Head of Rewards in Newport, Wales

We are partnering with a successful and growing UK organisation, headquartered just outside Bristol, to appoint an experienced Head of Reward. Reporting directly to the Chief People Officer, this is a key leadership role with responsibility for shaping and delivering the organisation’s reward strategy. You will lead a small, experienced team of three and work closely with the Executive Team, senior leaders and external partners to ensure that reward programmes are competitive, equitable, commercially sustainable and aligned to the organisation’s strategic objectives.

This is an excellent opportunity for a senior reward professional who enjoys combining strategic thinking with hands-on delivery and who can influence at all levels of a business. This is a hybrid opportunity, with 3 days with your team in the office.

The Role

As Head of Reward, you will take ownership of the full reward agenda, ensuring that the organisation’s approach to pay, benefits, recognition and reward supports the attraction, retention and engagement of its people. Key responsibilities will include:

• Developing and delivering a clear and commercially focused reward strategy aligned to the wider People and business strategy.
• Leading, coaching and developing a team of three reward and benefits professionals.
• Designing and managing annual and ad-hoc reward cycles, including salary reviews, bonus schemes and incentive arrangements.
• Leading on pay benchmarking and market analysis to ensure reward remains competitive and supports talent attraction and retention.
• Reviewing and evolving salary structures, job architecture, grading and pay frameworks.
• Providing expert reward advice and guidance to the Chief People Officer, Executive Team and senior leadership population.
• Managing the organisation’s employee benefits offering, ensuring programmes remain attractive, relevant and cost-effective.
• Leading relationships with external benefit providers, consultants and other third-party partners.
• Overseeing pension and retirement benefit arrangements.
• Ensuring reward policies and practices support internal equity, fairness and transparency.
• Leading the organisation’s approach to pay governance and supporting activity relating to gender pay, ethnicity pay and wider pay equity.
• Developing and monitoring reward metrics, analytics and management information to support evidence-based decision making.
• Supporting workforce planning, organisational design and transformation programmes from a reward perspective.
• Reviewing and developing recognition programmes and other initiatives that enhance the overall employee value proposition.
• Keeping abreast of market trends, emerging reward practices and relevant legislative developments.
• Ensuring all reward activity is delivered within budget and that reward investment demonstrates clear value to the organisation.
• Preparing reports, analysis and recommendations for the Executive Team, Remuneration Committee and other senior governance forums where required.

About You

We are looking for an experienced Head of Reward, Senior Reward Manager or Reward Director-level professional with broad experience across the full reward agenda. You will ideally bring:

• Significant experience within a senior reward leadership role in a medium or large, complex organisation.
• Strong experience of developing and delivering reward strategies.
• Expertise across compensation, benefits, pensions, incentives and recognition.
• Experience of managing annual pay and reward cycles.
• Strong knowledge of salary benchmarking, job evaluation, grading and pay structures.
• Experience of pay equity, gender pay reporting and wider reward governance would be highly advantageous.
• Strong analytical and commercial skills, with the ability to translate complex data into clear recommendations.
• Experience of leading and developing a team.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the confidence to work directly with Executive and senior leadership teams.
• A pragmatic, hands-on approach, combined with the ability to think strategically and see the bigger picture.
• The credibility and communication skills to explain complex reward issues clearly to a non-specialist audience.

The Opportunity

This role offers the opportunity to take genuine ownership of the reward agenda within an ambitious and evolving organisation. Working closely with the Chief People Officer, you will have significant exposure to senior stakeholders and the opportunity to influence how the organisation attracts, rewards and retains its people.