Payroll Assistant

Join Our Team Be Part of our NHS Shared Payroll Service
Are you ready to make a real impact across the country? Our payroll team provides a shared service supporting 9 boards throughout Scotland. We're looking for dedicated professionals to help us deliver efficient, accurate, and people-focused payroll solutions at scale.
If you're passionate about service excellence and want to be part of a collaborative, forward-thinking environment, we'd love to hear from you
About The Organisation
National Services Scotland (NSS) is a national NHS Board operating right at the heart of NHSScotland providing invaluable support and advice at a strategic and operational level. NSS supports customers to deliver their services more efficiently and effectively and we offer shared services on a national scale using best-in-class systems and standards. Our priority is always the same to improve the health and well-being of the people of Scotland. We do this by working in partnership with colleagues across Health and Social Care to deliver fit for purpose solutions and systems, delivering high quality services that help our stakeholders to free up resources so they can be re-invested into essential services.

The Post
NSS Payroll Services has been granted the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals Payroll Assurance Scheme accreditation.

NSS Payroll Services provides a fully managed payroll service to NHS Lothian, NHS Forth Valley and Strathcarron Hospice, NHS Fife, NHS National Services Scotland, NHS Public Health Scotland, NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland, NHS National Education Scotland, Scottish Ambulance Service, and NHS Dumfries and Galloway.

Payroll services are responsible for a total pay bill of in excess £2.8 Billion for ~90,000 Employees and manages the delivery of payroll services to 9 health boards on a shared service basis. There are ~100 staff in NSS Payroll Services.

The role of the Department is to ensure that, from recruitment to retirement, all employees are paid both timeously and accurately in conjunction with their contracts of employment and Terms and Conditions of Service. The department must also ensure that all boards are compliant with all aspects of Statutory legislation relating to Income Tax, National Insurance, Statutory absence payments (SSP, SMP, etc), NHS Scotland Pension Scheme etc.

Payroll Assistants undertake payroll responsibilities for a section of staff complying with all relevant statutory legislation and local procedures as well as providing payroll administration support to the team across all aspects of payroll and expenses.

The Candidate
We are looking for a candidate who has previous payroll, finance or administration experience and ideally brings with them a knowledge of statutory entitlements of payroll. You must have a good understanding of the General Data Protection Act as well as being able to evidence strong team working and organisational skills.

Please see the Person Specification for further details.

Location and Working Pattern:
NSS Payroll Services has office locations in Edinburgh, Kirkcaldy, Denny and Dumfries.

We offer the opportunity for hybrid working

Monday to Friday, 37 hours per week with flexi-time available. Please note, from April 2026 full time hours will be reduced to 36 hours per week.

It is a condition of this employment that you must live and remain a resident within the UK for the post in which you will be employed with NSS.

Benefits
Our benefits package includes pension scheme, comprehensive range of work life balance policies, occupational health services, learning resource centres and discounted leisure, financial and shopping benefits.

Inclusion
is a national board and, as an
anchor institution
, it is our ambition to be a diverse and inclusive organisation where everyone feels welcome. We recognise that
flexible working
creates an inclusive workplace where employees can thrive and feel confident about their ability to balance their personal and professional responsibilities. This is supported through Once for Scotland flexible working policies. NSS has made a long-term commitment to staff health and well-being and offers many
learning and development opportunities
to support and improve our approaches to diversity, inclusion and mental health in the workplace. There are a number of equality
staff networks
in place which all staff are welcome to join. We are also an equal opportunities employer and as such guarantee to interview all
disabled applicants
who meet the minimum criteria for our vacancies. As an accredited
Disability Confident Leader
, it is the aim of NSS to offer a fully accessible and inclusive recruitment service that supports applicants on their candidate journey. If you are interested in any
reasonable adjustments
, please contact the Recruitment Team on

Further Information
For an informal discussion on the post, please contact
Anne Watson
, Payroll Manager at

Closing date for completed applications is 26th November 2025.
Please note, the interviews are anticipated to be during week commencing 15th December and will be in person at Main Point, 102 West Port, Edinburgh EH3 9DN.
Further Information On NSS Is Available From
Please note that the majority of correspondence is sent by e-mail only, so please check your e-mail regularly (including junk folders).

NHS National Services Scotland is an equal opportunities employer and as committed participant in the disability confident scheme, guarantees to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for our vacancies.