Senior payroll manager jobs

What you’ll be doing: 

• Managing the organisation’s financial responsibilities, working to tight deadlines, and a varied workload across different areas of responsibility, particularly in relation to financial reporting. As well as ensuring that financial processes are accurate, up to date and compliant with statutory requirements

• Taking a proactive approach to maintaining efficient office systems and operations, ensuring that orders are processed and providing support for the general up-keep of the office equipment 

• Contributing to project delivery by supporting the team with a range of ongoing administrative and organisational tasks, which requires flexibility and able to manage a varied workload across different areas of responsibility.

What we’re looking for: 

• We are looking for someone with a strong level of experience in managing the financial operations of a small organisation, ensuring that systems and processes are both robust and efficient. This includes experience of financial forecasting, reconciliations and, where appropriate, introducing or improving financial systems. 

• The postholder must be able to communicate financial information clearly to a range of stakeholders with differing levels of financial understanding, both verbally and through written reports or presentations relating to the organisation’s finances and funded projects. 

• Strong organisational and administrative skills are essential. The role requires the ability to manage different aspects of project support, general administration and office management, while keeping the wider team informed of progress on outstanding tasks. 

If this role is of interest, please refer to the full job description and person specification for further details. 

About Us 

​Established in 2002, Greenhouse Sports is a youth charity specifically using sport to support social change. Sport is our hook to engage young people and one of the vehicles through which we support youth development. But our purpose is not to create elite athletes or address physical inactivity. Rather, we create opportunities for young people to recognise their strengths and develop the skills they need to thrive both now and in the future. 

We work across London, Portsmouth, and Leicester, specifically in areas of high deprivation. We embed evidence-based positive youth development programmes into primary and secondary schools. These programmes are delivered by our trusted, high-quality coach-mentors who deliver year-round to ensure that young people have ongoing access to sport, mentoring, enrichment, and employability activities. The result of this work is that every year, Greenhouse Sports support over 9,000 young people to attend school more often, improve their wellbeing, and raise their aspirations, transforming life chances in the communities that need us the most.

Purpose of the Role 

Greenhouse Sports believes its people are its most important asset. From our coach mentors delivering impact on the front line to the teams supporting our growth, everything we achieve is powered by our people. We are looking for a People Operations Coordinator to join our team and play a key role in delivering a smooth, professional and engaging employee experience across the organisation

This is a hands-on, operational HR role with a strong focus on administration, alongside opportunities to contribute to projects and continuous improvement across the People function

You’ll be the first point of contact for HR queries, supporting the full employee lifecycle—from recruitment and onboarding through to payroll, systems, and employee experience initiatives. Reporting directly to the Head of People, you’ll gain broad exposure across HR and play an important role in keeping everything running smoothly.

HR Operations & Systems​​​​​​

• Manage and maintain our HR system (PeopleHR), ensuring data is accurate and up to date.
• Monitor absence and holiday data, flagging trends or concerns to managers.
• Produce reports and support GDPR compliance and data integrity.
• Support the upkeep and documentation of People processes and policies.

Payroll & Benefits​

• Prepare monthly payroll data for our external provider, ensuring accuracy and timely submission.
• Manage pension data and resolve payroll queries.
• Support payroll sign-off processes with Finance and senior stakeholders.
• Administer employee benefits (e.g. Westfield Health, BetterSpace).

Recruitment & Onboarding​

• Coordinate end-to-end recruitment processes, including posting ads and scheduling interviews.
• Manage and optimise use of the Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
• Prepare contracts and onboarding documentation.
• Conduct pre-employment checks (RTW, DBS, references, etc.)
• Deliver HR induction and manage new starter onboarding.
• Monitor probation periods and support line managers.

Learning, Development & Compliance​

• Coordinate internal and external training (including safeguarding and first aid).
• Track completion of training and performance reviews.
• Support CPD agreements and development activity across the organisation.

