Director, Compensation & Benefits

Department: People Experience

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: UK, London (HQ)

Description

Responsibilities

• Establish and lead a new Compensation & Benefits Centre of Excellence, building the core reward frameworks, governance, and operating foundations needed to support Forterro’s next phase of growth.
• Shape and embed a scalable compensation and benefits strategy following a period of significant acquisition activity, bringing greater consistency, transparency, and cohesion across the organisation.
• Create the strategic reward foundations that enable future growth platforms, including job architecture, pay structures, governance standards, and a clear total rewards philosophy.
• Lead the implementation of key strategic reward agendas, including EU Pay Transparency requirements, ensuring a fair, modern, and compliant reward approach across multiple jurisdictions.
• Act as the strategic reward partner to executive and functional leadership, advising on competitiveness, pay equity, affordability, and the reward implications of business transformation.

• Lead the global annual compensation review cycles, including merit, market adjustment, bonus, and promotion planning.
• Partner with the Talent & Growth team to apply job architecture frameworks, conduct market benchmarking, and maintain salary banding supported by robust data and insights, with support from People Operations where required.
• Develop and manage reward governance policies and compensation compliance practices, including gender pay, market reporting, transparency, and disclosure requirements.

• Lead the evaluation, design, and governance of global and local employee benefit programs, including pensions, insurance, and wellbeing offerings.
• Partner with Local & Functional Business Partners to ensure benefit offerings are competitive, unified, costed and compliant in all jurisdictions.
• Develop wellbeing strategies that support holistic employee health and align to company values and culture.

• Generate actionable compensation and benefits insights for senior stakeholders through the use of market intelligence, internal reward data, and external benchmarking, supporting informed and commercially grounded decision-making.
• Provide analytical leadership for key strategic priorities, including pay transparency, pay equity, job architecture, and reward governance, ensuring data integrity and clear insight to support policy and decision-making.
• Lead compensation-related input into HRIS, workforce planning, and organisational design initiatives, ensuring reward data and structures are aligned to broader people and business transformation programmes.
• Develop high-quality dashboards, reporting, and insight packs that enable leaders to monitor reward performance, assess competitiveness, and make evidence-based decisions at scale.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Proven director-level experience in Compensation & Benefits or related reward roles, ideally within matrixed, international Software or SaaS organisations.
• Deep knowledge of EMEA & APAC compensation practices, benefits design, and relevant employment legislation across multiple jurisdictions.
• Experience operating within a Centre of Excellence model, ideally in a global business that is evolving through growth or rapid acquisition.
• Strong analytical capability and commercial acumen, with the ability to use data and insight to inform decision-making.
• Demonstrated experience in job architecture, market benchmarking, salary banding, and annual reward cycle management.
• Experience working in a fast-paced, high-growth environment, with familiarity in HRIS platforms and reward analytics tools.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders across functions, geographies, and cultures.

• In addition to English, a proficiency in one or more of the following languages would be desirable but is not essential; French, German, Polish. 

• Strategic and commercially minded, with the ability to operate hands-on and deliver through complexity in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• A credible and influential partner who can engage senior leaders, build trust quickly, and challenge constructively across functions, geographies, and cultures.
• Strong analytical judgement, able to translate data, reward principles, and technical detail into clear, practical guidance that supports business decisions.
• Comfortable balancing strategic priorities with operational delivery, managing multiple demands independently while maintaining high standards and sound judgement.