Grant Thornton

Director, Global Compensation

Grant Thornton$187K — $312K *
Business Services
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in HR, Business, Finance, or related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred
  • 10+ years of progressive compensation experience, including 3+ years in leading global compensation strategy and governance
  • Proven expertise in global job architecture and pay structure design
  • Experience in M&A compensation integration and harmonization
  • Familiarity with global regulatory environments, including EU Pay Transparency and pay equity
  • Strong command of compensation systems and tools such as Oracle HCM and Payfactors
  • Excellent communication skills with an ability to influence across geographies

Responsibilities

  • Lead and evolve global compensation strategy aligned with business goals
  • Design and maintain scalable pay structures respecting local markets
  • Serve as a subject-matter expert advising senior leaders on pay strategies
  • Develop and govern the global job architecture including job levels and career paths
  • Oversee job mapping and validation as roles integrate into HRIS
  • Lead benchmarking initiatives and manage survey providers for market pricing
  • Ensure compliance with local and global regulatory requirements

Benefits

  • Personalized and comprehensive benefits emphasizing employee individuality
  • Eligible for medical, dental, and vision insurance programs
  • Access to employee assistance programs for well-being support
  • Minimum of 72 hours of paid sick leave
  • Discretionary annual bonus based on individual and firm performance
Full Job Description
Job Description

Grant Thornton is seeking a Director, Global Compensation to join the team. Approved office locations can be found below.

As Director, Global Compensation, you will lead the strategy, design, and governance of compensation across our global footprint - harmonizing pay practices across countries while respecting local markets and regulatory requirements. You'll own our global compensation philosophy, build scalable pay structures, and serve as a key architect of our global job framework. A defining feature of this role is leading compensation integration for M&A activity - bringing newly acquired firms onto a consistent job and pay architecture in a way that protects talent, realizes synergies, and drives cultural alignment. You'll partner across People & Culture, Finance, Legal, and business leadership, because together is how we succeed.

Your day-to-day may include:

Global compensation strategy, design, and integration
  • Own and evolve the global compensation strategy and pay philosophy, ensuring alignment to business goals and competitive market positioning.
  • Design and maintain scalable, market-based pay structures that flex across geographies while preserving global consistency.
  • Serve as the subject-matter expert, advising senior leaders on pay decisions, market positioning, and total cash competitiveness
  • Lead the development and governance of the global job architecture - job levels, ranks/progression, career paths, and technical specialty alignment that is anchored in a consistent, competency-based taxonomy.
  • Oversee job mapping, leveling, and validation as roles are aligned to the global framework and migrated into HRIS systems and define a phased path to the firm's compensation strategy (base, bonus, equity).
  • Assess integration-driven role changes (scope, retention risk, market demand) and recommend base pay and bonus actions with strong change-management discipline.

Benchmarking and market insight
  • Lead the benchmarking approach and market positioning; manage survey providers (e.g., Mercer, WTW etc.) and market-pricing tools (e.g., Payfactors).
  • Interpret market data to inform structure design, salary ranges, and bonus tables.
  • Administer salary structures across geographies.

Governance, risk and compliance
  • Ensure compliance with all local and global regulatory requirements, including EU Pay Transparency Directive readiness and pay equity reporting across jurisdictions.
  • Lead pay equity analysis and remediation planning (e.g., via Syndio) and manage compensation-related risk.
  • Ensure compliance with US federal, state, and local pay regulations, minimum-wage/threshold updates, and state pay-transparency and pay-data-reporting requirements.

Systems, cycles and leadership
  • Own the end-to-end administration of annual compensation cycles (base pay, bonus, equity) across geographies ensuring accurate, timely and consistent execution.
  • Drive continuous process improvement across comp tools and HRIS.
  • Maintain data integrity and controls - validate compensation data before system pushes, minimize ad hoc exceptions, and enforce consistent, well-documented processes.
  • Contribute executive level materials with clear, data-driven insights.
  • Lead, coach, and develop a team of compensation professionals.
  • Serve as escalation point for compensation questions from HR Business Partners, People Operations, Talent Acquisition and business leadership.

Technical skills, qualifications, and experience:
  • Bachelor's degree in HR, Business, Finance, or related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
  • 10+ years of progressive compensation experience, including 3+ years leading global compensation strategy, design, and governance.
  • Demonstrated expertise in global job architecture, leveling, and pay structure design.
  • Direct experience supporting M&A compensation integration and harmonization.
  • Familiarity with global regulatory environments, including EU Pay Transparency and pay equity.
  • Strong command of compensation systems and tools (e.g., Oracle HCM, Payfactors, Syndio) and advanced Excel/analytics.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication; ability to influence and build consensus across geographies.
  • Professional certification (e.g., CCP, GRP) preferred.


The base salary range for this position is between $187,500 and $312,500. Placement within the pay range is at Grant Thornton's discretion, and it is based on multiple factors, including but not limited to, job -related knowledge/skills, experience, business needs, progression within the role, geographic location, and internal equity. At Grant Thornton, compensation decisions are dependent upon the facts and circumstances of each position and candidate.

Benefits:

We understand that your needs, responsibilities and experiences are different, and we think that's a good thing. That's why we support you with personalized and comprehensive benefits that recognize and empower all the identities, roles and aspirations that make you, well, you. For an overview of our benefit offerings, please visit: https://www.grantthornton.com/careers/rewards-and-benefits

  • Benefits for internship positions: Grant Thornton interns are eligible to participate in the firm's medical, dental and vision insurance programs and the firm's employee assistance program. Interns also receive a minimum of 72 hours of paid sick leave and are paid for firm holidays that fall within their internship period.
  • Benefits for seasonal employee positions: Grant Thornton seasonal employees are eligible to participate in the firm's medical, dental and vision insurance programs and the firm's employee assistance program. Seasonal employees may also be eligible to participate in the firm's 401(k) savings plan and employee retirement plan in accordance with applicable plan terms and eligibility requirements. Seasonal employees receive a minimum of 72 hours of paid sick leave.


Grant Thornton employees may be eligible for a discretionary, annual bonus based on individual and firm performance, subject to the terms, conditions and eligibility criteria of the applicable bonus plan or program. Interns and seasonal employees are not eligible for bonus compensation.

About Grant Thornton

Grant Thornton LLP is the American member firm of Grant Thornton International, the seventh largest accounting network in the world by combined fee income. Grant Thornton LLP is the sixth largest U.S. accounting and advisory organization. The firm operates 59 offices across the US with approximately 8,500 employees, 550 partners, and produces annual revenue in excess of US$1.9 billion. During the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, The Times reported that Grant Thornton is in line to earn millions of pounds for acting as trustees in a bankruptcy case on behalf of the Russian state-owned DIA, who bypassed sanction regimes to obtain funds and assets from abroad in order to fund the war in Ukraine.
Learn more about Grant Thornton

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at Grant Thornton

More Business Services Jobs

Find similar Director, Global Compensation jobs: