Payroll Manager

Who we are 🩵 

We’re the people behind global loyalty currency, Avios, and home to two ambitious, growing businesses across Loyalty and Holidays. Each business has its own goals, strategy and team, but collectively we share a purpose to create the world’s most rewarding experiences for our customers through loyalty programmes, new products and holidays  

We’re on a truly exciting journey of growth and transformation – we’re going places! This is where you come in.  

The opportunity ✨ 

As our Payroll Manager, you’ll lead and evolve payroll across a complex, fast-moving environment (going beyond processing to drive accuracy, insight and continuous improvement). Working closely with teams across people, reward and finance, you’ll oversee the full employee lifecycle, strengthen controls and help modernise systems, while also supporting Spanish payroll and ensuring compliance. This is a high-impact role that blends hands-on leadership with transformation, giving you the opportunity to develop a team, shape how payroll operates across the business and influence wider people processes. 

If you’re commercially minded, detail-focused and motivated by improving systems and colleague experience, this is a chance to step into a role where your ideas will genuinely shape our future of payroll. 

This role is based out of our London office. We call our approach to hybrid working The Blend — it’s about giving you the flexibility to choose where you do your best work, while staying connected with your team and the wider business. This means you will be required to spend at least two days per week in the office, with the rest of the time working from home. You may also be required to work from one of our other office or partner locations, based on your role and 'to do' list. 

What you’ll get up to 🌠 

• Lead end-to-end payroll delivery, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, compliance and a high-quality colleague experience across the full employee lifecycle 

• Develop and coach the payroll team, shifting focus from manual intervention and transactional processing to data ownership, insight and continuous improvement  

• Partner with People, Reward and Finance to strengthen controls, streamline inputs and resolve issues efficiently  

• Improve payroll processes and handoffs, driving automation, reducing manual work and enhancing accuracy and auditability 

• Oversee complex and cyclical payroll activity including pensions, benefits and specialist calculations while maintaining governance standards  

• Maintain oversight of Spanish payroll ensuring compliance, coordination and effective stakeholder management 

What we need from you 💡 

• Proven payroll leadership experience within a shared services function, with the ability to develop teams, build capability and drive a shift towards ownership, control and insight. 

• Strong end-to-end payroll knowledge, including employee lifecycle, compliance, controls and month-end delivery within a people-led, commercially focused environment  

• Confident stakeholder manager; you’re able to partner effectively with People, Reward and Finance to influence outcomes and improve processes  

• You have a systems and data-driven mindset. You’re comfortable with Workday payroll, reporting and using insight to identify issues and drive improvements 

• Experience leading change and continuous improvement, simplifying processes, reducing manual work and challenging legacy ways of working 

• Strong problem-solving ability; you’re able to spot patterns, manage complex payroll scenarios and balance operational delivery with risk management 

• You’re a clear and credible communicator, able to explain payroll concepts to a range of audiences with a pragmatic, solutions-focused approach  

• You have exposure to international payroll (particularly multi-country oversight) and experience in a fast-paced, evolving organisation 

We might not be right for you if:   

• You only want to focus on your to-do list; we’re a small, high-performing team, we help each other to succeed.  

• You value perfection over fast iteration and progress; IAG Loyalty moves fast, we learn and iterate as we go; our environment isn’t right for everyone.  

• You prefer a steady-state role with fixed processes; this role is best suited to someone who is curious, embraces change and is motivated by continuously improving how things work 

If you think you have what it takes but don't meet every single point above, please do still apply. We'd love to chat and see if you could be a great fit.