Reward Director in London

Frazer Jones are pleased to have been retained on a search to find a Reward Director. This is one of our PE backed Commerce & Industry clients in the UK. We are seeking a dynamic and experienced leader to drive the strategic design, governance, and execution of our global compensation, benefits, rewards, and payroll programmes. This is a pivotal role ensuring our people strategy aligns with business objectives, regulatory compliance, and market competitiveness across key geographies, with emphasis on the UK, US, and India.

Key Accountabilities:

• Strategy & Governance
  • Own the global total rewards and payroll strategy, ensuring alignment with organisational goals.
  • Develop and manage governance frameworks and policies across all regions.
• Reward
  • Lead annual salary reviews, incentive planning, and compensation processes.
  • Benchmark pay structures to ensure competitiveness and equity; provide insights into compensation trends.
  • Manage job evaluation and grading frameworks, including job hierarchy ownership.
  • Design and deliver employee benefits programmes (health insurance, retirement plans including 401K, wellness initiatives), tailored to local needs and legal requirements.
  • Lead benefits change projects, streamline processes, and create communication materials.
  • Conduct audits (Gender & Ethnicity Pay Gap, Equal Pay, Minimum/Living Wage accreditation).
  • Manage vendor contracts and relationships, optimising cost and employee experience.
  • Design compensation and benefits structures for new markets.
  • Provide data-driven insights to advise stakeholders on reward matters.
  • Develop performance-related reward programmes integrated with performance management.
  • Collaborate with Finance to budget and forecast reward and benefit costs.
  • Ensure compliance and governance in all reward activities.
• Payroll
  • Oversee day-to-day global payroll operations, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance.
  • Ensure adherence to local tax, social security, and reporting obligations; lead payroll audits.
  • Manage payroll vendor relationships and internal stakeholder engagement.
  • Maintain payroll systems, driving process improvements and automation.
• Performance & Team Management
  • Lead a team of 5 and develop the global Reward & Payroll team, setting objectives, coaching, and monitoring progress.
• Additional Responsibilities
  • Provide insights through data analysis and reporting to senior leadership.
  • Collaborate with HR, Finance, Legal, and external stakeholders.
  • Advise leadership on reward and payroll matters during M&A and organisational change.
  • Support MD&A activities.

Requirements:

To be considered for this role you should be a proven Reward leader but my client will also consider Senior Managers with a suitable background that could make the step-up to this level. You should have proven experience leading global compensation, benefits, and payroll functions in mid-to-large organisations, which are ideally private equity backed. Ideally you'll have strong knowledge of legislation and market practices in the UK, US, and India, but as long as you have global exposure you'll be considered. Expertise in 401K and US exempt/non-exempt status management is preferred. It's essential that you have an analytical mindset with proficiency in HRIS, payroll systems, and compensation tools (Workday and ADP preferred). Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills will help you succeed and you should have up-to-date awareness of trends, tools, and technology in Reward and HR. The right person will be comfortable with ambiguity, proactive, both strategic and hands-on. Applicants should also have team management experience.

Why Join?

This is a rare opportunity to shape a truly global reward and payroll strategy, ensuring our people feel valued, motivated, and supported. You'll work at the intersection of business strategy and employee experience, with the autonomy to innovate and the influence to make a lasting impact. You'll enjoy a truly global remit in a growing company that's both ambitious and innovative. This is not a BAU role - you'll enjoy delivering on a number of strategic projects whilst also getting in the weeds of the operational work. You won't be held back with red tape, and you'll be given the ownership and autonomy to thrive in the role. This position offers fully remote working but you must be based in the UK and be able to travel to London.

My client is offering a competitive base salary of £120-150k plus a bonus. This is initially being hired as a 12 month FTC but it has a good opportunity of turning permanent. If you're interested in this role, please apply or if you have any questions or would like a confidential conversation about your job search in Reward then please contact Nick Arnold at Frazer Jones.