About Remote
Remote is building the infrastructure that makes global payroll and employment possible for everyone, everywhere. Our team is made up of people who want to own a piece of that work, not just contribute to it. That work happens across six continents, only Antarctica left to go, entirely remote. It also requires real fluency with AI in every role, not just familiarity with it.
Our standards are high, and the ownership is total. You'll have the trust and space to find your own way to the best answer, and the support to see it through, because that's how we build things that actually work at this scale. In return, your career grows faster, because at Remote, growth is tied to results. We're founded on the principle that where someone lives should never limit what they can achieve, and we operate exactly that way.
The Senior Specialist, Payroll Client Services is a Tier 2 domain expert and operational owner for the UK and Ireland, responsible for resolving complex payroll issues and improving how the team operates. Senior Specialists handle ambiguous problems involving multiple systems, stakeholders, or regulatory requirements while maintaining country knowledge, monitoring operational health, developing team capability, and driving improvements through to measurable outcomes. Success at this level means not only resolving difficult issues, but ensuring the assigned country or pod operates effectively and reducing the likelihood that similar issues recur.
- Tldr; Senior Specialists combine payroll support, Tier 2 expertise, and operational ownership. P3s handle complex work, own the health of an assigned country or pooled-country pod, support team capability, and deliver measurable improvements.
- Performance Emphasis: Balance of individual KPIs, complex case resolution, country or pod health, team enablement, and improvement impact. Behaviours should demonstrate increased autonomy, ownership, judgement, and cross-functional influence.
- What does this mean in practice?
- (1) Remote Values = demonstrate Remote values through ownership, care, collaboration, transparency, and effective decision-making
- (2) Individual KPIs = meet applicable performance targets while handling higher-complexity work
- (3) Innovations/Improvements/Team Goals = deliver measurable customer-experience, operational, or team improvements and contribute to PCST goals
- Rough guide to time investment: Customer-facing and operational delivery (80%) + team impact and innovations (20%). The balance may be adjusted with the Portfolio DRI according to country risk, demand, and agreed initiatives.
- Role in the portfolio model: P3s are normally assigned as a Country DRI or Pooled-Country Lead. They are accountable for ensuring the assigned area operates effectively, but are not expected to handle every ticket personally. Portfolio managers retain formal people, capacity, prioritisation, performance, and portfolio-risk accountability.
Complex Payroll Troubleshooting
- Independently resolve complex or ambiguous payroll issues involving multiple workflows, systems, countries, or teams.
- Investigate root causes of recurring issues and drive actions that prevent recurrence.
- Manage sensitive customer situations and high-impact escalations while maintaining trust and clear communication.
- Coordinate investigations with Payroll Operations, Product, Engineering, Compliance, and other partners.
- Escalate critical or systemic risks to the Portfolio DRI and relevant P4 lead.
- Own the operational health of the assigned country or pooled-country pod.
- Maintain country knowledge, SOPs, payroll calculators, readiness materials, and escalation guidance.
- Monitor service performance, ticket trends, recurring issues, and emerging operational risks.
- Ensure operational decisions are made, actions are completed, and stakeholder commitments are followed through.
- Prepare the delivery team for legislative, product, process, payroll, and implementation changes.
- Provide regular performance, capability, and risk updates to the Portfolio DRI.
- Work with the Portfolio DRI on prioritisation while recognising that the manager retains formal capacity and people accountability.
- Use data, customer feedback, and ticket trends to identify and validate improvement opportunities.
- Develop clear proposals that define the problem, recommended solution, and expected impact.
- Own agreed improvements from discovery through implementation and impact measurement.
- Improve processes, documentation, tooling, or escalation paths to reduce repeat issues and improve efficiency or customer experience.
- Translate operational insight into actionable feedback for Product and Payroll Operations.
- Act as the Tier 2 specialist for assigned payroll countries, regions, or domains.
- Demonstrate deep understanding of relevant payroll workflows, regulations, and operational dependencies.
- Ensure stakeholders are informed of significant changes, risks, delays, or updates.
- Maintain accurate and complete knowledge resources for the assigned area.
