Payroll Accountant in Sydney

An exciting opportunity is available for an experienced Payroll Specialist to take ownership of Australian payroll within a global organisation. This role will manage payroll across a diverse workforce of approximately 120 permanent employees, plus casual and site-based employees during busy periods.

About the role:

• Take ownership of the Australian payroll function and act as the local payroll expert.
• Manage and validate payroll information for processing through ADP.
• Ensure accurate and timely processing of overtime, allowances, travel and meal-related payments.
• Work closely with operational sites to ensure accurate and timely timesheet submission.
• Respond to payroll queries and resolve issues efficiently.
• Identify opportunities to reduce manual processes and improve payroll efficiency.
• Ensure compliance with Australian payroll and superannuation requirements.
• Build strong relationships with site teams and employees, including a trades-based workforce.

About you:

• You will be an experienced Australian payroll professional who is confident taking ownership of a payroll function.
• Strong Australian payroll experience.
• Experience managing payroll for casual, hourly-paid or blue-collar workforces.
• Strong knowledge of Australian payroll legislation and compliance.
• Experience with awards, overtime, allowances and variable pay.
• Experience with ADP highly regarded.
• Strong attention to detail and excellent organisational skills.
• The ability to work independently and confidently manage competing priorities.
• Excellent communication skills and the confidence to deal with tradespeople, site teams and employees at all levels.
• A practical, solutions-focused approach to problem solving.
• The resilience and confidence to handle challenging conversations when required.

Why join?

• This is a great opportunity to join a global organisation with genuine scope to influence how Australian payroll operates.
• Take ownership of a newly localised Australian payroll function.
• Make tangible improvements to processes and efficiencies.
• Work closely with senior HR and Finance stakeholders.
• Gain exposure to complex casual and outage payroll.
• Hybrid working 2 days per week in office.

Your days will involve:

• Process fortnightly Australian payroll end-to-end — new starters, terminations, leave, overtime, allowances and deductions.
• Keep on top of PAYG, superannuation (incl. upload), STP and workers’ compensation requirements.
• Work across two ADP instances for two different entities, plus reconcile payroll data and journals.
• Run manual validation checks each cycle to catch discrepancies before they go out, and support month-end and audit.
• Partner with People & Culture and Finance, and handle employee payroll queries with a service mindset.

You'll thrive in this role if you:

• Have hands-on Australian payroll experience end-to-end (STP, PAYG, super etc.) — essential.
• Have intermediate Excel skills (e.g. VLOOKUP, pivot tables) and are curious about using AI tools.
• Are a strong communicator, able to communicate across borders and make complex concepts easy to understand.
• Are self-driven with the ability to prioritise your work to meet deadlines, and work proactively and autonomously.
• Are flexible, detail-oriented, and looking to advance your payroll career.

We believe great work should be rewarded:

• Hybrid working (2 days in office per week), Sydney CBD based.
• Competitive salary + company stock (RSUs).
• 5 Wellness days per year.
• $1,000/year flexible benefits package & $500 per year L&D allowance.
• 2 days annual company-paid volunteer leave to support causes you care about.
• A genuinely open, inclusive, and collaborative culture.

If you're an experienced Payroll Specialist looking for an opportunity where you can genuinely own a function, improve processes and make an impact, we'd love to hear from you.