Reward - Associate Director – UK & Ireland

We're looking for an experienced Reward professional to lead the reward agenda across the UK & Ireland, partnering with senior business and HR leaders to shape reward strategy, support key business decisions and ensure a competitive and compliant reward proposition. Reporting to the Head of Reward EMEA, this is a highly visible role with direct exposure to the UK senior leadership team. You'll act as the trusted adviser on all reward-related matters, balancing commercial outcomes, market competitiveness and governance across one of the firm's most important markets.This is an opportunity to combine strategic influence with hands-on leadership in a role that sits at the heart of organisational decision-making.

As the lead Reward Business Partner for the UK & Ireland, you will:

• Act as the primary reward adviser to business leaders, HR and executive stakeholders across the UK & Ireland.
• Shape and deliver reward strategies that support business performance, growth and talent objectives.
• Lead annual compensation and incentive review cycles, ensuring robust governance and effective delivery.
• Provide expert advice on complex compensation matters, organisational changes, restructures and workforce planning initiatives.
• Localise global and regional reward frameworks to align with UK and Irish legislation, market practice and business needs.
• Oversee job evaluation, grading and internal equity processes.
• Lead pay equity analysis and statutory reporting, including UK Gender Pay Gap reporting and EU Pay Transparency requirements.
• Advise on LLP reward structures, including partner remuneration, profit-share allocations, drawings and associated governance considerations.
• Partner with mobility and HR teams on cross-border moves, international assignments and transfers.
• Conduct market benchmarking and analyse reward trends to ensure competitiveness.
• Deliver data-driven insights and recommendations that influence senior leadership decisions.
• Lead and contribute to regional and global reward projects, driving continuous improvement and innovation across the reward function.
• Identify opportunities to enhance the overall reward proposition and employee experience.

What We're Looking For:

Experience

• Significant experience within Reward, Compensation & Benefits or Total Rewards, ideally gained within a complex, matrixed or international environment.
• Proven experience partnering with senior stakeholders and influencing business decisions.
• Strong expertise across compensation, salary review processes, job architecture, market benchmarking and reward governance.
• Experience supporting reward programmes across the UK, with knowledge of Ireland highly desirable.
• Essential experience working with LLP reward structures, including partner remuneration, profit-share arrangements, drawings and related governance considerations.
• Experience managing reward projects and delivering change within a fast-paced environment.

Skills

• Strong commercial acumen and the ability to balance business needs, risk and employee outcomes.
• Credibility and confidence to challenge, influence and advise senior leaders.
• Excellent stakeholder management and relationship-building skills.
• Exceptional analytical capability, with advanced Excel skills and experience working with complex data sets.
• Ability to translate data and reward insights into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex reward concepts for a broad audience.
• Highly organised, detail-oriented and committed to delivering high-quality outcomes.

Why Join Us?

This is a rare opportunity to take ownership of the Reward agenda for the UK & Ireland while partnering directly with senior leaders and contributing to the broader EMEA Reward strategy.

You'll have the opportunity to influence high-profile decisions, shape reward strategy across a critical market and play a key role in ensuring the organisation attracts, retains and rewards exceptional talent.

If you're looking for a role where you can combine strategic impact, executive stakeholder exposure and deep reward expertise, we'd love to hear from you.

Please note: this is a direct search led by Cushman & Wakefield. We only work with recruitment agencies on our preferred supplier list, and only where a signed and in date agreement is in place and the agency has been directly instructed on the role by a member of our Talent Acquisition team. We do not accept speculative or unsolicited CVs submitted to any of our employees or outside of our agreed process. No agency fees will be payable in these circumstances.