Employee Experience & Engagement​

• Support employee engagement and culture initiatives.
• Play an active role in staff wellbeing and organising social activities.
• Help create a positive and inclusive employee experience.

Support to Head of People​

• Assist with employee relations administration, including note-taking.
• Provide first-line guidance on policies and procedures.
• Support continuous improvement across the People function.

Experience​

• You have experience in an HR or administrative role.
• You have strong organisational skills and high attention to detail.
• You’re confident using systems (HRIS experience helpful, but not essential).
• You have a good working knowledge of Microsoft Office (especially Excel).
• You understand HR processes and best practice (or have a willingness to learn).​

Skills​

• You are approachable, empathetic, and able to build relationships quickly.
• You’re discreet and always maintain confidentiality.
• You are proactive and solutions-focused.
• You are a team player with a positive, can-do attitude.​​​

Please ensure you have provided both your CV and Cover Letter to support your application. ​

We will be interviewing candidates on a rolling basis, so please do submit your application as soon as you can. ​​

Greenhouse Sports is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children therefore applicants must be willing to undergo child protection training and screening including an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check and obtaining satisfactory references from past employers.

The Role

The Trust has grown significantly over the past five years, from a team of 30 staff in 2020 to almost 60 in 2026. Our organisational strategy, which takes us to 2030/2031, predicts further growth across all our activities, that will allow us to increase and improve the support we provide for young people, and further raise the profile of social mobility in the UK. As part of this, we are currently in the early development stages for the Trust’s first ever People Strategy.

We are seeking an organised and detail-oriented HR Assistant: Recruitment to support the administration of our recruitment, onboarding and compliance processes.

The Team

The HR Assistant: Recruitment will join a small and dynamic team that covers Finance, Human Resources, IT and Business Operations. The Finance & Operations team play a critical role by running the day-to-day operations and providing the infrastructure that enables the continued delivery of the Trust’s mission and objectives. The role will report to the Senior Operations Manager and will work closely with colleagues both in Finance & Operations and across the wider Trust.

Main duties

Pre- and Post-Employment

• Coordinating the end-to-end recruitment process, e.g., ensuring completeness of recruitment documentation, coordinating interviews, liaising with candidates etc.

• Providing routine recruitment advice and support for hiring managers, with support from your line manager

• Supporting key employee lifecycle processes, including onboarding, induction, probation reviews and leavers' processes

• Maintaining an awareness of current employment trends, processes and best practice to support effective and inclusive recruitment and onboarding

HR Administration and Compliance

• Managing HR documentation, e.g., staff files, new starter contracts etc.

• Maintaining and updating HR systems, e.g., Teamtailor ATS, Personio etc.

• Supporting the Finance team with payroll administration

• Supporting the coordination and monitoring of mandatory HR compliance training across the Trust

• Supporting with day-to-day queries relating to HR policies and processes, with support from your line manager. Completing related research, as required.

Other

• Acting as the Trust's first point of contact, by providing a responsive and efficient service for general external and internal telephone and email enquiries

• Supporting general HR projects, as required

• Other duties as necessary from time to time

Person Specification

We welcome applications from individuals who can demonstrate:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, and first-class interpersonal skills

• Strong organisational and problem-solving skills, with the ability to multi-task

• Ability to learn new systems and processes quickly

We are also looking for an individual who is or has:

• Sympathetic to the aims of the Trust and its mission to address educational disadvantage

• High attention to detail

• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team and independently with a high degree of initiative

• Ability to handle confidential and sensitive information appropriately

• Ability to work flexibly, manage competing priorities and meet deadlines

• Eligible to work in the UK (see here for information about right to work, please note we are not a licensed visa sponsor)

In addition, experience in the following areas will help you to stand out. However, this is not required, and training will be provided if needed for the right candidate:

• Experience of providing administrative support, particularly in an HR capacity

• Experience of managing a range of different projects

• Experience of working in the education or not-for-profit sector

Terms of Appointment

• Contract: Full-time (part-time 4 days considered), 12-month fixed-term contract initially

• Salary: £30,800-£31,500

• Working location: Our home working policy gives staff the option to work from home for up to 60% of the time, with approval from their line manager.

