Head of Total Rewards

Encore Fire Protection • Needham, MA

6d

About The Position

Encore Fire Protection is seeking a hands-on leader to build and lead its Total Rewards function for a multi-state workforce that includes field technicians, skilled trades, sales, and corporate teams. Reporting to the Chief People Officer, this leader will set the pay philosophy and organization design strategy, build the team, and use data to support attraction, motivation, and retention as the company scales. The role will shape how jobs are structured, leveled, and paid as Dayforce is implemented, and will establish a foundation that supports company growth and acquisitions.

The Head of Total Rewards will own compensation, benefits, and related programs. The role includes developing job architecture and salary structures; leading organization design and workforce planning; running compensation cycles; designing sales, field, and executive incentive programs; overseeing health, welfare, retirement, and wellness programs; and leading pay and benefits due diligence and integration for acquisitions. The position will partner with executive, HRIS, Payroll, Finance, Talent Acquisition, and operations stakeholders, while ensuring compliance with multi-state wage and hour and pay transparency requirements.

In the first 90 days, the role will assess current 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 goals include a working annual merit and incentive cycle, a budget-linked workforce plan, a staffed team, and a repeatable process for integrating acquired companies.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Finance, Business, Economics, or a related field.
• At least 10 years of progressive total rewards experience, including at least 5 years leading a function or team at the Director level or above.
• Track record of building or rebuilding a total rewards function, with 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.
• Solid 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 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 Encore’s 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, including calibration to support consistent decisions.
• Work 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, covering headcount, spans and layers, hiring timelines, attrition, and cost.
• Create a total rewards strategy and pay philosophy, and build and lead the team that operates the function.
• Build and maintain salary ranges and geographic pay zones, and manage 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 organizational structures 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.
• Assess current pay, programs, and data across locations and agree on a prioritized roadmap with the Chief People Officer and executive team.
• Define and validate job architecture, levels, and salary ranges in Dayforce, and prepare a redesigned sales incentive plan for the next plan year.
• Establish a working annual merit and incentive cycle, a workforce plan tied to the budget, a staffed team, and a repeatable acquired-company integration process.

Benefits

• Competitive pay commensurate with experience and opportunity for a performance-based bonus tied to results and contributions.
• Direct access to the Chief People Officer and executive team, with visibility into how the role supports company growth.
• Purpose-driven work environment and a culture focused on results and impactful work.
• People-focused culture that encourages experimentation, learning, and improvement.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Fidelity 401(k) plan with company match.
• Company-paid life insurance policy of $50,000.
• Flexible dress code and branded Encore swag.

What This Job Offers

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