Who we need
The Sr. Director, Total Rewards is responsible for designing, governing, and continuously improving the organization's global compensation philosophy, benefits, job architecture, HRIS, payroll, mobility activities, and people-related integration work arising from mergers and acquisitions. Based in Canada, this role provides leadership to a small team and practical execution across regions, ensuring total rewards, HR systems, payroll, and mobility programs are market-competitive, internally equitable, legally compliant, financially sustainable, operationally effective, and aligned with the company's culture, employee value proposition, and growth agenda.
As our new Sr. Director, Total Rewards, you will handle:
Global Total Rewards Strategy
- Monitor and lead a global total rewards strategy that supports business growth, talent attraction, retention, performance, and internal equity.
- Establish global rewards principles while enabling regional flexibility to reflect local market, legislative, and cultural requirements.
- Act as a trusted advisor to the CHRO, executive leaders, Finance, Legal, and regional HR teams on compensation, benefits, incentives, and rewards governance.
- Monitor external market trends, regulatory changes, pay transparency requirements, and evolving employee expectations, ensuring the team's work under this role's leadership keeps programs competitive and compliant.
- Provide total rewards leadership and due diligence support for mergers, acquisitions, integrations, new business development and divestitures, including assessment of compensation, benefits, payroll, HRIS, mobility, and related people-cost implications.
Compensation, Job Architecture, and Pay Equity
- Lead the design, implementation, and ongoing governance of global job architecture, job evaluation, levelling, salary structures, and pay ranges.
- Oversee annual compensation planning processes, including merit, bonus, incentive, and executive compensation support, ensuring alignment with performance, affordability, and market competitiveness.
- Build and maintain a consistent market pricing and benchmarking methodology using reputable survey data and internal analytics.
- Partner with HR and business leaders to ensure new and evolving roles are evaluated objectively and assigned appropriate levels, grades, and compensation ranges.
- Develop and apply clear compensation guidelines to support consistent, equitable, and defensible salary decisions based on job level, market data, internal equity, performance, budget affordability, and approved governance processes.
- Lead pay equity, internal equity, and pay transparency analysis and reporting, including compliance with Canadian requirements and emerging global pay transparency obligations.
Benefits, Wellbeing & Perquisites
- Provide strategic oversight of benefits and wellbeing programs, ensuring offerings are competitive, compliant, cost-effective, and aligned with workforce needs.
- Lead benefits reviews, vendor evaluations, renewal processes, employee feedback analysis, and recommendations for plan design changes.
- Design, govern, and periodically review global perquisites, allowances, and executive or role-based programs to ensure they are market-relevant, equitable, compliant, cost-managed, and aligned with total rewards principles.
- Establish clear eligibility, approval, documentation, tax, payroll, and communication processes for global perquisites, partnering with Finance, Legal, Payroll, regional HR, and external advisors as needed.
- Oversee pension, retirement, and legacy benefits programs, ensuring appropriate governance, compliance, vendor management, employee communication, risk monitoring, and alignment with current total rewards strategy.
- Collaborate with Payroll, Finance, Legal, brokers, consultants, HRIS partners, mobility advisors, and HR leaders to manage rewards-related risk, cost, communication, compliance, and employee experience.
Governance, Analytics, and HRIS
- Develop global policies, frameworks, tools, and approval processes for compensation, benefits, allowances, incentives, job changes, HRIS, and related total rewards activities.
- Provide oversight of HRIS strategy, governance, data integrity, reporting, workflows, and system optimization to support scalable global HR operations and decision-making.
- Assess and identify economies of scale across global programs, external vendors, platforms, and service providers, recommending opportunities to consolidate, standardize, or optimize solutions where appropriate.
- Evaluate global system opportunities that improve scalability, data integrity, reporting, automation, employee experience, and operational efficiency across total rewards, HRIS, payroll, time and attendance, benefits, and mobility processes.
- Use data, analytics, and dashboards to assess compensation competitiveness, benefits utilization, pay equity, turnover risk, program effectiveness, HR data quality, and overall rewards performance.
