Payroll Manager

For a quarter of a century, the Jellycat family have brought joy, wonder and playful fun to people of all ages, in every part of the world. Utterly original and in a class of their own, they are currently among the most loved and collected toys of their kind. How has this gentle tribe endeared themselves to so many? Perhaps it is their whimsical expressions. Or the deliciously soft fabrics. Or the beautiful way in which they sit in your hand. Whatever it is, there is something magical and unmistakeable about each one of them.

The Payroll Manager is responsible for the effective delivery, governance and coordination of payroll and pay-related activities across the European region. This currently includes the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark, with additional countries to be added as the business continues to grow.

This is a new role combining payroll oversight with selected reward and pay governance responsibilities, ensuring payrolls are delivered accurately and compliantly through external providers. Acting as a key partner to HR, Finance, Tax and external advisors, the role supports consistent pay practices, regulatory compliance and a strong employee experience.

The role reports to the Head of Compensation & Benefits and works closely with the Head of Tax and Finance colleagues.

• Oversee end-to-end monthly payroll delivery across European entities through external payroll providers, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, statutory compliance and effective management of employee lifecycle changes.
• Manage and coordinate third-party payroll providers across multiple jurisdictions, ensuring service levels, data accuracy, responsiveness and value for money.
• Act as an escalation point for payroll issues and complex queries, ensuring prompt resolution and a high-quality employee experience.
• Maintain clear payroll governance, controls, documentation and audit trails across all countries.
• Review payroll, pay and related processes to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, controls and scalability as the organisation grows.

• Act as the payroll lead for employment tax and global mobility matters, including split payrolls and expatriate arrangements, coordinating with the Head of Tax, Finance and external advisors.
• Support statutory payroll compliance activities, including liaison with HMRC and equivalent authorities, employment tax filings and payroll-related returns.
• Provide payroll input into employment tax, mobility and structurally related projects, supporting governance, escalation and alignment across stakeholders.

• Partner with Finance on payroll journals, reconciliations and month-end close processes.
• Provide payroll data and analysis to support budgeting, forecasting, audit and workforce cost management.

• Support the development, maintenance and application of the job framework and job levelling approach, working closely with the Head of Compensation & Benefits.
• Advise HR colleagues and hiring managers on job levels, salary ranges and pay positioning, ensuring consistency and alignment with market data.
• Participate in external salary surveys (e.g. WTW, Mercer), including data submission, validation and interpretation of results.
• Support benchmarking, pay analysis and internal equity reviews, including payroll data inputs and analysis for Gender Pay Gap reporting.
• Act as a key point of contact for pensions payroll compliance and governance, ensuring accurate contributions, statutory adherence and effective coordination with providers.
• Assist the coordination of the annual salary review and bonus cycle for the organisation.

• Extensive experience of managing multi-country payrolls, ideally across Europe, within a complex or fast-growing organisation.
• Strong experience working with outsourced payroll providers, including coordination, issue resolution and service oversight.
• Solid understanding of UK and European payroll compliance, employment taxes and statutory wage and reporting requirements (National Minimum Wage, Gender Pay Gap etc).
• Experience supporting reward and compensation activities, such as job levelling, role benchmarking, salary surveys and pay analysis.
• Familiarity working alongside Tax teams and external advisors on employment tax and global mobility-related payroll matters.
• Comfortable working with pay and people data, with the ability to validate, interpret and explain outputs to HR and Finance stakeholders.
• High attention to detail, with a strong control mindset and commitment to accuracy and compliance.
• Strong organisational and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to operate effectively across functions and geographies.
• High levels of integrity and discretion when handling sensitive and confidential information.
• Pragmatic, solutions-oriented and comfortable operating in an evolving environment.