Position Summary:
Our client, a global, multi-site retail and consumer services organization, is seeking a Director of Compensation to build and lead a scalable, data-driven compensation function. This role reports to the VP of Total Rewards and is based on-site at the company’s office in greater Boston area.
This is a high-impact leadership role focused on establishing foundational compensation excellence across a large, multi-state workforce, spanning both retail and corporate populations.
Absolute Minimum Must-Have’s / Experience / Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree required (Finance, HR, or related); advanced degree preferred
- 8–12 years of experience in compensation, finance, or HR with a strong analytical focus
- Deep expertise in salary structures, incentive design, job architecture, and market pricing
- Advanced Excel and data modeling capabilities
- Experience working with compensation tools, HRIS platforms, and survey data
- Strong analytical mindset with the ability to translate data into business decisions
- Proven ability to operate in a fast-paced, high-volume environment
- Strong communication skills with experience advising senior leadership
- Compensation experience in retail or hourly workforce environments
- Exposure to executive compensation and/or global compensation programs
- Experience with survey platforms such as Willis Towers Watson or Mercer preferred
- Experience supporting M&A or complex organizational changes
- CCP (Certified Compensation Professional) certification
Key Responsibilities:
What You’ll Do
- Serve as the subject matter expert for all compensation-related decisions across retail stores and corporate functions
- Design and manage base salary structures, job architecture, and pay bands at scale
- Lead the annual compensation cycle (merit, market adjustments), including modeling, analytics, and execution
- Administer and interpret market data and salary surveys to ensure competitive positioning
- Partner with senior leadership on compensation strategy, benchmarking, and decision-making
- Design and manage short-term incentive programs across multiple employee populations
- Provide compensation guidance to HR, Talent Acquisition, and business leaders on offers and pay decisions
- Develop reporting and analytics to deliver actionable insights to leadership
- Ensure compliance with all federal, state, and local compensation regulations
- Support compensation-related activities tied to M&A and organizational changes
Key Desired Business Outcomes
What Success Looks Like
First 6 Months:
- Build strong cross-functional relationships across HR, Finance, and leadership
- Assess current compensation structures, processes, and data sources
- Identify gaps, risks, and opportunities across the compensation landscape
- Begin enhancing survey methodology and market positioning
First 12 Months:
- Successfully execute a full annual compensation cycle
- Establish scalable job architecture and compensation frameworks
- Deliver clear, data-driven insights to leadership
- Be recognized as a trusted advisor on compensation strategy