- Define, track, and report on global total rewards, HRIS, payroll, and mobility KPIs through dashboards, scorecards, and regular reporting cycles that provide visibility to trends, risks, service levels, compliance status, and program outcomes.
- Prepare and deliver regular global reporting for the CHRO, executive leaders, Finance, Legal, and regional HR teams to support data-driven decisions, governance reviews, and continuous improvement priorities.
- Establish governance and periodic review processes for temporary staff, contractor, and agency worker payments to confirm appropriate approvals, rate accuracy, invoice alignment, classification, tax treatment, and compliance with applicable employment, payroll, procurement, and legislative requirements.
- Prepare executive-ready materials, business cases, and recommendations for leadership decision-making.
Payroll Oversight
- Provide oversight of payroll governance and controls, while the Payroll team executes day-to-day payroll activities with Finance, HR, and external providers to ensure accurate, timely, compliant payroll across applicable jurisdictions.
- Oversee payroll audit and reconciliation requirements, while the Payroll team performs regular audits and reconciliations, including statutory remittances, deductions, taxable benefits, pension or retirement contributions, and employer-paid taxes.
- Provide oversight and guidance for year-end payroll activities, while the Payroll team executes annual reporting, tax slips or equivalent filings, payroll balancing, audit support, and issue resolution.
- Maintain sufficient payroll administration knowledge to step in on a temporary basis during Payroll team absences, supporting critical payroll processing, issue resolution, and continuity as needed.
- Provide oversight of time and attendance governance, systems, controls, and reporting, while the Payroll team and applicable functional owners execute day-to-day processes to support accurate pay, compliance, scheduling inputs, leave tracking, and workforce data integrity.
- Oversee controls for temporary staff and agency worker payments, including periodic checks of approved rates, hours, invoices, payroll or vendor payments, worker classification, and compliance with local employment, tax, and regulatory requirements.
- Set expectations for payroll best practices, while the Payroll team executes clear calendars, documented controls, compliance reviews, vendor monitoring, data privacy requirements, and continuous improvement activities.
Mobility
- Develop and implement a global mobility program with clear principles, eligibility criteria, relocation and assignment support, approval pathways, cost ownership, compliance requirements, and employee experience standards.
- Provide oversight of mobility activities, including cross-border work arrangements, relocation, assignments, allowances, immigration coordination, tax considerations, and local employment requirements.
- Establish mobility frameworks, documentation, and governance to support consistent, compliant, and employee-focused decision-making.
- Partner with Legal, Finance, Payroll, Tax, HRIS partners, mobility advisors, external vendors, and regional HR teams to manage mobility-related needed activities, risk, cost, communication, and evolving workforce needs.
Leadership and Partnership
- Lead, coach, and develop total rewards team members and/or support of matrixed regional contributors, building capability, consistency, and accountability.
- Partner closely with regional HR teams to balance global standards with local execution requirements.
- Influence senior leaders through clear, data-driven recommendations and practical solutions.
- Communicate total rewards programs in a way that builds leader capability, employee understanding, and trust in rewards decisions.
Key Competencies:
- Strategic and commercial mindset: Connects rewards strategy to business priorities, financial discipline, and talent outcomes.
- Analytical decision-making: Uses data, market intelligence, and internal equity insights to develop clear recommendations.
- Global perspective: Applies consistent principles while adapting programs to local market and legal requirements.
- Influence and communication: Builds trust with executives, leaders, HR partners, and employees through clear, practical communication.
- Governance and risk management: Establishes disciplined processes that support fairness, compliance, and defensible decision-making.
- Operational excellence: Strengthens HRIS, payroll, mobility, and rewards processes through disciplined governance, clear controls, continuous improvement, and stakeholder partnership.
- Change leadership: Leads rewards transformation, program implementation, and leader education with clarity and credibility.
- M&A leadership: Applies structured due diligence, integration planning, and change leadership to support effective people-related outcomes during mergers, acquisitions, and organizational transactions.
You have:
- 8+ years of Total Rewards Senior Leadership experience with significant depth of knowledge in total rewards, job architecture, pay equity, HR systems, and payroll.
- Experience leading total rewards programs across multiple countries or regions, preferably within a global or multi-site organization.
- