139 HR Payroll emplois

Payroll and Rewards Roles in Higher Education

Payroll and total rewards teams make sure every university employee is paid correctly and that pay and benefits help the institution attract and keep staff. Roles on this page include Payroll Officer, Senior Payroll Officer, Payroll Manager, Payroll Systems Analyst, Remuneration or Compensation Analyst, Benefits Specialist, Superannuation or Pensions Officer and Total Rewards Manager, at universities and research organisations.

💰 Why University Payroll Is Complex

• Multiple pay scales: separate academic and professional staff structures, each with levels, steps and loadings set by agreements.
• Casual and sessional pay: large casual teaching workforces paid for lectures, tutorials, marking and other hourly activities.
• Grant-funded salaries: researcher pay is often charged to grants, so payroll works closely with research finance on costing and reporting.
• Retirement schemes: many universities belong to sector pension or superannuation schemes, such as USS in the United Kingdom, UniSuper in Australia or TIAA in the United States. Changes to these schemes can become major disputes, as with the UCU strike ballot over USS contribution changes.
• International staff: visiting academics and staff on visas bring tax residency and cross-border payment questions.

Compensation and Total Rewards

Beyond processing pay, rewards specialists benchmark salaries, design market loadings for hard-to-fill roles, run annual salary reviews and manage benefits such as leave, salary packaging, study support and wellbeing programs. They also analyse pay equity, including gender pay gap reporting where law requires it, and keep track of developments such as the EU Pay Transparency Directive and the gap between higher ed pay raises and inflation.

Skills Employers Look For

• End-to-end payroll experience on an enterprise system, including tax, pension and leave calculations.
• Accurate interpretation of agreements, awards and pay policies.
• Strong Excel or analytics skills for reconciliation and remuneration analysis.
• Payroll, accounting or HR qualifications, or membership of a professional payroll association.

Related specialties include HR operations and systems and industrial relations for agreement interpretation. Browse every specialty on the HR jobs board.