About this role
Thought Machine's mission is bold – to properly and permanently rid the world's banks of legacy technology. To achieve this, we have developed the foundations of modern banking through core and payments technology which run natively in the cloud. What we are attempting is hard and means we need great people working together to build great technology.
We have grown rapidly in the past few years – growing our team to more than 550 individuals across offices in London, New York, Singapore, Sydney and our newly established Engineering Hub in Lisbon. We have raised more than £500m in funding and our investors include Molten Ventures, Eurazeo, Intesa Sanpaolo, Temasek, Nyca Partners, JPMorgan Chase Strategic Investments, Standard Chartered Ventures, and more.
We have created a culture that enables our team to produce the best work in the industry while ensuring we have fun along the way. We're regularly cited as having a fantastic workplace culture and have been recognised by Sifted magazine as having one of the highest Glassdoor ratings for a UK fintech company and the industry's most generous employee share package. Named one of the world's most innovative fintechs by Global Finance Magazine, we were also recognised by the Financial Times as one of Europe's fastest-growing companies for two consecutive years—and a UK Best Employer for 2026.
Reporting to the Payroll Lead, the Payroll Assistant will support the company’s payroll affairs globally, covering the UK, APAC, EMEA and North/South America entities. The company has also recently launched the Thought Machine Lisbon Engineering Hub with an engineering team of 30 to start with, adding more responsibilities to the payroll team.
This newly created role will work with finance and non-finance teams with support from external payroll advisors to drive the highest standards of payroll. This role will play an integral part in scaling the payroll processes and procedures of a fast-growing business. This is an opportunity to make an impact as a payroll professional who thrives on delivering on projects and being responsible for providing best-in-class payroll process, reporting and compliance through the group companies.
DUTIES
Support global payroll process and controls with support from external payroll
providers
Timely execution of payroll deliverables, payments and statutory reporting for
all seven countries while ensuring compliance with local payroll legislation in
different countries
Engaged in payroll implementations in the future and leading any process
optimisation as necessary in partnership with HR
Work with the accounting team to ensure that payroll related spend is
accounted for correctly and timely
Support or lead ad hoc projects as the team and business expands
internationally
Responding to payroll related queries and supporting user accounts, resetting
passwords
Ensuring benefits are aligned with employees and providers and no leakage
Adhering to strict timelines for cut off and payroll scheduling
General administration of portals, user accounts, resetting passwords
Requirements Essential:
Experience in payroll processing across various countries
Attention to detail and accuracy key
Strong time management and organisational skills
Strong excel skills required
Good understanding of controls and payroll best practices
Proactive and providing solutions to challenges that come up
Excellent communication skills with the ability to articulate payroll matters to
HR, Finance and Employees
Desirable:
Proven experience working within a group environment
Industry experience (fast-growing technology company is a plus)
Payroll systems implementation is a plus
Workday system experience for HR or Finance would help
Desirable:
Proven experience working within a group environment
Industry experience (fast-growing technology company is a plus)
Payroll systems implementation is a plus
Workday system experience for HR or Finance would help
BenefitsHighly competitive salary and commission
Pension plan (match up to 5%)
Life insurance - three times annual salary
Competitive maternity (six months fully paid) and paternity leave (four weeks fully paid)
Shared parental leave (matched to our maternity leave for the same point in time)
25 days holiday and bank holidays
Flexible working hours
Cycle-to-work scheme
Electric car scheme
Season ticket loan
Access to outstanding learning materials and courses
Sports and hobby clubs, subsidised by Thought Machine
All the latest tech you need
Start the day properly with fresh fruit and cereals
Huge range of healthy (and not-so-healthy) snacks, smoothies and drinks
A talented and experienced team as your colleagues
An environment where we encourage learning and progress
Two charity days a year
Weekly food pop-up
We actively hire candidates who demonstrate technical excellence in their field and welcome people of all ages and backgrounds, providing everyone with equal access to professional development. You are encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't accurately match the job description. We also encourage applications from those with different abilities, including candidates with ADHD, autism, dyslexia or dyspraxia.