Permanent - 35 hours per week, 52 weeks per year

Salary - Management Spine Point 6 - 8 (£41,018 - £43,143 FTE)

We are happy to be flexible on when and where these hours are worked.

We are seeking a highly organised, efficient and customer focussed Payroll and Pensions Manager to join our friendly, professional and busy HR and Payroll team. Reporting to the Chief Financial Officer, the Payroll and Pensions Manager will be responsible for delivering an accurate and timely in-house payroll in accordance with statutory regulations.

Some of your duties will include:

• Processing monthly payroll, preparing reports for authorisation;
• Being the first point of contact for all payroll and pensions queries;
• Processing of monthly pension administration and returns.

Please refer to the job description for main duties and responsibilities of the post.

We are looking to recruit an experienced Payroll and Pensions Manager who is confident in running an end-to-end in-house payroll function for our Trust. The ideal candidate will have a background in payroll and pensions administration, ideally within the education or local government sector, with strong pension knowledge. You will need excellent IT skills, particularly Microsoft Excel, and be highly numerate, analytical and methodical. As the main point of contact for any payroll or pension queries you must be confident in speaking to a range of stakeholders and have excellent communication and customer service skills. The successful candidate will have a payroll qualification or be working towards completing the qualification.

Accuracy and an eye for detail are vital, alongside organisation and time management skills, to ensure deadlines are met. Our ideal candidate will be someone with focus who is used to working in a busy and varied office environment where no two days are the same.

This is a Trust vacancy and therefore travel between our two sites at Richard Taunton College in Southampton and St Vincent College in Gosport will be a requirement. We will negotiate a permanent base for the successful candidate post interview.

All successful candidates will be required to complete an enhanced DBS disclosure.

Closing date: Tuesday 5th May 2026

Shortlisting date: Wednesday 6th May 2026

Interview date: Wednesday 13th May 2026

Lighthouse Learning Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We particularly welcome applications from under represented groups including ethnicity, gender, transgender, age, disability, sexual orientation or religion.