Payroll Bureau Lead, Sona
£60-70k
+ Share Options
More information about location
AI-powered people operating system for frontline teams
Job no longer available
AI-powered people operating system for frontline teams
101-200 employees
Job no longer available
£60-70k
+ Share Options
More information about location
101-200 employees
Company mission
To solve the unique challenges of frontline work with truly intelligent AI that empowers every employee.
Role
Who you are
- We’re looking for someone who brings depth of experience but is energised by building. Someone who can lead and inspire, but is also happy jumping into the detail when needed
- Extensive experience processing complex payrolls in a bureau/outsourced environment, ideally working with enterprise-level clients
- Proven ability to lead or mentor others, whether informally or in a team lead capacity
- Confidence acting as the main point of contact for customers, with excellent communication and relationship-building skills
- A commercial mindset, you understand the business impact of great service and efficient operations
- Advanced Excel/Google Sheets skills (e.g. VLOOKUP, Pivot Tables, CONCATENATE)
- Strong understanding of UK payroll legislation (CIPP qualified or working towards is a plus)
- Experience with ROI payroll is nice to have, but not essential
- Comfort operating in a fast-paced, tech-driven environment, and an openness to using and learning new systems
What the job involves
- Sona is one of the fastest-growing startups in frontline workforce technology, and payroll is a critical part of our customer promise
- We’re expanding our Payroll Bureau function and are looking for a senior payroll professional who wants to be part of something exciting and who isn’t afraid to roll up their sleeves
- This is a unique opportunity for someone who enjoys the balance of hands-on delivery and strategic thinking, with the potential to lead a team as we grow
- You’ll join as a key member of the payroll leadership team, helping us shape and scale our outsourced bureau offering
- You’ll report directly to our Director of Payroll and work closely with teams across the business, from Implementation and Product to Sales and Support
- Your focus will be on delivering exceptional service to our clients while building the structure, systems and processes that allow us to scale
- Own and run enterprise-level client payrolls end-to-end, acting as the trusted lead point of contact
- Take ownership of a client portfolio and manage delivery, SLAs and KPIs with excellence
- Support the growth of the bureau by helping to define team structure and mentoring junior team members
- Act as the payroll subject matter expert in commercial discussions and late-stage sales conversations
- Design and implement process improvements to drive efficiency and enhance service quality
- Help define and evolve our operational playbook—how we deliver bureau payroll at scale
- Stay ahead of legislative changes and compliance obligations, making sure our clients are always protected
Our take
80% of people don’t work at desks, but the technology for deskless workers only attracts 1% of all enterprise software investment. Consequently, little software has been designed to benefit the frontline. Sona is a workforce technology startup setting out to help solve this issue, building an all-in-one platform specially designed to empower frontline workers and help their employers retain staff and operate more efficiently.
By using its app, users can view and claim shifts, communicate with their colleagues, and book holidays. Moreover, Sona has additional modules for HR, Payroll, and Engagement, so customers can manage all of their people operations in one place, or integrate with their existing tools.
Sona is an early-stage startup, yet already counts big names across Social Care, Hospitality, and the Charities sector who have combined to book millions of shifts on the Sona platform.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Apr 2026
$45m
SERIES B
May 2024
$27.5m
SERIES A
Total funding: $81.7m
Company benefits
- Share options
- 35 days annual leave (25 days standard plus 10 flexible public holiday days)
- Pension contributions matched up to 5%
- Enhanced parental leave & pay - 26 weeks full pay primary parent / 8 weeks full pay secondary parent
- Annual all expenses paid team retreats
- The latest Macbook and equipment for your home office
- Professional development budget
- Unlimited free books
- Comprehensive health insurance via Bupa
Company HQ
Fitzrovia, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Ben Dixon
(Co-Founder & CTO)Previously Associate - Consulting at PWC and Software Engineer at Thorlabs. Also, Co-Founder & CTO at Catapult Ventures Limited for 6 years.
Oli Johnson
(Co-Founder)Previously Associate at NEO Capital and Investment Manager at Baugur Group. Co-Founder at Catapult for 6 years.
Steffen Wulff Petersen
(Co-Founder)Previously Investment Banker at Goldman Sachs for 2 years. Since then has been Co-Founder & Managing Director at Lazada Group and Co-Founder at Catapult.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Sona
- Fully remote work and total control over your schedule means you can excel at Sona no matter where, when, or how you like to work. We also offer extended parental leave to everyone.
- We're partnered with the Women in Tech Forum, a membership platform dedicated to supporting and accelerating the careers of women. Optional memberships are available to all women and allies at Sona to access their wide range of events, masterclasses, articles, and more.
- Salary transparency across all of our job postings means your offer is based on your experience and interview performance, not your previous salary or your negotiating skills.
- We use structured interview processes and assessment criteria to remove as much bias from our process as possible
- We do all of our collaborative work in public channels, which means everyone gets a say and the recognition they deserve, and nobody's out of the loop.
Share this job
View 11 more jobs at Sona