- Advise colleagues and cross-functional partners on complex payroll matters.
- Maintain a trained and engaged named P2/P3 Backup Specialist for the assigned country or pod.
- Lead regular knowledge-transfer and readiness reviews.
- Identify knowledge gaps, single-person dependencies, and succession risks.
- Mentor P1 and P2 team members and support onboarding.
- Coach colleagues on complex troubleshooting, escalation quality, and country-specific knowledge.
- Partner with P4 leads on standards, capability development, and cross-portfolio consistency.
- Lead investigations involving Product, Payroll Operations, Engineering, Compliance, or other teams.
- Provide payroll expertise during cross-functional decisions and incidents.
- Influence outcomes without relying on formal authority.
- Ensure complex issues have clear owners, next steps, timelines, and measurable outcomes.
- Operates autonomously across complex and ambiguous work.
- Makes operational decisions for the assigned country or pod within agreed portfolio priorities.
- Owns country or pod knowledge, readiness, risks, and operational follow-through.
- Does not own formal people management, staffing, or portfolio-wide capacity decisions.
- Maintains a functional or dotted-line relationship with the relevant P4 practice or escalation lead.
What this job can offer you
As Senior Specialist, Payroll Client Services for the UK and Ireland, you will be the Tier 2 payroll expert and operational owner for this country pod. You will resolve complex and sensitive payroll issues, maintain operational readiness, and ensure customers receive accurate, timely, and compliant support. You will combine deep UK and Ireland payroll expertise with strong client service, cross-functional coordination, team enablement, and ownership of improvements that reduce repeat issues.
This is a senior individual-contributor role. You will make operational decisions within agreed portfolio priorities, coordinate work across Payroll Operations, Product, Engineering, Compliance, and Customer Experience, and influence outcomes without formal authority. You will also maintain backup capability and mentor P1 and P2 colleagues. Formal people management, staffing, capacity, and portfolio-wide prioritisation remain with the Portfolio DRI.
What you bring
Required
- Significant hands-on experience in end-to-end payroll processing, payroll operations, or complex payroll client support.
- Strong working knowledge of UK and Ireland payroll legislation, statutory requirements, compliance obligations, payroll calendars, and common operational dependencies.
- Demonstrated ability to independently investigate and resolve complex or ambiguous payroll issues spanning multiple systems, workflows, stakeholders, or products.
- Experience handling sensitive customer situations and high-impact escalations with clear, accurate, and empathetic communication.
- Strong analytical and root-cause problem-solving skills, including the ability to use ticket trends, service data, and customer feedback to identify recurring issues and risks.
- Proven ownership of operational improvements from problem definition through implementation and impact measurement.
- Ability to coordinate cross-functional investigations, establish clear owners and actions, and drive work to completion without relying on formal authority.
- Excellent written and verbal English communication skills, with confidence working asynchronously and documenting decisions, processes, and guidance clearly.
- Experience maintaining payroll knowledge resources, SOPs, readiness materials, calculators, or escalation guidance.
- A collaborative approach to mentoring colleagues, transferring knowledge, and building reliable backup coverage.
- Ability to work autonomously in a fast-paced, international, remote-first environment while exercising sound judgement and escalating material risks appropriately.
- Experience supporting enterprise, strategic, or high-value customers in a payroll, HR technology, professional services, or SaaS environment.
- Experience working across Payroll Operations, Product, Engineering, Compliance, or Customer Experience teams.
- Demonstrated contribution to legislative or product-change readiness, incident response, or country-level operational governance.
- Familiarity with ticketing, reporting, and knowledge-management tools used to monitor service health and identify trends.
- Experience coaching or onboarding payroll specialists in an informal leadership capacity.
- Team: Payroll Client Services
- Level: P3 — Senior Specialist
- Country scope: United Kingdom and Ireland
- Reports to: Portfolio DRI / Manager, Payroll Client Services
- Role type: Senior individual contributor; Tier 2 domain expert and country/pod operational owner
- Primary focus: Approximately 80% customer-facing and operational delivery and 20% team impact and improvements, adjusted according to risk, demand, and agreed priorities