We are looking for an experienced payroll leader to take charge of a complex payroll function, providing hands-on leadership, operational certainty, and calm direction during a period of organisational change.
Our client is a large, nationally significant organisation with a diverse workforce and a highly complex payroll environment. They are seeking an experienced Payroll Services Manager to lead a critical function during a period of transformation, while ensuring business-as-usual delivery remains accurate, compliant, and trusted.
This is a fixed-term contract through to March 2027, offering hybrid working and a competitive salary in the range of $151,000–$168,000 (pro rata), depending on experience.
The role
Reporting into a senior people operations leader, you’ll take ownership of a high-volume, complex payroll function supporting a large workforce with multiple employment agreements, varied working patterns, and legacy systems.
You’ll lead a team of experienced payroll professionals, providing both strategic direction and day-to-day operational oversight. This is a genuinely hands-on role—suited to someone comfortable rolling up their sleeves when required, while still operating at a senior leadership level.
A key part of the remit will be supporting a payroll system replacement programme. You’ll work closely with programme stakeholders to contribute to change management and transition activity, ensuring payroll continuity, robust controls, and confidence across the organisation during the change journey.
Alongside this, you’ll drive continuous improvement, strengthen risk and data integrity practices, and ensure payroll outputs meet financial, year-end, and audit requirements.
About you
You’re a seasoned payroll leader with deep end-to-end payroll experience and a strong understanding of New Zealand payroll and employment legislation. You’ve successfully led teams in large, complex, and high-volume environments and are confident managing competing priorities in fast-moving settings.
You bring a calm, credible leadership style, strong judgement, and the ability to engage effectively with senior stakeholders. You’re comfortable navigating complexity, translating legislation into practical payroll outcomes, and maintaining trust through periods of change.
Experience working with multiple collective agreements is important, as is advanced Excel capability. Exposure to large payroll systems is essential, and experience with PSe would be advantageous.
Just as critically, you understand the sensitivity of payroll and operate with absolute discretion, accuracy, and integrity.
What’s on offer
This is a rare opportunity to step into a meaningful fixed-term leadership role where you can make an immediate impact, lead a capable team, and contribute to a major transformation programme, without losing sight of operational excellence.
If you’re an experienced payroll leader looking for a senior contract role with real substance and challenge, please reach out for a confidential discussion about the role and how it might line up with your experience. Contact peter.sewell@beyond.co.nz for more information.
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