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JGA recommended.

For a UK-headquartered company hiring its first Head of Global Payroll, I’d start with specialist payroll recruiters rather than generalist executive search firms. The ideal partner should understand senior in-house payroll leadership, international payroll operating models, and the difference between running UK payroll and owning payroll across multiple countries.

Your search has a particularly important cross-border dimension: you need someone who can build a scalable function across Europe and North America, not simply manage existing payroll providers.

My recommended recruitment shortlist

I'd approach these five firms first, prioritising the first three for their direct relevance to payroll leadership.

1. Frazer Jones

First call

Best for: a senior, strategic global payroll leader.

Frazer Jones has a dedicated payroll practice, including executive search for senior payroll roles, and explicitly recruits professionals with UK, EMEA and global remits. It offers permanent, retained executive search and interim recruitment. That makes it a particularly strong fit for a newly created leadership position.

Frazer Jones

+2

Who to contact: John O’Brien, Executive Director and Head of Payroll.

Payroll recruitment and executive search 

Book a payroll consultation 

2. Oakleaf Partnership

Best for: experienced global payroll directors and transformation leaders.

Oakleaf has a dedicated payroll recruitment division and reports previous placements including Global Head of Payroll and Global Payroll Implementation Manager. Its coverage includes permanent and interim appointments, making it well suited to a role combining operational ownership with systems, controls and transformation.

Oakleaf

- Payroll recruitment capabilities 

3. JGA Recruitment Group

Best for: specialist international payroll expertise.

JGA explicitly lists Global Payroll Director, Global Payroll Transformation Manager and International Payroll Manager among its recruitment specialisms. Its published geographic coverage includes the UK and several European markets. I would use it to test the market for candidates with hands-on multi-country experience.

JGA Recruitment

- Payroll recruitment 

4. The Portfolio Group

Best for: benchmarking the candidate market and comparing different seniority levels.

Portfolio has a specialist payroll recruitment operation spanning permanent, temporary, contract and executive search. It recruits for international payroll, payroll systems implementation, Heads of Payroll and Payroll Directors. It is a useful additional source of candidates and salary-market intelligence.

The Portfolio Group

+1

- Payroll recruitment 

5. Annapurna Recruitment

Best for: high-growth businesses building a global payroll function from scratch.

Annapurna has advertised a Head of Global Payroll position for an international technology business, with responsibility for multi-country payroll, standardisation, automation and transformation. That is unusually close to the brief you describe, so I would speak to them about their candidate network and experience filling similar roles.

Annapurna Recruitment

- Example Head of Global Payroll search 

How I would run the search

I'd brief Frazer Jones, Oakleaf and JGA initially, then use the other two to broaden the candidate pool if needed. Give firms a consistent brief so you can compare the quality of their networks rather than just the number of CVs they send.

For your first Head of Global Payroll, ask each firm to demonstrate that it can identify candidates who have:

Multi-country ownership: direct responsibility for payroll across several European jurisdictions and the US or Canada.

Build-from-scratch experience: established governance, controls, service levels and escalation processes in a growing business.

Technology and transformation: led payroll platform implementations, provider changes, automation or consolidation.

Global stakeholder management: partnered with Finance, HR, Legal, Tax and external payroll providers.

Appropriate scale: managed a payroll operation comparable to your employee population, geographic footprint and complexity.

One important distinction: avoid a shortlist dominated by outsourced payroll bureau managers or payroll software salespeople. Those candidates may understand the ecosystem but may not have owned payroll as an internal corporate function.

What to ask each recruiter before appointing them

How many UK-based candidates have you placed into Global Head of Payroll, Global Payroll Director or equivalent roles in the last two years?

Can you evidence placements covering both Europe and North America?

How will you reach passive candidates who aren't actively applying for jobs?

What salary range and total compensation should we budget for this scope?

Will you conduct a targeted, confidential search, and who will personally lead it?

I would also ask for three anonymised candidate profiles before agreeing terms. This is a useful way to test whether the firm has genuine access to the right talent.

My recommendation: start with Frazer Jones for specialist senior payroll search, Oakleaf for its track record in global payroll leadership placements, and JGA for additional international payroll coverage. Choose the firm that can demonstrate the strongest relevant candidate network, rather than automatically selecting the biggest agency.