Payroll Lead

Fresh Food, Happy Dogs.

We believe dogs deserve the healthiest, most natural and tastiest meals - with none of the nasties. That’s why we make FRESHly prepared food, cooked just like you would at home and delivered direct to our customers in perfect portions. As a B-Corp certified company, you’re joining a sustainable business that genuinely cares about our people, our products and our impact on the planet. Our goal is simple: to help dogs live healthier, happier, and longer lives, while leaving humans smiling after every interaction.

We’ve come a long way since our co-founders (Kev & Dave), hand delivered the very first Butternut Box. Today, we feed hundreds of thousands of hungry dogs across the UK and Europe - but we won’t stop until we’re feeding dogs everywhere. To get there, we need a team of brilliant people who share that ambition to come and work for us. 

🐾 The job: 

You will be the technical expert for all things pay and benefits, serving as a vital bridge between our people and their reward.

A bit about the work you’ll deliver:

• Payroll Execution: Own and execute payroll for our London, Remote UK, Ireland, Germany, and Italy employees, with the potential to scale into new markets as we grow. Work in partnership with our Operations payroll specialists to build consistent, one feel and improved payroll across the whole company.
• Payroll Expertise: Be the go-to specialist to identify opportunities for automation, streamlining, and improved compliance across all payroll processes.
• Compensation Support: Actively support the annual compensation review process to ensure fair and timely pay adjustments.
• Strategy & Scaling: In time, you will help define our global payroll strategy and take accountability for our compensation strategy and pay transparency initiatives.
• Systems Management: Closely administer HiBob as our central HRIS to maintain data integrity, run reports and build functionality into the system.
• Benefits Administration: Coordinate annual benefit renewals and benefits platforms, day-to-day benefits processing, including new-hire enrollments, life events, terminations, and responding to employee queries. 
• Compliance & Reporting: Ensure all benefits and payroll activities align with legal requirements. This includes executing and reporting on the EU Pay Transparency Directive and Gender Pay Gap requirements

A bit about the team you’ll be joining:

You will work closely with People Leads in-market, the Finance team, external payroll providers, and system account managers to ensure the compliance and accuracy of employee data, contracts, and payroll. 

You will report to the People Director and part of the wider People Team, collaborating with other payroll specialists to drive payroll excellence across our global footprint.

👀 What we're looking for: 

• Global Payroll Experience: You have a proven track record of managing payroll across multiple jurisdictions (UK and EU) and understand the nuances of different regulatory environments.
• Systems-minded: You are also proficient in Excel/Google Sheets, particularly Vlookups & pivot tables. You are comfortable with HRIS platforms (ideally HiBob) and have experience optimising scalable lifecycle processes. 
• Hands-on, zero ego, proud of your craft: You are willing to roll your sleeves up to fix a broken workflow or work through highly detailed tasks, taking pride in leaving things better than you found them.
• Analytical & Proactive: You don't wait to be told what’s broken; you spot patterns in data and feedback to turn insights into practical improvements.
• Strong Communicator: You can translate complex payroll and benefits legislation into clear, practical guidance for the wider team and employees.

⏳ The interview process:

1. Initial call with your dedicated Talent Acquisition Partner, carried out remotely. 
2. Skills interview, carried out remotely (60 min)
3. Behaviours interview, carried out in person (60 min)
4. Leadership interview, carried out remotely (30 min)

We usually expect our interview process to take 3-5 weeks, end to end. 

🙌 Our benefits:

• 25 days holiday (plus 8 bank holidays) and an additional day for every year of service up to 5 years
• 5 additional, paid 'paws' days off per year dedicated to your learning, development or personal wellbeing. Hit pause when you need it most
• £500 personal learning & development budget to sharpen your skills
• Share options grant - everyone owns a piece of Butternut's success.
• A significant discount on our Fresh food, to keep your own dogs as healthy as our customers
• Enhanced parental leave
• Flexible core working hours
• Cycle to work scheme
• Pension with NEST
• Private Medical Insurance with Vitality
• Private Dental Insurance with Bupa
• Paid time off for fertility treatments and pregnancy loss
• Paid sabbaticals for squad members with 5 or more years service at Butternut
• Discounted gym access through MyGymDiscounts
• Lots of office dogs (Ajax, Peggy, Chief, Louis, Hansen, Winnie and many more….)

💡 Important things to note:

• We recommend getting your application in as soon as possible. We reserve the right to close the role early. 
• Location & Flexibility: This is a full-time role that can be based anywhere in the UK.
• Travel Expectations: You will be expected to be at our site in Doncaster 2 days per month, with occasional trips to London for team connection.
• We’re a small (but mighty!) recruitment team. We aim to respond to everyone personally, but if we’re flooded with brilliant applications, we may need to close the role early. We appreciate your patience while we review applications. 
• For this specific role, we’re unable to offer visa sponsorship, so you’ll need the right to work in the UK.

❗️We believe in a seat at the table for everyone. 

Butternut Box is an equal opportunity employer. We believe that to make the best food for all dogs, we need a team that represents all humans. We celebrate different nationalities, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. We are specifically committed to increasing representation from underrepresented groups. We want a strong, diverse team built from different identities and lived experiences. We’re not perfect, but we are dedicated to the ongoing work of building an inclusive, supportive place where you can do the best work of your career.