Payroll & Benefits Team Leader UK

Syensqo is all about chemistry. We’re not just referring to chemical reactions here, but also to the magic that occurs when the brightest minds get to work together. This is where our true strength lies. In you. In your future colleagues and in all your differences. And of course, in your ideas to improve lives while preserving our planet’s beauty for the generations to come.

The Payroll & Benefits Team Leader UK will lead a team of 3 Payroll & Benefits Specialists and will be accountable for the operational delivery, quality, compliance, controls, and continuous improvement of UK Payroll & Benefits activities.

This is a hands-on leadership role, combining people leadership, UK payroll expertise, operational ownership, vendor/service management, and transformation support.

We’ll count on you to:

Team Leadership & Capability Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of 3 Payroll & Benefits Specialists.
• Establish clear roles, accountabilities, priorities, and performance expectations.
• Manage workload and ensure appropriate coverage across payroll cycles.
• Build team capability through coaching, cross-training, and knowledge sharing.
• Ensure appropriate backup arrangements and business continuity.
• Conduct regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and career development discussions.
• Foster a culture of accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Payroll & Benefits Service Delivery

• Own end-to-end operational Payroll & Benefits delivery for the UK.
• Ensure payroll is processed accurately, compliantly, and on time.
• Manage payroll calendars, cut-offs, input readiness, validation, and approvals.
• Oversee payroll reconciliations, controls, payroll accounting, and post-payroll activities.
• Ensure statutory reporting and year-end activities are completed accurately and on time.
• Oversee Benefits-related payroll inputs and processes.
• Ensure payroll exceptions and employee-impacting issues are resolved promptly.
• Maintain complete and current SOPs, work instructions, and process documentation.

Compliance, Controls & Risk

• Ensure compliance with UK payroll legislation, tax requirements, company policies, and internal controls.
• Ensure payroll controls are consistently executed and supported by appropriate evidence.
• Identify payroll risks proactively and implement mitigation actions.
• Support internal and external audits and ensure remediation actions are completed.
• Ensure appropriate User Access Management and segregation-of-duties controls.
• Support compliance requirements arising from collective agreements and local employment practices.

Issue & Root-Cause Management

• Take ownership of operational issues through resolution.
• Lead root-cause analysis for material or recurring payroll errors.
• Ensure corrective and preventive actions are implemented and tracked to closure.
• Identify recurring trends and eliminate root causes rather than repeatedly correcting symptoms.
• Ensure the team escalates issues with a clear problem, impact, root cause, recommendation, and decision required.

Vendor & Service Management

• Manage the day-to-day relationship with Payroll, Time, Benefits, and other relevant providers.
• Monitor vendor performance against SLAs and KPIs.
• Challenge service-quality issues and ensure providers take accountability for errors.
• Monitor ticket volumes, aging, recurring issues, and resolution quality.
• Support monthly service reviews and performance reporting.
• Escalate material vendor issues to the Regional Payroll Lead with clear recommendations.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate Payroll & Benefits processes.
• Reduce manual activities, reconciliations, and unnecessary handoffs.
• Improve controls, documentation, and operational ways of working.
• Coordinate improvement opportunities with Global Payroll Experts, HRIT, and providers.
• Ensure lessons learned from payroll issues result in sustainable process improvements.

Payroll & Time Transformation

• Represent UK Payroll within Payroll & Time initiatives.
• Provide UK business, statutory, CBA, and operational requirements.
• Support future-state process and solution design.
• Participate in testing, parallel payroll, reconciliation, cutover, and hypercare.
• Support implementation of the future Time-to-Payroll solution.
• Ensure local requirements are appropriately incorporated without unnecessary customization.
• Support transition to the future Payroll Operating Model.

You Will Bring

• 5+ years of UK payroll experience, preferably within a complex organization.
• Strong knowledge of UK payroll legislation, taxation, statutory requirements, and year-end processes.
• Experience leading, coordinating, or coaching payroll professionals.
• Experience working with outsourced payroll providers.
• Strong understanding of payroll controls, reconciliations, and payroll accounting.
• Experience supporting hourly/manufacturing populations and complex Time-to-Payroll processes is preferred.
• Experience working within a union/CBA environment is advantageous.
• Strong analytical and root-cause problem-solving capability.
• Ability to take ownership of issues through resolution.
• Strong stakeholder and vendor-management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities within a payroll-critical environment.

Must-Have Skills

• UK payroll expertise
• Payroll operations and statutory compliance
• People leadership and coaching
• Payroll controls and reconciliation
• Vendor/service management
• Root-cause analysis
• SOP and process documentation
• Continuous improvement
• Strong stakeholder management
• Fluent English

Nice-to-Have Skills

• SAP Payroll/SAP SuccessFactors
• Time Management / Time-to-Payroll experience
• Manufacturing payroll
• Payroll transformation or implementation experience
• CIPP qualification or equivalent

You will get:

• The UK-based annual base salary reasonably expected to be paid for this new hire is £51,440 to £64,000. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors such as skills, experience, qualification and internal equity and can ultimately be more or less than the posted salary range.
• Benefits package
• 16, or more, weeks of maternity/paternity and co-parenting leave, according to local regulations
• Training platform for all employees
• Free well-being sessions (physical and psychological)

Additional information:

• Location: Wrexham, UK
• Working model: Hybrid working model possible (2/3 days per week)

About us

• Syensqo is a science company developing groundbreaking solutions that enhance the way we live, work, travel and play. Inspired by the scientific councils which Ernest Solvay initiated in 1911, we bring great minds together to push the limits of science and innovation for the benefit of our customers, with a diverse, global team of more than 13,000 associates. Our solutions contribute to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable products found in homes, food and consumer goods, planes, cars, batteries, smart devices and health care applications. Our innovation power enables us to deliver on the ambition of a circular economy and explore breakthrough technologies that advance humanity.
• At Syensqo, we seek to promote unity and not uniformity. We value the diversity that individuals bring and we invite you to consider a future with us, regardless of background, age, gender, national origin, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, ability or identity. We encourage individuals who may require any assistance or accommodations to let us know to ensure a seamless application experience. We are here to support you throughout the application journey and want to ensure all candidates are treated equally. If you are unsure whether you meet all the criteria or qualifications listed in the job description, we still encourage you to apply.