Payroll Specialist

Thought Machine's mission is bold – to properly and permanently rid the world's banks of legacy technology. To achieve this, we have developed the foundations of modern banking through core and payments technology which run natively in the cloud. What we are attempting is hard and means we need great people working together to build great technology.

We have grown rapidly in the past few years – growing our team to more than 550 individuals across offices in London, New York, Singapore, Sydney and our newly established Engineering Hub in Lisbon. We have raised more than £500m in funding and our investors include Molten Ventures, Eurazeo, Intesa Sanpaolo, Temasek, Nyca Partners, JPMorgan Chase Strategic Investments, Standard Chartered Ventures, and more.

We have created a culture that enables our team to produce the best work in the industry while ensuring we have fun along the way. We're regularly cited as having a fantastic workplace culture and have been recognised by Sifted magazine as having one of the highest Glassdoor ratings for a UK fintech company and the industry's most generous employee share package. Named one of the world's most innovative fintechs by Global Finance Magazine, we were also recognised by the Financial Times as one of Europe's fastest-growing companies for two consecutive years—and a UK Best Employer for 2026.

• Reporting to the Payroll Lead, the Payroll Specialist will support the company’s
• payroll affairs globally, covering the UK, APAC, EMEA and North/South America
• entities. The company has also recently launched the Thought Machine Lisbon
• Engineering Hub with an engineering team of 30 to start with, adding more
• responsibilities to the payroll team.

• This newly created role will work with finance and non-finance teams with support from external payroll advisors to drive the highest
• standards of payroll. This role will play an integral part in scaling the payroll
• processes and procedures of a fast-growing business. This is an opportunity to make
• an impact as a payroll professional who thrives on delivering on projects and being
• responsible for providing best-in-class payroll process, reporting and compliance
• through the group companies.

DUTIES

Support global payroll process and controls with support from external payroll providers

Timely execution of payroll deliverables, payments and statutory reporting for all seven countries while ensuring compliance with local payroll legislation in different countries

Engaged in payroll implementations in the future and leading any process optimisation as necessary in partnership with HR

Work with the accounting team to ensure that payroll related spend is accounted for correctly and timely

Support or lead ad hoc projects as the team and business expands internationally

Responding to payroll related queries and supporting user accounts

Ensuring benefits are aligned with employees and providers and no leakage

Adhering to strict timelines for cut off and payroll scheduling

General administration of portals, user accounts, resetting passwords

• Requirements
• Essential :

Experience in payroll processing across various countries

Attention to detail and accuracy key

Strong time management and organisational skills

Strong excel skills required

Good understanding of controls and payroll best practices

Proactive and providing solutions to challenges that come up

Excellent communication skills with the ability to articulate payroll matters to HR, Finance and Employees

Desirable:

Proven experience working within a group environment

Industry experience (fast-growing technology company is a plus)

Payroll systems implementation is a plus

Workday system experience for HR or Finance would help

Desirable :

Proven experience working within a group environment

Industry experience (fast-growing technology company is a plus)

Payroll systems implementation is a plus

Workday system experience for HR or Finance would help

Benefits

Highly competitive salary and commission

Pension plan (match up to 5%)

Life insurance - three times annual salary

Competitive maternity (six months fully paid) and paternity leave (four weeks fully paid)

Shared parental leave (matched to our maternity leave for the same point in time)

25 days holiday and bank holidays

Flexible working hours

Cycle-to-work scheme

Electric car scheme

Season ticket loan

Access to outstanding learning materials and courses

Sports and hobby clubs, subsidised by Thought Machine

All the latest tech you need

Start the day properly with fresh fruit and cereals

Huge range of healthy (and not-so-healthy) snacks, smoothies and drinks

A talented and experienced team as your colleagues

An environment where we encourage learning and progress

Two charity days a year

Weekly food pop-up

We actively hire candidates who demonstrate technical excellence in their field and welcome people of all ages and backgrounds, providing everyone with equal access to professional development. You are encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't accurately match the job description. We also encourage applications from those with different abilities, including candidates with ADHD, autism, dyslexia or dyspraxia.