Payroll Project Lead

The Payroll Project Lead will play a key role in delivering RWS’s Global Payroll Transformation Programme. This 12‑month FTC role will coordinate the successful transition of multiple payrolls (both in‑house and outsourced) from existing providers to new solutions. Working closely with the Head of Global Payroll, the Project Manager, local HR and Finance teams, and external vendors, the Payroll Project Lead will ensure implementations are delivered on time, to quality, and in alignment with overall programme objectives.
This is an excellent opportunity for someone with global payroll implementation experience who is passionate about driving process improvement, ensuring compliance, and supporting the evolution of a world‑class payroll function.

About Group Finance

In joining RWS’s Finance team you will be a critical part of supporting a listed world-leading provider of technology-enabled language, content, and intellectual property services. RWS has growing revenues of over £750m through a combination of value accretive acquisitions and organic growth. Group finance, led by our Group CFO; Candy Davies, includes diverse teams across the globe operating in functions including business partnering, operational finance, specialist, and group functions. We cover a footprint of over 100 legal entities in 43 different countries worldwide.  

It’s a very exciting time to join RWS Finance for an individual who enjoys change and making an impact! As part of the overall RWS business strategy we are making a significant investment in upgrading our financial systems and processes to deliver enhanced reporting and control, more efficient processing enabling great value through enhanced business partnering and decision support. 

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate end‑to‑end payroll transition activities across multiple countries, ensuring smooth migration from one provider or model to another.
• Act as the primary point of coordination between Global Payroll, Project Management, local country stakeholders, and payroll vendors.
• Support project planning, tracking, and reporting, ensuring milestones, risks, issues, and dependencies are clearly documented and escalated when needed.
• Lead data gathering, validation, and mapping activities, ensuring accurate and complete employee and payroll data is transferred.
• Support parallel runs, user acceptance testing (UAT), and issue resolution, ensuring payroll outputs meet accuracy and compliance standards.
• Ensure all process documentation, SOPs, and control frameworks are updated and handed over to BAU teams prior to go‑live.
• Facilitate knowledge transfer and training for local payroll teams on new systems, tools, and vendor processes.
• Monitor project risks and implement mitigation plans, ensuring service continuity and compliance with internal controls.
• Build strong collaborative relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure successful delivery.
• Contribute to the wider Global Payroll Transformation agenda, identifying opportunities for standardisation, efficiency and improved governance.

Skills & Experience

• Proven experience in payroll implementations, transitions, or migration, ideally across multiple countries.
• Strong understanding of payroll operations, controls, compliance, and end‑to‑end payroll processes (in‑house and outsourced).
• Experience coordinating vendors and internal cross‑functional teams within a project environment.
• Excellent project coordination skills with the ability to manage timelines, risks, and dependencies.
• Confident in analysing payroll data, identifying discrepancies, and supporting testing activities.
• Strong communication and stakeholder‑management skills, with the ability to work across diverse cultures and time zones.
• Highly organised, detail‑focused and able to work in a fast‑paced, change‑driven environment.
• Experience within a global transformation or system‑implementation programme (e.g., new vendors, new tools, payroll standardisation) highly advantageous.
• Proficient in MS Office, particularly Excel.
• A proactive problem‑solver who is hands‑on and able to work autonomously while contributing to wider programme success.

RWS is a global AI solutions company empowering the world’s most trusted enterprise AI.

Our proprietary Cultural Intelligence Layer, powered by 250,000 data specialists, cultural and language experts and deep domain professionals, backed by 45+ patents, makes enterprise AI culturally fluent, contextually accurate and secure, ensuring every interaction reflects a brand’s tone, context and customer values.

Through our Generate, Transform and Protect segments, we deliver intelligent content, enterprise knowledge, large-scale localization and IP protection for global growth. Trusted by 80+ of the world’s top 100 brands, RWS provides the confidence, governance and expertise organizations need to deploy AI safely, responsibly and at scale.

Headquartered in the UK, RWS is listed on AIM (RWS.L).

More information: rws.com.

RWS Values

We Partner, We Pioneer, We Progress – and we´ll Deliver together.

For further information, please visit: RWS   

RWS embraces DEI and promotes equal opportunity, we are an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. RWS is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at RWS are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sex, age, disability, or sexual orientation. RWS will not tolerate discrimination based on any of these characteristics

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