Payroll Service Delivery Manager in Peterborough, Walton

As a Payroll Service Delivery Manager within Zellis Managed Services, you will report to the Service Delivery Director and lead a team of 10–20 Payroll, HR, and operational professionals. Your primary responsibility is to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of high-quality services to our clients, in alignment with Zellis standards and legislative requirements. You will be accountable for the end-to-end service delivery for your customer portfolio (UK/Ireland), supported by teams across UK, Ireland, and India. This role demands strong leadership, strategic thinking, and a commitment to continuous improvement. You will drive performance, manage risk, and foster a culture of excellence and development within your team.

In this role your key responsibilities will be:

• Service Delivery & Operational Excellence

• Accountable for the consistent delivery of all contractual SLAs across Payroll and HR functions, whether delivered on or off-shore. Ensuring compliance with SLAs, KPIs, and regulatory standards.
• Accountable for all operational output whether delivered on or off-shore, monitoring service quality through controls, audits, and performance metrics.
• Accountable for robust and mutually agreed customer Roadmaps for the 0-to-6-month period.
• Accountable for the development and execution of customer agreed Continuous improvement plan.
• Accountable as the final escalation point and for the successful resolution of all customer complaints, escalations and major service issues, owning the resolution and the completion of any Root Cause analysis if required.
• Accountable for the ongoing adherence to all payroll legislation, regulation and compliance requirements.
• Champion Zellis internally and externally, social media and internal change.
• Early adopter and promoter of new technology and ways of working.
• Ensure seamless communication and collaboration across onshore and offshore teams.
• Support onboarding and transition of new customers into business-as-usual operations.
• Adhere to the Managed Services blueprint and escalate deviations to the design authority.

Skills & experience

You will be experienced in delivering against the following Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Service Delivery & Operational Excellence

• SLA/KPI Compliance Rate – % of services delivered within agreed SLAs.
• Audit & Control Scores – Results from internal/external audits.
• Customer Complaint Resolution Time – Average time to resolve escalated issues.
• Transition Success Rate – Smooth onboarding of new customers.
• P&L people cost management delivery.

• Employee Engagement Score – From surveys or pulse checks.
• Team Development Metrics – % of team with completed development plans or training.
• Attrition Rate – Voluntary turnover within the team.
• Performance Review Completion – Timeliness and quality of 1:1s and appraisals.

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) – Customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Stakeholder Feedback – Qualitative input from internal/external partners.
• Issue Escalation Frequency – Number of escalations reaching the SDD level.

• Number of Improvement Initiatives Delivered – Projects completed per quarter.
• Innovation Adoption Rate – Uptake of new tools, methods, or practices.
• Demonstrable examples of using AI to enhance customer experience and/or operational excellence.

Benefits & culture

At Zellis we create market-leading HR & Payroll products and services, to power exceptional employee experiences so that you and your people do better. Our multi-award-winning products pay over five million employees a year, with almost half (42%) of the FTSE 100, 50% of the top retailers and 30% of the top universities in the UK & Ireland as customers, making us the largest provider of Payroll and HR software and managed services. Our vision is to be the clear leader in pay, reward, analytics, and people experiences. We’re passionate about creating an environment where people want to join, belong to, and be part of a progressive organisation. Our values, which were defined with input from all of our 2,000 colleagues, we live and breathe every day:

• Unstoppable together.
• Always learning.
• Make it count.
• Think scale.

Our people are critical to our ongoing success; we’re proud of our inclusive culture that gives you the platform to grow, challenge the status quo and play a crucial role in further enhancing our market position as the leading provider of HR & Payroll software and services. With Zellis you’ll have the chance to stretch and challenge yourself in an environment that’s varied, flexible and hugely supportive. We also love to reward and recognise our brilliant colleagues. As part of your benefits package, you’ll receive:

• A competitive base salary.
• 25 days annual leave, plus your birthday off and the opportunity to buy additional holiday.
• Private medical insurance.
• Life assurance 4x salary.
• Enhanced pension scheme with company contributions up to 8.5%.
• A huge range of additional flexible benefits across financial & personal wellbeing, lifestyle & leisure.