Payroll Team Leader (SAMpeople)
Arbor Education • United Kingdom
Posted: May 27, 2026
Job Description
Location: Remote, UK
Salary: £34,000 - £38,000 per year
About us
At Arbor, we’re on a mission to transform the way schools work for the better.
Central to this mission is equipping Schools with the technology and support to address any challenges they may face, so expanding our product suite and enhancing our customer offering has become an essential priority.
One of these many products is SAMpeople, a cloud based software platform for schools to give them a one-stop shop for their people management.
SAMpeople are Education people specialists; we have a team of leaders who have all worked in education for many years and understand the business challenges that schools and MATs have to deal with day in and day out.
At the heart of our brand is a recognition that the challenges schools face today aren’t just about efficiency, outputs and productivity - but about creating happier working lives for the people who drive education everyday: the staff. We want to make schools more joyful places to work, as well as learn.
About the role
We are looking for an enthusiastic and collaborative Payroll Team Leader to join our Payroll team and support the payroll leadership team to drive improvements, the development and review of processes, systems, training, and induction support for new starters.
SAMpeople is one of the products within Arbor’s School Management Suite and is the UK’s fastest-growing education HR system. The remit and focus of the role is to manage a portfolio of customers, accurately processing end to end payroll, including the preparation of payroll reports/journals, as well as support your team members to carry out their roles effectively. It’s a broad and exciting role, so we’re looking for someone up for a challenge - if you have a breadth of payroll management experience and are a good team player, this is the role for you.
Core responsibilities
- Manage a portfolio of customers, accurately processing end to end payroll, including the preparation of payroll reports/journals;
- Manage high payslip volumes, competing demands, whilst maintaining service standards/KPIs
- Support your team members to carry out their roles effectively, auditing the teams skills and abilities, Identifying training programmes where necessary;
- Apply company policies as and when required with regards to staffing queries and Issues that arise at a supervisory level;
- Act as a coach/mentor when required for members of your team;
- Conduct regular one to ones with your team, monitoring performance and development
- Support the work of others through training sessions/Induction/supported work plans
- Process third party returns (Inc. pension returns);
- Update payroll systems with current rates, Including payscales, allowance values, pension deduction rates, NI rates and tax thresholds (employer and employee);
- Calculating pay adjustments where required, Including the calculation of outstanding holiday pay due or to be collected for leavers;
- Deal with complex payroll queries
- Weekly team leader progress meetings with payroll leaders
About you
- Proven payroll experience in a fast-paced environment
- Excellent time management skills and the ability to prioritise your own workload and the workload of others within your team effectively
- An understanding of HR policies and procedures and when to refer concerns to the senior team
- Has a commercial outlook as part of a traded service
- A strong understanding of local government pay and conditions
- Strong attention to detail
- Demonstrable customer service skills, including resilience when supporting customers with challenging payroll situations
- Able to operate with independent professional discretion and demonstrate a strong degree of judgement
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with strong interpersonal and presentation skills.
Additional Content
Location: Remote, UK
Salary: £34,000 - £38,000 per year
About us
At Arbor, we’re on a mission to transform the way schools work for the better.
Central to this mission is equipping Schools with the technology and support to address any challenges they may face, so expanding our product suite and enhancing our customer offering has become an essential priority.
One of these many products is SAMpeople, a cloud based software platform for schools to give them a one-stop shop for their people management.
SAMpeople are Education people specialists; we have a team of leaders who have all worked in education for many years and understand the business challenges that schools and MATs have to deal with day in and day out.
At the heart of our brand is a recognition that the challenges schools face today aren’t just about efficiency, outputs and productivity - but about creating happier working lives for the people who drive education everyday: the staff. We want to make schools more joyful places to work, as well as learn.
About the role
We are looking for an enthusiastic and collaborative Payroll Team Leader to join our Payroll team and support the payroll leadership team to drive improvements, the development and review of processes, systems, training, and induction support for new starters.
SAMpeople is one of the products within Arbor’s School Management Suite and is the UK’s fastest-growing education HR system. The remit and focus of the role is to manage a portfolio of customers, accurately processing end to end payroll, including the preparation of payroll reports/journals, as well as support your team members to carry out their roles effectively. It’s a broad and exciting role, so we’re looking for someone up for a challenge - if you have a breadth of payroll management experience and are a good team player, this is the role for you.
Core responsibilities
- Manage a portfolio of customers, accurately processing end to end payroll, including the preparation of payroll reports/journals;
- Manage high payslip volumes, competing demands, whilst maintaining service standards/KPIs
- Support your team members to carry out their roles effectively, auditing the teams skills and abilities, Identifying training programmes where necessary;
- Apply company policies as and when required with regards to staffing queries and Issues that arise at a supervisory level;
- Act as a coach/mentor when required for members of your team;
- Conduct regular one to ones with your team, monitoring performance and development
- Support the work of others through training sessions/Induction/supported work plans
- Process third party returns (Inc. pension returns);
- Update payroll systems with current rates, Including payscales, allowance values, pension deduction rates, NI rates and tax thresholds (employer and employee);
- Calculating pay adjustments where required, Including the calculation of outstanding holiday pay due or to be collected for leavers;
- Deal with complex payroll queries
- Weekly team leader progress meetings with payroll leaders
About you
- Proven payroll experience in a fast-paced environment
- Excellent time management skills and the ability to prioritise your own workload and the workload of others within your team effectively
- An understanding of HR policies and procedures and when to refer concerns to the senior team
- Has a commercial outlook as part of a traded service
- A strong understanding of local government pay and conditions
- Strong attention to detail
- Demonstrable customer service skills, including resilience when supporting customers with challenging payroll situations
- Able to operate with independent professional discretion and demonstrate a strong degree of judgement
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with strong interpersonal and presentation skills.