Payroll Officer

Payroll Officer
Location: Charterhouse School, Godalming
Salary: £55,000 per annum
Vacancy Type: Permanent, Full Time
Hours: Monday to Friday from 9.00am until 5.30pm.
Charterhouse is a beautiful school in a 250-acre campus – a wonderful setting for the whole community to live and work together and a splendid backdrop for teaching and learning.
Founded in 1611, Charterhouse is one of the world’s leading coeducational independent schools, welcoming boarders and day pupils at 13+ entry and 16+ entry.
Charterhouse seeks to appoint a highly organised and detail-oriented School Payroll Officer to join our busy Payroll team.
This pivotal role is responsible for delivering an accurate and efficient payroll service for school employees, ensuring compliance with payroll legislation, pension regulations, and school policies.
The successful candidate will have excellent numerical and administrative skills, experience working with payroll systems, and the ability to manage confidential information with discretion. Working closely with HR, Finance, and school leaders, you will support monthly payroll processing, maintain employee remuneration records, and respond to payroll-related queries in a professional and timely manner.
Overall Purpose and Responsibilities
As part of a 3-strong Payroll Team, the Payroll Officer is responsible for ensuring the accurate and timely processing of payroll for approximately 1,000 employees across the School Group, comprising one senior school, three preparatory schools and two subsidiary companies.
Working as a key liaison between Payroll and Human Resources, the role is responsible for coordinating payroll inputs, validating information, producing payroll calculations, maintaining payroll records and ensuring payroll is processed accurately and efficiently. Whilst working closely with HR, responsibility for maintaining HR records remains with the HR team.
Profile of Candidate
Qualifications
Essential
* GCSE (or equivalent) in English and Mathematics
* Payroll qualification or willingness to work towards one
Desirable
* CIPP qualification or equivalent
Experience
* Significant experience of payroll processing
* Experience processing payroll within a medium or large organisation
* Experience of statutory payroll calculations
* Experience using computerised payroll systems
* Strong Microsoft Excel skills
* Experience of working collaboratively with HR teams
Desirable:
* Experience within the education sector
* Experience of integrated HR and payroll systems
* Knowledge of Teachers' Pension Scheme
* Experience supporting payroll audits
Knowledge
* UK payroll legislation
* HMRC regulations
* Statutory payments including SSP, SMP, SPP, SAP, ShPP and SNCP
* Payroll best practice
* Pension administration
* Data Protection and confidentiality requirements
Skills
* Excellent attention to detail
* Strong numerical and analytical skills
* Excellent organisational and time management skills
* Ability to manage competing priorities and meet strict deadlines
* Strong communication and influencing skills
* Confidence to challenge incomplete information professionally and appropriately
* Ability to build effective working relationships across departments
* High levels of accuracy, integrity and discretion
To Apply
If you feel you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for Chaterhouse School, please click apply to be redirected to our website to complete your application.
Closing date for applications is 9am on Friday 4 September 2026.
Interviews will be held shortly after the closing date