Senior Director, Compensation and Benefits
About The Position
The Senior Director of Compensation & Benefits will build Hanwha Defense USA’s total compensation and benefits function from the ground up. The role will establish the enterprise compensation philosophy, create the associated pay architecture, and shape a benefits strategy to compete for engineering, manufacturing, and professional talent across the United States. Reporting to the Vice President and Head of Human Resources, the Senior Director will partner directly with senior leadership, including the CEO. The role begins as a hands-on builder and is expected to grow into leading the team responsible for the function as the organization scales. The position owns compensation strategy and management, benefits strategy and administration, and compensation and benefits leadership in mergers and acquisitions. It will establish job architecture, leveling, market benchmarking, internal equity standards, compliance, benefits plans and vendor relationships, and enterprise governance and processes. The Senior Director will also advise leaders on compensation planning, organizational design, workforce planning, and growth.
Requirements
- Extensive experience in compensation and benefits leadership roles within multi-state professional, manufacturing, or engineering environments.
- Proven track record of building compensation philosophies, structures, and programs from the ground up, ideally during growth or transformation.
- Strong knowledge of U.S. federal, state, and local regulatory requirements.
- Executive presence and ability to influence senior leaders, together with analytical rigor to build models hands-on.
- Excellent analytical, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
Nice To Haves
- Experience leading compensation and benefits components of mergers and acquisitions.
- Experience working with a Board Compensation Committee and comfort operating within a governance structure involving multiple stakeholders.
- Defense industry experience.
- Professional certifications such as CCP or CEBS.
Responsibilities
- Author and own the enterprise compensation philosophy, including market positioning, reward principles, and pay-decision practices; align it with executive leadership and present recommendations to the Compensation Committee of the Board.
- Build enterprise job architecture and leveling across professional, manufacturing, and engineering job families.
- Design and launch market-competitive, defense-industry-specific compensation structures across job families and U.S. regions.
- Establish market benchmarking methodology and internal equity standards, supported by auditable documentation.
- Advise leadership on compensation planning and organizational design.
- Build compliance with federal, state, and local compensation regulations, including pay transparency requirements, into compensation programs.
- Set the vision and strategy for a competitive total rewards offering.
- Evaluate benefits plan options, regulatory requirements, and U.S. competitive trends to shape plan design.
- Lead benefits planning and administration across multiple markets and domains.
- Manage strategic relationships with benefits vendors, brokers, and third-party administrators, holding partners accountable for performance and value.
- Oversee benefits administration, communications, and issue resolution.
- Lead benefits-related M&A work, including due diligence, plan design reviews, integration strategy, and harmonization.
- Serve as the compensation and benefits lead on M&A activity, shaping transactions from due diligence through integration.
- Drive benefits integration, compensation leveling, and risk-mitigation decisions as acquired workforces join the enterprise framework.
- Partner with HR, Finance, and Legal to support smooth, compliant transitions throughout transactions.
- Serve as the company’s senior total-rewards subject matter expert, leading hands-on work and building and leading a Compensation & Benefits team as the organization grows.
- Build a compensation governance framework that balances U.S. market competitiveness with global enterprise values and standards, partnering with the Compensation Committee and executive leadership.
- Partner with HR, Finance, and operational leaders on strategic workforce planning and organizational growth.
- Build the processes, tools, and governance model for enterprise-scale compensation and benefits.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