• Office location: The Sutton Trust, 9th Floor, Millbank Tower, 21-24 Millbank, London, SW1P 4QP.

• Hours: The standard working hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday and may also be required to attend events / meetings outside of their normal working hours during weekday evenings and occasionally at weekends

• DBS check may be required

Interviews

Applications should reach us by 10am, Thursday 18th June, with interviews held in our London offices on Wednesday, 24th June.

Safeguarding statement

The Sutton Trust believes that a child, young person or vulnerable adult should never experience abuse of any kind. We all have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people and to keep them safe. Therefore all posts undergo a safer recruitment process, including but not limited to, disclosure of criminal records where necessary and eligibility to work in the UK. We have procedures in place to promote safeguarding and a safe culture at the Trust.

Contextual recruitment

The Trust is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity and that all applicants receive equal consideration for employment. We strongly encourage individuals from all backgrounds, including those underrepresented at present at the Trust, to apply for this role. As such we particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities, Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQ+ and from different socio-economic and educational backgrounds. We are committed to being an inclusive and welcoming place to work and know that greater diversity will lead to even greater results for the young people we support.

We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments for disabled candidates throughout our recruitment process and during employment.

We also operate contextual recruitment at the Sutton Trust. Our application process gives you the option to include information about your background, such as whether you were eligible for free school meals, whether your parents went to university, or whether you attended a state school. For more examples and information on contextual recruitment, please see our website.

A rare chance to build something from zero — and see your work move millions of pounds to the world's most effective charities.
 

The opportunity

In recent years, some of the biggest problems in the world have gotten worse.

• The decades-long decline in extreme poverty has slowed.
• Factory farming continues to grow, with 13 billion farmed animals killed annually in the U.S. alone.
• The rapid deployment of increasingly powerful AI systems raises questions about safety and alignment that remain largely unresolved.

What gives us hope is that research-backed, scalable, but grossly underfunded ways to make progress on these problems exist.

More than 11,000 people have pledged at least 10% of their income to the world's most effective charities through Giving What We Can's 10% Pledge. Our global community gives over £63 million every year, funding malaria prevention, poverty reduction, animal welfare, AI safety research, and more.

GWWC has over 5,000 UK donors. £12.5M came from the top 300 alone in 2025. Despite this, there has been virtually no proactive relationship management. We believe there's huge potential to increase this figure with dedicated, high-quality donor stewardship.

London is GWWC's largest concentration of community members: over 2,600 CRM contacts and over 500 active pledgers. It's the natural centre of gravity for events and in-person engagement, with a rich ecosystem of high-net-worth individuals aligned with effective giving.
 

What you'll do

Build deep, lasting relationships with donors and pledgers. You'll proactively manage a portfolio of GWWC's highest-value community members through 1:1 meetings, calls, and thoughtful follow-up. Expect 8 to 10 meaningful conversations per week: coffees, dinners, calls.

Guide donors toward the highest-impact giving. Think of it as philanthropic advising. You're helping people think through where their giving goes furthest, directing generosity toward GWWC-recommended, evidence-backed charities. You'll also inspire people to give more, helping them see why giving more significantly and effectively can transform the impact they have with their donations.

Run high-quality donor events. Intimate dinners, networking evenings, and community gatherings. You'll have an events budget and the freedom to experiment with formats that build connection.

Re-engage lapsed and non-reporting donors. When someone takes a pledge with GWWC, they commit to giving 10% of their income to effective charities. Some donors give through our platform (where we can track it), while others give directly to charities and report it back to us. Over time, many stop doing either: our data shows recording rates drop from 60% in year one to just 22% by year five without any proactive engagement. These aren't necessarily people who've stopped caring; many have simply drifted without anyone checking in. A single outreach test to 369 lapsed donors recovered $2.3M in reported donations. You'll do this systematically, bringing recording rates to around 70% for the group of people you're engaging with.

