Overview
Compensation Manager – retail or hospitality, England (ideally Midlands or South based) with remote working and weekly visits to Head Office. Salary £65-77,000 + bonus + car allowance + benefits + career opportunities. Are you ready to shape the future of reward in one of the UK’s most recognisable consumer brands?
The Role
This is a pivotal role within our Client's People function, at the heart of how we attract, retain and recognise talent. You will be responsible for shaping and leading the full compensation agenda, ensuring reward offerings are competitive in the market and compelling for colleagues. In practice, this means:
* Owning the annual pay and bonus cycles, from design and modelling to execution and communication, ensuring fairness, accuracy and alignment with business performance.
* Benchmarking and pay positioning, staying ahead of the market to keep pay structures competitive and sustainable.
* Advising senior leadership, acting as the go-to expert for compensation decisions, balancing commercial priorities with fairness, equity and compliance.
* Leading on executive and long‑term incentives, supporting the design and delivery of schemes that drive leadership accountability and business growth.
* Data‑driven insights, analysing pay trends, equal pay and gender pay to provide actionable recommendations that shape strategy and enhance EVP.
* Governance and compliance, ensuring all compensation practices meet legal requirements and company policy while anticipating future legislation.
* Continuous improvement, proactively challenging current ways of working and introducing new approaches, tools and frameworks to keep us at the forefront of reward practice.
This is a high-profile, business‑facing role with exposure to the Exec team, Board-level reporting and external regulators. The role shapes reward in a way that supports growth and reflects the culture and values of the organisation.
About you
Degree educated with further qualifications in Reward. To thrive you will bring a blend of technical expertise, commercial judgment and influencing ability needed to set the standard in compensation. You will have progressive experience in fast-moving retail or hospitality organisations and understand what world-class compensation programmes look like in a progressive organisation.
* Compensation expertise, deep knowledge of compensation principles including pay structures, incentive design, executive reward and benchmarking frameworks (experience with WTW global grading is essential).
* Commercial acumen, connecting reward outcomes with business performance and articulating what those actions mean to senior stakeholders.
* Analytical strength, comfortable modelling complex pay scenarios, handling large datasets and producing insights that drive action.
* Strategic mindset, able to look beyond process to consider how compensation underpins engagement, retention and EVP.
* Influence and impact, able to hold your own with senior leaders, simplify complexity for a broad audience and inspire confidence with recommendations.
* Resilience and pace, enjoy working in a dynamic environment where priorities shift and deadlines are tight.
* Credibility in context, ideally experience in a multi-site, consumer-facing or service-led organisation where agility and pragmatism are key.
Why join?
This is your chance to make your mark in a high‑profile role where your work directly shapes the colleague experience and the organisation’s ability to attract and retain top talent. You’ll join a collaborative HR team with big ambitions and a leadership group that values innovation in reward. If you’re ready to bring your expertise to a household-name brand and help set the standard for compensation excellence, we’d love to hear from you.
How to apply
To apply, please email your CV.
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