Role: SuccessFactors Payroll Expert
Salary: Circa 62,800K depending on skills, knowledge and experience
Band: 3
Position type: 12 months FTC ( fixed term contract) with permanency possible
Location: Palestra ( Southwark- London) /Hybrid
Hybrid working within this role enables a balance of 50 per cent of time split between the office and home over a 4-week period. Hybrid working arrangements can evolve subject to business requirements.
Job Purpose
This role will act as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) across both payroll operations and SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll (ECP), ensuring the solution is fit for purpose and meets business, regulatory, and operational needs.
The role will bridge Payroll, HR, and Technology, supporting the full lifecycle from design through to go-live and stabilisation.
Key accountabilities
- Provide expert payroll input into Employee Central Payroll (ECP) design workshops and decisions, ensuring business requirements are clearly articulated, documented, and understood. Validate that proposed solutions are operationally viable, compliant, and aligned with payroll best practice.
- Lead the capture, documentation, and validation of payroll requirements (functional and statutory), ensuring full traceability from requirement through to design, build, and testing, with clear sign-off from Payroll stakeholders.
- Review and validate ECP configuration and calculations against payroll requirements, ensuring outputs (e.g. pay results, statutory deductions) are accurate, auditable, and meet defined acceptance criteria; escalate defects and risks where needed.
- Define payroll test scenarios and acceptance criteria, and lead payroll participation in SIT, UAT, and parallel runs. Ensure defects are triaged, resolved, and retested, with formal sign-off confirming payroll readiness for go-live.
- Oversee payroll-specific data migration activities, including defining validation rules and executing reconciliation checks to confirm completeness, accuracy, and integrity of employee and payroll data.
- Act as the key payroll interface across HR, Finance, Technology, and implementation partners, providing SME guidance to inform decisions, resolve issues, and ensure alignment. Influence outcomes through expertise, while escalating final decisions to accountable design authorities where required.
- Identify and manage payroll risks, issues, and dependencies, ensuring appropriate controls, audit requirements, and statutory obligations are embedded and evidenced within the ECP solution and processes.
- Support cutover planning and execute payroll readiness activities, including parallel run validation and sign-off inputs. Provide SME support during hypercare, resolving payroll issues and contributing to a stable transition to BAU.
Skills, Knowledge and Experience
Knowledge
- Deep understanding of end-to-end payroll processes
- Strong knowledge of payroll legislation, statutory requirements, and compliance
- Understanding of HR and payroll data structures and integrations
- Knowledge of SuccessFactors architecture, particularly Employee Central and ECP
- Awareness of controls, audit, and data governance requirements in payroll
Skills
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
- Ability to translate business requirements into system solutions
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
- Ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams
- Strong attention to detail, particularly in payroll accuracy and controls
Experience
- Significant experience in payroll operations within a large or complex organisation
- Hands-on experience with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll (ECP)
- Proven track record working on HR/payroll system implementations or transformations, ideally in moving from SAP ECC6 to SAP SuccessFactors
- Employee Central Payroll (ECP)
- Experience supporting testing cycles (SIT/UAT/parallel runs)
- Experience working in complex, multi-stakeholder programme environments
Equality, diversity, and inclusion
We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and aim to reflect the diverse communities we serve. We believe that a diverse workforce enables us to deliver better services and outcomes. Our goal is to make our recruitment as inclusive as possible. As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively encourage applications from disabled people. As part of the Disability Confident scheme, we aim to offer an assessment or interview to candidates who apply via the scheme where the minimum essential criteria for skills, knowledge and experience has been met. In some circumstances, it may not be practical to offer an interview or assessment to every candidate who applies through the scheme and meet the minimum essential criteria; in these situations, we select candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than interviewing all who meet them.
Across all recruitment activity, we recognise that selection methods may vary depending on the nature and scale of the campaign and will be applied fairly, consistently and proportionately in line with our Disability Confident commitments.
Application Process
Please apply using your 2-page CV
Think carefully about the skills, knowledge and experience in the advert and cover this in your CV. PDF format preferred and do not include any photographs or images
The closing date for applications is Sunday 23rd August 2026 @ 23:59
Interviews will be held in the second or third week of September 2026
All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory right‑to‑work checks. Candidates must be able to demonstrate their right to work in the UK. At the present time TfL is unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
Vetting Process
At Transport for London, safety, trust and fairness sit at the heart of how we recruit. Our Vetting Charter (https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/careers/our-vetting-process) explains the checks we carry out before you join us, helping ensure we create a safe, inclusive and reliable network for everyone who depends on our services. We simply ask that the information you provide is honest and accurate so we can progress your application smoothly. If something doesn’t match or can’t be verified, we may not be able to move forward with your application, but we’ll always treat you with transparency, respect, and clear communication throughout.
Benefits
In return for your commitment and expertise, you will enjoy excellent benefits and scope to grow. Rewards vary according to the level of role but mostly include the below:
Final salary pension scheme
Free travel for you on the TfL network
Reimbursement of 75% of the cost of a standard class Ticket for National Rail travel from home
29/30 days annual leave plus public and bank holidays (Delete one)
TfL is committed to work-life balance, operating a hybrid working approach where business and role requirements allow
Private healthcare discounted scheme (optional) (Delete if not applicable – LU spot grades/Q grades)
Tax-efficient cycle-to-work programme
Retail, health, leisure and travel offers
Discounted Eurostar travel