Head of Payroll Delivery in Sydney

Xemplo delivers managed payroll services across Australia and New Zealand as part of a broader workforce platform spanning HR, onboarding, compliance and payroll. The Head of Payroll Delivery is the senior technical authority for managed payroll and is responsible for ensuring payroll is delivered accurately, consistently and in accordance with customer, legislative and regulatory requirements. This role provides strong technical leadership to the payroll team, supports complex payroll matters and ensures the quality of payroll execution across the function.

Your primary focus is the quality and integrity of payroll delivery. You will provide day-to-day technical guidance to the payroll team, support complex payroll matters and ensure appropriate controls and review practices are applied across payroll processing. You will act as a senior escalation point where payroll interpretation, calculations or unusual customer circumstances require deeper technical expertise. You will also play an important role in developing the technical capability of the payroll team, helping payroll specialists and team leads build confidence and consistency in how they manage increasingly complex payroll requirements.

Working closely with the Head of Payroll Operations & Transformation, you will identify recurring payroll issues, control weaknesses and areas where processes or systems can be improved. You will contribute technical payroll expertise to improvement initiatives while remaining focused on the integrity and quality of payroll delivery. As new customers are implemented, you will help ensure payroll requirements, interpretations and controls are understood before they transition into managed payroll.

What you will be accountable for:

• Accurate and timely payroll delivery.
• Technical payroll quality and integrity.
• Day-to-day technical guidance to payroll teams.
• Complex payroll and customer escalations.
• Payroll interpretation, calculations and technical decision making.
• Appropriate payroll controls, checks and quality assurance.
• Building payroll knowledge and technical capability across the team.
• Supporting the technical readiness of new customers entering managed payroll.
• Identifying recurring payroll issues and contributing to process and system improvements.

How success will be measured:

Success in this role will be reflected in consistently accurate payroll outcomes, strong technical decision making and a payroll team that is confident in managing both standard and complex payroll requirements. We expect to see fewer payroll errors, stronger controls, better handling of technical escalations and improved payroll capability across the team. The role should also help reduce key-person dependency by ensuring payroll knowledge, interpretation and good practice are shared consistently across the function.

About you:

You are an experienced payroll professional with strong technical knowledge and a track record of delivering complex payroll accurately and reliably. You are comfortable providing technical guidance to others, resolving difficult payroll matters and making sound decisions where interpretation or judgement is required. You understand payroll controls, compliance obligations and the importance of accuracy, while also recognising where better processes, technology or automation can improve payroll delivery. You are a practical leader who enjoys helping others build their capability and who can communicate complex payroll issues clearly to customers, colleagues and senior stakeholders. Above all, you take ownership of payroll quality and ensure the team has the technical support it needs to deliver with confidence.