Inspire warm leads to take a giving pledge. Follow up with people who've attended events, expressed interest, or sit in our CRM but haven't yet committed. We expect approximately 80 new pledges per year from this work.

Build the strategy. You'll build the strategy in partnership with your counterpart in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is a joint endeavour: together you'll develop the model for how GWWC does donor engagement, then adapt it for each geography to replicate globally.
 

What we're looking for

A social chameleon with high EQ. You can read a room and calibrate, holding your own at a black-tie dinner or a casual coffee with equal ease. Different donors need different things; you instinctively know which register to use.

Energised by getting out there. You're the kind of person who'd rather have ten meetings in a week than five. You want to be out in the world, meeting people, opening doors, and building relationships. Some weeks half your outreach will go unanswered, and that doesn't slow you down.

Highly organised and strategic. You're able to use a CRM to maximise the number and quality of interactions you have, thinking strategically about how to invest the most time on the highest-potential opportunities, whether that's inspiring new donors or stewarding existing ones to give more.

Super agentic. Give you KPI targets and a CRM and you'll build the strategy from there. You're the kind of person who doesn't need to be told what to do next, you just see what needs doing and get on with it.

You really care deeply about these issues. You find the core questions of effective giving compelling. You can talk about why cost-effectiveness matters without sounding robotic, and you come across as authentic because you actually care about these issues.

5+ years of relevant experience. In fundraising, philanthropy, donor stewardship, major gifts, high-touch relationship management, or senior sales and partnerships. We care about what you can do, not credentials, but this is a senior role that requires demonstrated experience.
 

Nice to haves

We definitely don't expect any candidate to have all of these.

• Experience or familiarity with global catastrophic risks, global health and wellbeing, or animal welfare as cause areas
• Experience in the effective altruism or effective giving ecosystem
• Experience running or hosting donor events
• Experience with HubSpot specifically (CRM proficiency is essential, but HubSpot experience is a bonus)
• Understanding of UK tax-efficient giving (Gift Aid, share donations via ShareGift, payroll giving)
• Being a GWWC pledger yourself
• People management aptitude (you may grow a small team over time)
   

Compensation and benefits

• £77,000 – £89,000 depending on experience You can see how we calculate pay in our public salary calculator. 
• Contract: One-year fixed-term contract with a three-month probation period. We're open to exploring making it permanent if the first year is successful.

Benefits include:

• Fully remote work (with regular in-person donor meetings and events as part of the role)
• 25 days paid leave + public holidays
• 10% employer pension contribution and private health insurance
• £4,000 annual professional development budget
• £4,000 annual mental health support budget
• The knowledge that your work moves millions of pounds to the world's most effective charities
   

About us

Giving What We Can is working towards a world without preventable suffering or existential risk, where everyone is able to flourish. We do this by making giving effectively and significantly a norm among those who can afford it.

Founded in 2009, we are best known for the 10% Pledge, where over 11,000 people have committed to donating at least 10% of their lifetime income to highly effective charities. Our larger community of ~20,000 pledgers and donors currently gives ~£63M annually, of which GWWC processes and grants £24M+ yearly through our own donation platform.

We're a lean, remote, performance-focused team. Our impact evaluation shows a 7x multiplier: every $1 spent on our operations generates $7 in donations to highly effective charities. We're committed to a high level of transparency. And we're growing fast, on track for more than 40% year-over-year growth on donations in 2026.

You'll report to: James Rayton, Director of Community & Partnerships
 

How to apply

You can apply by filling out the form linked in this job ad. We review applications on a rolling basis and will move quickly when we find the right person. Our process typically includes: application review → screening call → paid work test → interviews with James (line manager) and cross-functional team members → paid work trial → reference checks and interview with the CEO. We provide compensation for all work tests and trials.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Giving What We Can is committed to building a diverse team and strongly encourages applications from people of all backgrounds.