMEA.
• Foster a high-performance, customer-focused culture centered on accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Establish clear performance expectations and development plans for team members.
• Promote cross-training and operational resilience to reduce single points of failure across the function.
• Drive employee engagement and support the evolution of a regional shared services model.
• Vendor & Stakeholder Management
• Manage relationships with payroll providers, benefits brokers, insurers, and other third-party vendors.
• Partner with HRBPs, HR Operations, HR Technology, Finance, Legal, Compliance, and business leaders to deliver exceptional service.
• Negotiate service levels and hold vendors accountable for performance, compliance, and continuous improvement.
• Provide payroll and benefits expertise for strategic HR initiatives, mergers and acquisitions, audits, and process transformations.
• Compliance, Risk & Governance
• Ensure adherence to GDPR, local employment legislation, payroll regulations, and internal control standards.
• Monitor legislative developments across EMEA and assess operational impacts.
• Lead internal and external audits related to payroll and benefits.
• Establish governance processes that support accuracy, confidentiality, and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• Required
• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, or related discipline.
• 8+ years of progressive payroll and/or benefits experience, including multi-country EMEA responsibility.
• 3+ years of people leadership experience managing geographically dispersed teams.
• Demonstrated experience managing payroll across multiple EMEA countries.
• Experience working with outsourced payroll providers and benefit vendors.
• Strong understanding of payroll compliance, taxation, and employment regulations across EMEA jurisdictions.
• Experience supporting system implementations, payroll transformations, or process optimization initiatives.
• Advanced analytical, project management, and stakeholder management skills.
• Preferred
• Experience leading payroll consolidation, payroll transformation, or shared services initiatives.
• Experience with Oracle HCM and global payroll solutions such as Cloud Pay or similar platforms.
• Professional payroll or benefits certifications.
• Experience within a complex, multinational financial services or global corporate environment.
• In office 4 days per week required