Senior Director, Total Rewards

Great Minds

Senior Director leading Total Rewards at Great Minds, a mission-driven education organization. Crafting competitive compensation and benefits strategies to align with growth goals.

Posted 4/29/2026full-timeRemote • District of Columbia • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $221,000 - $238,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

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.

Requirements

What you’ll need

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.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Health insurance
401(k) matching
Flexible work hours
Paid time off
Remote work options
Professional development opportunities

ATS Keywords

✓ Tailor your resume

Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools

total rewardscompensationbenefitsmarket benchmarkingutilization analysisexecutive compensationincentive designpay structuresjob architecturecompliance requirements

Soft Skills

leadershipcollaborationcommunicationstakeholder managementanalytical skillsinfluenceservice orientationchange managementstrategic planningproblem-solving