Senior Payroll Lead

The Role
Reporting to the Head of Payroll, this newly created position has been established to strengthen payroll governance, compliance and audit readiness across a large and complex organisation. Sitting within Payroll Services, you will play a critical role in ensuring payroll processes, controls and reporting frameworks support a compliant, efficient and commercially focused payroll function.

This is a highly visible position that works closely with Payroll, Finance, HR, operational leaders and external stakeholders to identify risks, improve controls and provide valuable workforce and payroll insights.

Your responsibilities include:

• Monitoring payroll compliance and reporting across payroll and rostering activities
• Analysing payroll and workforce data to identify trends, risks and emerging compliance issues
• Conducting payroll compliance reviews and supporting the remediation of underpayments, overpayments and award interpretation matters
• Providing expert advice on Enterprise Agreements, Awards and payroll legislation including superannuation, PAYG, payroll tax and workers compensation obligations
• Coordinating payroll-related internal and external audits, including evidence gathering, audit tracking and action management
• Preparing compliance and audit reporting for senior leadership and governance forums
• Developing and enhancing reporting, dashboards and compliance monitoring tools to support proactive risk management
• Partnering with Payroll, Finance, HR and operational leaders to strengthen payroll controls and governance practices
• Reviewing rostering and workforce utilisation data to identify opportunities for improved workforce planning and labour cost optimisation
• Maintaining payroll compliance procedures, documentation and continuous improvement initiatives

The Candidate
You are an experienced payroll professional with a strong background in payroll compliance, governance, controls or audit within a large and complex environment. You enjoy working across multiple stakeholder groups and have a genuine interest in improving processes, reducing risk and delivering meaningful insights to support business decision-making.

You will bring:

• Demonstrated experience in payroll operations, compliance, controls, governance or audit
• Strong knowledge of payroll legislation and statutory obligations including PAYG, payroll tax, workers compensation and superannuation
• Experience interpreting Enterprise Agreements and Awards within a complex workforce environment
• Exposure to payroll audits, compliance reviews, control testing and remediation activities
• Advanced analytical and reporting capability, with the ability to interpret payroll and workforce data and communicate insights clearly
• Experience using large enterprise payroll, rostering or workforce management systems
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills and the ability to build credibility across finance, people and operational teams
• Excellent organisational skills, attention to detail and a continuous improvement mindset
• Exposure to Power BI or other reporting and dashboard tools will be highly regarded
• Experience within healthcare, government or another highly regulated environment will be advantageous

What's on Offer

• $115,000 - $130,000 + superannuation + generous benefits
• Central Geelong location with convenient access to public transport
• Hybrid working week option
• Newly created position with the opportunity to shape payroll governance and compliance frameworks
• Broad stakeholder exposure across Payroll, Finance, HR and executive leadership teams
• Work with a recently implemented, modern ERP and workforce management environment
• Genuine opportunity to influence process improvement, compliance outcomes and workforce efficiency initiatives

About the Organisation
Our client is a large, complex organisation delivering essential services across the Victorian region. Operating at significant scale, the organisation spans multiple service lines and sites, with a strong focus on quality, operational performance and continuous improvement.

The organisation has recently implemented a new ERP system which has now been successfully embedded, so you'll be joining at a point of operational stability and greater efficiency.