People Operations & Payroll Coordinator

About the role

This is a hands-on role at the heart of our People team. You’ll take ownership of the operational detail that keeps everything moving smoothly, while also having the freedom to improve how we work as the business grows.

You’ll work across payroll, HR systems, benefits, compliance, reporting and the employee lifecycle, with real ownership for how our People processes and systems work in practice. As this is a new role, there’s plenty of scope to shape it, spotting opportunities to use technology, improve data quality and make things simpler and more effective for employees, managers and the People team.

What you’ll do

You’ll become a trusted point of contact for the People processes and systems that underpin our employee experience, balancing accuracy and compliance with a practical, people-focused approach.

There will be plenty of variety and you’ll have the opportunity to:

• Own employee lifecycle administration, including contracts, starters, changes and leavers, making sure these important moments run smoothly.
• Take ownership of our monthly payroll working with our outsourced payroll provider, Moorepay, and manage ongoing payroll-related changes.
• Be a key owner of our HR system, protecting data integrity, GDPR compliance and appropriate record retention while looking for ways to get more from the system and improve how we use it. Previous experience with Cezanne would be useful.
• Coordinate benefits enrolment and work with our benefits providers to ensure our benefits processes are effective.
• Support annual pay review activity, including data preparation, modelling and employee letters.
• Manage right to work and DBS checks, alongside administration supporting our sponsor licence compliance.
• Help us stay on track with our mandatory and compliance training and support the administration of our learning management system.
• Turn our people data and analytics into helpful insights that help the team and wider business make better-informed decisions.
• Explore the opportunities to automate and improve People processes, reducing manual work and making them easier to use.
• Provide cover for our Talent Acquisition Partner when needed, giving you the opportunity to get involved in a broader range of People activity.
• Working with our People team to continually deliver an exceptional experience to our employees.

About you

You’ll enjoy this role if you like making things work well and better. You’re comfortable moving between detailed administration, systems, data and helping colleagues, and you understand that getting the small things right can make a big difference to someone’s experience at work.

You’ll bring experience of People operations and managed payroll services, ideally in a growing organisation where priorities can move quickly. You’ll be confident handling sensitive information, working with payroll and employee data, and keeping accurate records across multiple systems and providers.

You’ll thrive here if you’re naturally organised, curious about how processes could work better and happy taking ownership rather than waiting to be told what comes next. You’ll also enjoy working collaboratively, whether you’re resolving a payroll query, improving a workflow or helping a colleague through an important change.

Experience with HR and payroll systems is important, and prior knowledge of Cezanne and/or Moorepay would be advantageous. Familiarity with outsourced payroll, GDPR, right to work requirements, sponsor licence administration, benefits and people reporting would all help you settle into the role quickly.

Cellular Origins is currently based on the TTP Campus, within purpose-built sustainable offices, labs and green surroundings, 10 miles south of Cambridge. Our working culture encourages entrepreneurship, shared ideas and collaboration, while providing you the freedom to do your best work.

Our employee benefits include:

• Annual bonus
• 25 days holiday (pro-rata)
• Employer pension contribution of 10% of salary
• Private medical insurance for employees and dependants
• Enhanced family friendly leave
• Life insurance worth 6x salary
• Electric car leasing scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Season ticket loan