Reward Manager, Global Practices & Functions in London

Dentsu is an integrated growth and transformation partner to the world's leading organisations.

Founded in 1901 in Tokyo, Japan, and now operating in approximately 120 countries and regions, we bring together the power of a global network of leadership brands to deliver impactful, end-to-end growth solutions.

Through our client promise, Innovating to Impact, we drive growth through integrated services across Media, Customer Experience Management (CXM), and Creative.

Our business transformation (BX) mindset, combined with a focus on experience transformation (EX), drives sustainable growth for brands, people, and society.

Our commitment to innovation, collaboration, and diversity enables us to continuously evolve, pushing boundaries while delivering measurable impact in a fast-changing world

Purpose of the Role

To join the Global Reward team as a commercially minded Reward Manager, reporting to the Global Reward Director and acting as the primary reward partner and trusted advisor to senior business and HR leaders across Global Functions and selected Global Practices.

The role will translate global reward strategy into fair, consistent and commercially relevant practices, providing expert guidance on compensation, organisational effectiveness and market competitiveness.

Working within a complex global matrix organisation, you will partner with HR Directors, the Executive Reward Director and Regional Reward teams to lead and deliver high-impact reward projects, using data and insights to shape decisions, influence strategy and develop practical solutions.

Ultimately, ensuring reward practices align with global and local policies while supporting the attraction, engagement and retention of high-performing talent.

Key responsibilities

• Acting as the trusted reward partner for assigned Global Functions and Global Practices, building strong relationships with business leaders and HR Directors, shaping reward priorities aligned to business strategy, and providing commercially grounded advice on compensation, incentives, job evaluation, organisational design and reward governance.
• Advising, educating and influencing senior leaders and HR stakeholders on the strategic, organisational and behavioural impact of reward decisions, reviewing compensation recommendations and using internal insights and external market intelligence to inform balanced, data‑led decisions and strengthen reward capability across global functions and practices.
• Applying dentsu’s global job architecture and evaluation framework across assigned Global Functions and Global Practices, undertaking complex job evaluations, supporting consistent levelling and escalating precedent‑setting cases through the appropriate governance.
• Leading compensation survey participation and market benchmarking for global functions and practices, analysing internal and external data to inform salary structures, reward frameworks and pay decisions, and developing recommendations that support competitive and equitable salary ranges.
• Supporting pay equity initiatives and emerging pay transparency requirements, ensuring reward practices are compliant and aligned with global policies and governance standards.
• Coordinating and supporting annual salary and incentive reviews for assigned Global Functions and Global Practices, partnering with HR, Finance and Reward colleagues on recommendations, governance and effective delivery.
• Contributing to complex reward projects potentially from planning through to delivery, these may include acquisitions, integrations and organisational transformation, and engaging HR teams, business leaders and senior executives to build understanding and adoption of reward programmes.

Qualifications & Skills

• Strong compensation and reward experience gained within a medium‑to‑large organisation.
• Experience partnering with senior stakeholders within complex, international and matrix organisations, working effectively across countries, cultures and time zones.
• Sound understanding of annual salary and incentive review cycles, market benchmarking, remuneration analysis, pay governance and budget planning.
• Strong technical expertise in compensation management, job evaluation and job architecture, with the ability to apply frameworks pragmatically to complex situations.
• Experience in short‑term incentive plan design and management is desirable.
• Advanced Excel and Power Point skills, including data analysis, financial modelling and executive‑level presentations.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the credibility to influence, constructively challenge and build alignment with senior HR, Finance and business leaders.
• Commercially minded and autonomous, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, manage competing priorities, exercise sound judgement and deliver fair, inclusive and impactful reward solutions.
• Knowledge of HR systems such as Workday is advantageous.

What we offer

• This is a permanent position base