Director, Total Rewards & PayrollMaryland Heights, MO
Spartech offers a competitive salary, incentives, and benefit programs!General Summary and Essential Duties & Responsibilities:This is a hands-on Director role responsible for operationalizing and running Spartech's compensation philosophy, architecture, and annual calendar across an approximately 800-employee, 11-facility organization. The Chief People Officer owns the design of the philosophy and governance model in partnership with the CEO and Board of Directors. This role owns the systems, processes, data, and day-to-day execution that bring that philosophy to life: grade structures and bands, market refresh, annual merit and incentive cycles, manager calibration, internal equity and exception governance, payroll oversight, and support to the Compensation Advisory Group. The role partners with Finance and the operating business while keeping the system simple enough to run with a lean HR team. External partners will be used for surveys and selected one-time projects; this role retains ownership of execution and outcomes for the Compensation Philosophy that Assesses and improves rigor for pay considerations and performance review discussions.
RequirementsKey Responsibilities:Execute the Compensation Architecture and Annual Calendar- Maintain and refresh the single grade structure, market reference points, and salary bands on the 12-month cycle, including off-cycle refreshes when a role family or plant entry rate moves materially.
- Partners with the CPO to understand business shifts and areas for targeted strategies where applicable.
- Run the full annual compensation calendar (August strategy alignment through July mid-year review), ensuring scorecards, objectives, calibration, merit loading, bonus determination, and employee conversations occur on schedule and within the approved budget.
- Operationalize merit and promotion guidelines so increases are differentiated by performance and criticality, with appropriate ranges of discretion for varying ratings.
- Administer the short-term incentive framework, pool funding rules, proration, and the requirement that individual objectives are set by end of Q1 and visible in one system so they can be measured.
Internal Equity, Pay Transparency, and Exception Governance- Establish and run a recurring annual process for internal equity reviews and pay-transparency decisions consistent with the philosophy.
- Maintain the exception and approval log for anything outside band, outside policy, or outside cycle. Prepare materials so exceptions are visible to the Compensation Advisory Group.
- Administer the two-track retention framework: maintain the named critical high-performer list for planned retention and enforce the conditions plus reporting requirements for diving-catch exceptions. Ensure the default answer remains "no" unless all conditions are met.
- Enforce the rule that offers above midpoint require appropriate approvals and offers above maximum are true exceptions with guidance and/or development plans.
Manager Capability and Operating Partnership- Coach supervisors, managers and plant leaders on the philosophy ("median base, earned upside," "differentiate hard," "how, not only what"), how to write scoreable objectives, calibration standards, and what they may and may not promise.
- Require completion of calibration sessions before ratings are accepted; return incomplete files.
- Partner with Finance on merit and bonus pool modeling, scenario planning, and workforce cost governance inside approved budgets.
- Translate plant-level principles (local entry rates, standardized shift differentials, overtime as a staffing tool not a retention strategy, learn-and-do progression) into a simple, consistent plant standard.
Market Intelligence and Data- Manage participation in industrial/manufacturing salary surveys and translate results into band and entry-rate updates aligned to the peer-set definition and local vs. national market rules.
- Maintain the survey inventory, peer-set definition, and annual market-data spend within the established planning range.
- Monitor critical-role and scarce-skill markets so range corrections are proactive rather than reactive.
Payroll Oversight and Process Excellence- Oversee payroll operations (processed by existing team or vendor) with a focus on accuracy, multi-state compliance, and reduction of employee-visible defects.
- Identify and implement process improvements that support the annual calendar and exception reporting without adding administrative burden.
Compensation Advisory Group Support- Prepare concise books and materials for the three standing Advisory Group meetings (November, February, July), including market movement, band refresh outcomes, diving-catch log, planned retention list, and cycle-run confirmation.
- Ensure the Group sees executive and management outcomes and exceptions, not plant-level rates or individual names below Executive Leadership Team.
Qualifications- 10+ years of progressive experience in compensation and total rewards, including hands-on ownership of job architecture, band maintenance, annual merit/incentive cycles, and exception governance in a mid-sized, multi-site industrial or manufacturing environment (mixed hourly/salaried preferred).
- Demonstrated ability to operationalize a written compensation philosophy (median base with earned total-cash upside, hard differentiation, safety/conduct gates) rather than design one from scratch.
- Experience running a disciplined annual calendar and calibration process in which managers who do not complete the work do not award increases.
- Proven ability to operate as a team of one-both strategic execution and personal hands-on work-while partnering effectively with a CPO, Finance, and plant leaders.
- Strong analytical skills (Excel modeling, HRIS reporting, survey data) and experience maintaining confidential band books and exception logs.
- Excellent coaching and influence skills with managers and plant leaders; ability to enforce consistent standards without adding layers of bureaucracy.
- Experience overseeing payroll accuracy and process improvement preferred.
- Bachelor's degree in HR, Business, Finance, or related field; CCP or equivalent a plus. Experience in a private-equity portfolio company or similar industrial turnaround environment is a plus.
BenefitsWe offer competitive salary, incentives, and benefit programs. -
Most Benefits Start Day ONE!Benefits include:
- Medical, Dental, and Vision.
- Flexible Spending Accounts.
- Company paid Life & Long-term/Short-term disability programs.
- 401(k) with strong company match.
- 120 hours Paid Time Off (pro-rated based on hire date).
- 11 paid holidays.
