Director of Compensation

THE TEAM YOU WILL BE JOINING

• Join an established organization that is investing in the continued evolution of its people and compensation strategy.
• Partner closely with senior HR leadership and key stakeholders across Finance, Talent Acquisition, HR Business Partners, Payroll, and business leadership.
• Serve as a trusted compensation subject matter expert, helping leaders make thoughtful, data-driven decisions around pay, structure, internal equity, and market competitiveness.
• Step into a highly visible role with the opportunity to assess the current state, identify opportunities for improvement, and help shape the future compensation strategy.
• Join an HR leadership team looking for deep compensation expertise and a leader who can operate comfortably between strategy, analytics, and execution.

WHAT THEY OFFER YOU

• The opportunity to take meaningful ownership of an organization's compensation strategy and help define what the function should look like moving forward.
• A role that goes beyond administering existing programs, with the ability to evaluate, redesign, and improve compensation structures and practices.
• Significant visibility and partnership with senior HR, Finance, and business leadership.
• The ability to use analytics and market intelligence to directly influence compensation decisions across the organization.
• A balance of strategic leadership and hands-on problem solving, ideal for someone who enjoys both building the strategy and getting into the data behind it.

WHY THIS ROLE IS IMPORTANT

• The organization is looking to strengthen its compensation capabilities and create greater consistency between its current programs and its desired future state.
• This leader will evaluate existing compensation structures, identify gaps, and develop practical recommendations that balance market competitiveness, internal equity, employee retention, and financial discipline.
• Addressing areas of pay compression and ensuring appropriate differentiation between roles and levels will be an important area of focus.
• The Director will help ensure job architecture, market benchmarking, salary ranges, and compensation decisions work together as a cohesive framework.
• Leadership needs a compensation expert who can move beyond identifying issues to modeling solutions, explaining tradeoffs, and helping the organization implement sustainable improvements.

WHAT YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

• Assess the current compensation environment and develop recommendations to strengthen overall compensation philosophy, structure, and governance.
• Lead market pricing and benchmarking efforts, translating external compensation data into actionable recommendations for leadership.
• Evaluate and evolve salary structures, pay grades, ranges, job levels, and broader job architecture.
• Analyze compensation compression, internal equity, market competitiveness, and other pay-related trends to identify areas requiring action.
• Build financial models and scenario analyses to understand the cost and organizational impact of proposed compensation changes.
• Lead or support annual compensation planning activities, including merit increases, promotional adjustments, market adjustments, and incentive planning.
• Establish consistent methodologies for job evaluation, leveling, market matching, and compensation decision-making.
• Partner with HR and Talent Acquisition on compensation for new hires, promotions, retention situations, and difficult-to-price roles.
• Partner closely with Finance to ensure compensation recommendations align with budgeting and workforce planning priorities.
• Develop compensation reporting, dashboards, and analytics that give leadership better visibility into trends, risks, and opportunities.
• Monitor evolving compensation practices, pay transparency requirements, and market trends while ensuring programs remain competitive, equitable, and well governed.
• Translate complex compensation analysis into clear recommendations that senior leaders and non-compensation stakeholders can understand and act upon.

THE BACKGROUND THAT FITS

• Deep, progressive experience specifically within compensation, with a career foundation rooted in compensation strategy, analytics, and program design rather than primarily blended compensation and benefits responsibilities.
• Demonstrated experience owning or significantly influencing compensation programs within a complex organization.
• Strong knowledge of salary structures, market pricing, benchmarking, job evaluation, job architecture, leveling, and broad-based compensation practices.
• Hands-on experience identifying and addressing pay compression, internal equity concerns, market gaps, and structural compensation challenges.
• Exceptional analytical capabilities with the ability to work through large data sets, model scenarios, identify trends, and convert findings into practical business recommendations.
• Experience leading annual compensation planning processes and partnering with Finance around budgeting and cost modeling.
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to confidently present findings, challenge assumptions, and influence compensation decisions.
• Comfortable operating as both a strategic leader and a hands-on compensation practitioner.
• Advanced Excel and compensation modeling capabilities expected; experience with compensation survey platforms, HRIS tools, and compensation planning technology strongly preferred.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent relevant experience expected; CCP or comparable advanced compensation expertise is a plus.