About this role
Payroll Officer
Location: Charterhouse School, Godalming
Salary: £55,000 per annum
Vacancy Type: Permanent, Full Time
Hours: Monday to Friday from 9.00am until 5.30pm.
Charterhouse is a beautiful school in a 250-acre campus – a wonderful setting for the whole community to live and work together and a splendid backdrop for teaching and learning.
Founded in 1611, Charterhouse is one of the world’s leading coeducational independent schools, welcoming boarders and day pupils at 13+ entry and 16+ entry.
Charterhouse seeks to appoint a highly organised and detail-oriented School Payroll Officer to join our busy Payroll team.
This pivotal role is responsible for delivering an accurate and efficient payroll service for school employees, ensuring compliance with payroll legislation, pension regulations, and school policies.
The successful candidate will have excellent numerical and administrative skills, experience working with payroll systems, and the ability to manage confidential information with discretion. Working closely with HR, Finance, and school leaders, you will support monthly payroll processing, maintain employee remuneration records, and respond to payroll-related queries in a professional and timely manner.
Overall Purpose and Responsibilities
As part of a 3-strong Payroll Team, the Payroll Officer is responsible for ensuring the accurate and timely processing of payroll for approximately 1,000 employees across the School Group, comprising one senior school, three preparatory schools and two subsidiary companies.
Working as a key liaison between Payroll and Human Resources, the role is responsible for coordinating payroll inputs, validating information, producing payroll calculations, maintaining payroll records and ensuring payroll is processed accurately and efficiently. Whilst working closely with HR, responsibility for maintaining HR records remains with the HR team.
Profile of Candidate
Qualifications
Essential
GCSE (or equivalent) in English and MathematicsPayroll qualification or willingness to work towards one Desirable
CIPP qualification or equivalent Experience
Significant experience of payroll processingExperience processing payroll within a medium or large organisationExperience of statutory payroll calculationsExperience using computerised payroll systemsStrong Microsoft Excel skillsExperience of working collaboratively with HR teams Desirable:
Experience within the education sectorExperience of integrated HR and payroll systemsKnowledge of Teachers' Pension SchemeExperience supporting payroll audits Knowledge
UK payroll legislationHMRC regulationsStatutory payments including SSP, SMP, SPP, SAP, ShPP and SNCPPayroll best practicePension administrationData Protection and confidentiality requirements Skills
Excellent attention to detailStrong numerical and analytical skillsExcellent organisational and time management skillsAbility to manage competing priorities and meet strict deadlinesStrong communication and influencing skillsConfidence to challenge incomplete information professionally and appropriatelyAbility to build effective working relationships across departmentsHigh levels of accuracy, integrity and discretion To Apply
If you feel you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for Chaterhouse School, please click apply to be redirected to our website to complete your application.
Closing date for applications is 9am on Friday 4 September 2026.
Interviews will be held shortly after the closing date.