The Role
This role will be responsible for managing and executing the regional payrolls within the Payroll & Benefits COE. It requires strong technical payroll & benefits knowledge, experience and understanding of UK & EMEA payroll and benefits management, stakeholder relationship management as well as project delivery.
The role drives continuous improvement, system optimisation, risk management, and consistent global standards, while partnering closely with HR, Finance, Compliance, and external providers.
Key Responsibilities
- Leading, checking and approving end-to-end payroll operations across multiple countries within UK & EMEA, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and timely processing.
- Lead the global payroll team, providing direction, coaching, and capability development.
- Establish and maintain strong governance, controls, and audit readiness across all payroll processes.
- Ensure all Payroll & Benefit technical and governance required documentation such as SOP's, checklists and country guardrails are created and maintained.
- Ensure payroll alignment with local statutory requirements, tax regulations, and company policies.
- Partner with HR Operations, Finance, and external payroll providers to resolve complex payroll queries and escalations and support employee experience and organisational goals.
- Manage vendor relationships, commercial agreements, and performance reviews.
- Ensure benefits compliance with statutory requirements across all jurisdictions.
- Drive advanced data analysis to provide strategic insights and help guide and mentor the analysts in effective techniques to improve processing and data management across Payroll & Benefits.
- Drive payroll and benefits system enhancements, integrations, automation, and digitalisation.
- Manage benefits lifecycle events including enrolment, changes, annual renewals, and exit processes.
- Carry out Ad Hoc duties and tasks that are allocated to you at the discretion of management and that are within your capabilities and within the scope of your post.
- Demonstrate and champion Charles Taylor Values by ensuring Agility, Integrity, Care, and Accountability and Collaboration.
- Build a collaborative and inclusive team by co-creating a shared vision, recruiting diverse talent, and supporting team members through onboarding, mentoring, and coaching. Manage workloads and foster a motivating environment where colleagues feel empowered to thrive.
Required Skills
- Proven track record of multi-country payroll management with relevant experience in the specified region. UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa
- Strong understanding of international payroll legislation, tax rules, and compliance frameworks.
- Experience managing UK & EMEA benefits design, governance, and vendor relationships..
- Strong analytical, problem‑solving, and process‑improvement capabilities.
- Solid stakeholder management experience with good influencing abilities and business partnering skills.
- Ability to work independently, and coordinate multiple workstreams through planning, prioritising, and multi-tasking in a fast paced, ever-changing environment.
- High level of accuracy, integrity, and confidentiality.
- Knowledge and understanding of HR, Benefits, and Payroll interfaces and the upstream and downstream impacts.
About Us
Founded in 1884 as a mutual insurance association, Charles Taylor began under the leadership of coal merchant Charles Taylor, whose astute management set the stage for growth. Today, we are a global leader providing insurance services and technology solutions with a team of c.4,000 experts across 120+ countries on 6 continents.
Our unmatched depth of specialist expertise, from loss adjusters to forensic accountants, helps the global insurance market to address its challenges. Through our trusted partnerships model, we build long-term, personal relationships with clients based on trust and cooperation. Our powerful technology helps our clients improve their customers' experience from start to finish. Thanks to our global reach, our clients can access our services wherever they are in the world, whenever they need us.
Our services and solutions support every stage of the insurance lifecycle and every aspect of the insurance operating model, across all major commercial insurance lines serving a blue-chip international customer base that includes insurance companies, mutuals, captives, MGAs, Lloyd's syndicates and reinsurers, along with brokers, distributors and corporate insureds. Our Group Business Services (GBS) function supports the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the company ensuring that teams have the tools, systems and support needed to deliver high-quality client solutions. Focused on finance operations, HR services, IT infrastructure, legal and compliance support, and workplace management, the GBS function enables the business to operate with agility, maintain compliance and focus on delivering value to our clients.
Expertise you can trust - for more information, please visit www.charlestaylor.com
Why join Charles Taylor?
Charles Taylor prides itself on being a people-centric business. Our culture and values define who we are, what we stand for and how we behave. They guide how we work with our colleagues and our clients, today and in the future. By living our values every day when we come to work, we deliver better results for the world of insurance.
We strive to provide a positive working environment that offers opportunities for professional development and growth across all our business areas. This includes a structured onboarding process, job-specific skills development, online and in-person training, as well as study assistance
for professional qualifications.
Our Values
- Accountability (We take ownership and responsibility)
We all have a role to play in Charles Taylor's growth and overall success. - Agility (We learn, evolve and adapt quickly)
We anticipate, prepare for and adapt to change; it's how we stay competitive. - Care (We are compassionate and human)
We are approachable and genuinely interested in others. - Collaboration (We are one)
We are unique but united in our work. - Integrity (We do the right thing)
At all times, we act with responsibility and respect.
Equal Opportunity Employer
At Charles Taylor, we are proud to be an Inclusive Employer. We foster an environment of mutual respect with zero tolerance to discrimination of any kind regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marital or family status, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation.
We recognise that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is essential in enabling us to deliver better insurance outcomes and fulfilling our responsibilities to clients, colleagues, and the community. We proactively promote and celebrate differences and strive to create an environment where our people feel included and can reach their full potential. We take pride in our inclusive and diverse culture, which is supported by strong partnerships and a transparent, fair recruitment process.
