Compensation Strategy Manager

🌟 We're Hiring: Compensation Strategy Manager📍 Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)

🌐 Work Arrangement: Fully Remote

About UsWe are a people-first organization committed to attracting, rewarding, and retaining exceptional talent through competitive, equitable, and data-driven compensation programs. Our distributed teams collaborate across Human Resources, Total Rewards, Talent Acquisition, Finance, Business Operations, People Analytics, Legal, Payroll, HR Technology, and Executive Leadership to build compensation strategies that support organizational growth, employee engagement, and business performance.

The RoleWe are seeking an experienced Compensation Strategy Manager to lead enterprise compensation strategy, total rewards planning, and pay governance initiatives. The ideal candidate will oversee compensation frameworks, salary structures, incentive programs, market benchmarking, pay equity analysis, and executive compensation support while ensuring competitive, compliant, and sustainable reward practices.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement enterprise compensation strategies, total rewards frameworks, and pay governance programs aligned with organizational objectives and talent strategies.
• Lead the design, review, and optimization of salary structures, pay grades, job architecture, career frameworks, short-term incentive (STI) programs, long-term incentive (LTI) plans, bonuses, commissions, and recognition programs.
• Collaborate with Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, Finance, Payroll, HR Technology, Legal, Business Operations, People Analytics, and Executive Leadership to align compensation programs with business priorities.
• Conduct market pricing, salary benchmarking, compensation surveys, geographic pay analyses, and industry comparisons to maintain competitive compensation practices.
• Develop compensation policies, pay governance standards, job evaluation methodologies, compensation guidelines, and annual compensation review processes.
• Lead annual salary review cycles, merit increase planning, bonus allocation processes, promotion compensation reviews, and pay adjustment recommendations.
• Conduct pay equity analyses, compensation risk assessments, workforce cost modeling, and internal equity reviews to support fair and transparent compensation decisions.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition to develop competitive compensation packages for new hires, critical talent, executive positions, and international assignments.
• Support executive compensation planning, board reporting, incentive plan governance, and compensation committee presentations where applicable.
• Evaluate emerging compensation trends, skills-based pay models, variable pay strategies, global mobility compensation, and workforce planning initiatives.
• Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) including compensation competitiveness, pay equity metrics, offer acceptance rates, employee retention, salary compression, incentive effectiveness, labor cost ratios, compensation budget adherence, and employee satisfaction with total rewards.
• Conduct compensation audits, compliance reviews, benchmarking studies, workforce analytics, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Ensure compliance with UAE labor laws, applicable tax regulations, equal pay principles, data privacy requirements, corporate governance standards, and organizational compensation policies.
• Manage compensation budgets, external compensation survey providers, HR consulting partners, reward technology platforms, and strategic compensation initiatives.
• Drive digital transformation through artificial intelligence (AI)-powered workforce analytics, predictive compensation modeling, pay equity analytics, automated compensation planning, HR workflow automation, and business intelligence solutions.
• Utilize Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM Cloud, ADP Workforce Now, Mercer WIN®, WTW compensation survey tools, Microsoft 365, Power BI, Tableau, Excel, HR analytics platforms, and Human Capital Management (HCM) systems to analyze compensation data and generate actionable insights.
• Prepare executive dashboards, compensation strategy reports, salary benchmarking analyses, pay equity assessments, workforce cost forecasts, board presentations, and strategic recommendations for senior leadership.
• Lead, mentor, and develop compensation analysts, total rewards specialists, HR business partners, people analytics professionals, and cross-functional teams while fostering a culture of fairness, transparency, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Finance, Economics, Accounting, Statistics, Organizational Psychology, or a related field.
• Master's degree in Human Resources Management, Business Administration (MBA), Finance, Organizational Development, or a related discipline is highly advantageous.
• Professional certifications such as Certified Compensation Professional (CCP), Global Remuneration Professional (GRP), SHRM-SCP, SPHR, CIPD Level 5 or 7, WorldatWork Total Rewards Certification, or equivalent are highly preferred.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in compensation, total rewards, HR analytics, workforce planning, or related roles.
• At least 2 years of experience managing compensation programs, salary review cycles, total rewards initiatives, or multidisciplinary HR teams preferred.
• Strong understanding of compensation strategy, job evaluation, salary benchmarking, incentive design, executive compensation, pay equity, workforce analytics, HR governance, labor regulations, and total rewards best practices.
• Experience with Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM Cloud, ADP Workforce Now, Mercer WIN®, WTW compensation survey tools, Microsoft Office Suite, Excel, Power BI, Tableau, HRIS platforms, and people analytics solutions.
• Familiarity with AI-powered HR analytics, predictive workforce planning, compensation modeling, digital HR platforms, automated reward management, skills-based pay frameworks, and advanced data visualization tools is highly advantageous.
• Strong leadership, communication, stakeholder management, analytical thinking, financial modeling, strategic planning, project management, budgeting, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to manage multiple compensation initiatives while balancing business priorities, regulatory requirements, workforce expectations, budgets, timelines, and organizational objectives.
• Ability to work effectively in a remote environment with distributed HR teams, executives, finance leaders, external consultants, and global stakeholders, with occasional travel for leadership meetings, workshops, and strategic planning sessions as required.

What We Offer

• Fully remote work arrangement with flexible collaboration across global HR and total rewards teams.
• Competitive compensation package with performance-based incentives.
• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits.
• Professional development and total rewards leadership growth opportunities.
• Exposure to AI-powered HR technologies, advanced workforce analytics platforms, digital compensation management systems, and innovative total rewards strategies.
• Collaborative culture focused on fairnes