Head of Total Rewards

Encore Fire Protection • Needham, MA

7d • $150,000 - $220,000

About The Position

Encore Fire Protection is seeking a hands-on leader to build and lead its Total Rewards function for a growing, multi-state workforce that includes field technicians, skilled trades, sales, and corporate teams. Reporting to the Chief People Officer, this role will own compensation, benefits, and related programs; set the pay philosophy and organization design strategy; build the team; and use data to support attraction, motivation, and retention. As Dayforce is implemented, the role will shape how positions are structured, leveled, and paid and ensure the related data is accurate in the system. The leader will also design programs to support growth and integrate acquired teams.

This is a high-impact builder role requiring someone who can work with executives and key stakeholders while understanding the operational needs of branches and field leaders. The programs and structures developed must scale while allowing field teams the flexibility to serve customers.

In the first 90 days, the role will assess pay, programs, and data across locations and agree on a prioritized roadmap with the Chief People Officer and executive team. By six months, job architecture, levels, and salary ranges should be defined and validated in Dayforce, with a redesigned sales incentive plan ready for the next plan year. By 12 months, the role should have established a working annual merit and incentive cycle, a workforce plan tied to the budget, a staffed team, and a repeatable process for integrating acquisitions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Finance, Business, Economics, or a related field.
• 10+ years of progressive total rewards experience, including 5+ years leading a function or team at Director level or above.
• Track record of building or rebuilding a total rewards function, with clear examples of what was built and what changed.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing job architecture, leveling frameworks, and salary structures.
• Experience configuring or supporting job architecture and compensation data in an HRIS implementation.
• Hands-on experience designing compensation and incentive programs, including sales incentive plans, plus working knowledge of health and welfare and retirement benefits.
• Experience with organization design and workforce planning, including building headcount and cost models with Finance.
• Experience presenting to senior leadership, boards, or investors, and working with external consultants and brokers.
• Experience supporting an hourly, field-based, or skilled trades workforce.
• Working knowledge of multi-state wage and hour and pay transparency rules.
• Experience with M&A due diligence and integration.
• Strong analytical and financial modeling skills, including market pricing tools and salary surveys; ability to build the models directly.
• Ability to explain complex topics simply.
• Track record of building and developing strong teams.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree or MBA.
• CCP certification.
• Hands-on Dayforce experience, especially job, position, and compensation setup.
• Experience in fire protection, construction, field services, or another operational, technician-based industry.
• Experience in a high-growth, acquisition-driven, or private equity-backed environment.
• Executive compensation and equity plan experience in a public or private company.

Responsibilities

• Build job architecture, including job families, levels, role profiles, and titles for salaried and hourly field roles.
• Write level guides and lead leveling decisions for hires, promotions, and role changes; run calibration to support consistency.
• Partner with HRIS and Payroll to set up and validate job, level, and pay data in Dayforce.
• Establish processes for creating, changing, and retiring jobs, and map acquired companies’ roles into Encore’s framework.
• Lead organization design and workforce planning with Finance and operations leaders, including headcount, spans and layers, hiring timelines, attrition, and cost.
• Create a total rewards strategy and pay philosophy, and build and lead the team responsible for delivering it.
• Build and maintain salary ranges and geographic pay zones, and own the total rewards budget, including merit, promotion, and market adjustments.
• Run annual merit, incentive, and promotion cycles from planning through communication.
• Guide offers, internal equity and pay equity reviews, and exceptions; partner with Talent Acquisition on leveling and posted pay ranges.
• Design sales and field incentive programs that reward performance and safety, including plans for new business, account growth, and retention roles, with clear quota, pay mix, and ramp design.
• Use turnover, time-to-fill, ramp-time, and cost data to assess how pay and structure affect results and adjust programs accordingly.
• Build executive pay programs and present them to the executive team and key stakeholders.
• Lead health and welfare, 401(k), and wellness programs, including broker and carrier relationships and annual renewals.
• Lead pay and benefits due diligence and integration for acquired companies.
• Maintain compliance with multi-state wage and hour and pay transparency requirements.

Benefits

• Performance-based bonus tied to personal output, effectiveness, results, and contributions.
• Comprehensive medical coverage.
• Dental coverage.
• Vision coverage.
• Fidelity 401(k) plan with company match.
• Company-paid life insurance policy of $50,000.
• Branded Encore swag and a casual dress environment most days.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director