Senior Director, Total Rewards

Great Minds•Dc, DC

13h•Remote

About The Position

Great Minds is seeking a strategic and hands‑on leader to oversee our Total Rewards function. This role is critical in aligning our compensation and benefits strategies with the organization’s mission and growth goals and will lead and manage enterprise‑wide reward programs and compensation governance while acting as a key integrator across HR, Payroll, Finance, Legal, and HR Systems. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in designing competitive, scalable rewards programs to enhance employee experience, support data‑driven decision making, and drive operational excellence by building controls and decision frameworks that support Great Minds’ mission.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive experience in total rewards, compensation, and benefits with at least 5 years in a leadership role.
Proven success in designing and implementing scalable rewards strategies in a fast-changing environment.
Ability to lead through evolving organizational governance.
Demonstrated experience owning and governing executive compensation, including incentive design, benchmarking, documentation, and cross‑functional decision making.
Deep knowledge of compensation philosophy – pay structures, job architecture, executive compensation, benefits programs, and compliance requirements.
Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret data and market trends into actionable strategies.
Strong experience partnering closely with Finance, Payroll, Legal, Systems and HR Business Partners to align compensation strategy with budgeting, payroll execution, and compliance requirements.
Excellent interpersonal communication and stakeholder management skills; service-provider orientation, with ability to influence across all levels of the organization.
Bachelor's degree in related field, graduate degree preferred
A cover letter and resume are required to be considered for this position.
New employees will be required to successfully complete a background check.

Responsibilities

Partner with the Chief People Officer and Great Minds executives to craft and maintain a relevant, comprehensive compensation, benefits, and total rewards philosophy that accelerates Great Minds’ broader business strategy infused with key market insights and current best practices.
Lead and develop a forward-thinking, lean Total Rewards team of benefits and compensation professionals, fostering strong collaboration within the team and building trusted partnerships across the organization.
Evaluate market trends and benchmarks to ensure competitiveness and cost-effectiveness of rewards program through market benchmarking, utilization analysis, and employee feedback.
Lead annual strategic planning for rewards programs and budgets in close partnership with Finance.
Serve as a primary integrator across HR, Payroll, Finance, Legal, and Systems to ensure compensation programs are governed, understood, and reliably executed.
Collaborate with HR Business Partners to navigate competing needs between internal, non-HR stakeholders and the overall business.
Lead people-centric communication and change management efforts related to compensation and benefits policies and programs.
Identify and mitigate compensation‑ and benefits-related operational, financial, and compliance risks, including risks arising from manual processes, system limitations, unclear decision rights, or inconsistent application of policies.
Develop and iterate a compensation philosophy that translates into practical frameworks, policies, and programs that can be executed and scaled consistently across the organization.
Develop and iterate salary structures and variable pay programs across all levels of the organization, such as executive compensation, long-term incentive plans, short‑term incentive plans, and options packages.
Advise Revenue Operations team, as needed, to support creation and implementation of sales commission plans.
Partner with HR Leadership Team to create competitive, market-aligned offers and internal mobility strategies aligning program design, workforce planning assumptions, and financial forecasts.
Own and evolve the job architecture framework, including job families, career levels, title governance, and FLSA classification, ensuring consistency and scalability as the organization grows.
Partner with Finance to develop a compensation analytics capability, including dashboards, cost modeling, scenario planning for merit and promotion cycles, and attrition-linked compensation analysis.
Own or co-own the compensation technology stack, ensuring system configuration, data integrity, reporting, and workflow automation support reliable program execution.
Establish and maintain a proactive pay equity framework, including regular analyses, governance protocols, and integration into hiring, promotion, and compensation review processes.
Develop strategies to educate executives and managers to fully leverage compensation strategy and to increase employee awareness and understanding of compensation and benefits program offerings.
Lead executive compensation design and governance, including preparing materials for leadership-level compensation reviews and ensuring governance around severance, sign-on bonuses, and retention packages.
Build sustainable, effective relationships with benefits brokers and providers to ensure competitive plan designs, sustainable cost, effective employee experiences, and seamless annual open enrollment processes.
Oversee administration of retirement plan (401(k)), wellness programs, and leave policies, ensuring compliance and alignment with the total rewards philosophy.
Oversee the day-to-day administration of benefits programs, ensuring employees receive timely, accurate, and empathetic support for questions.
Manage vendor relationships and program ROI, including leading RFPs, renegotiating contracts, and rationalizing total benefits spend to maximize value.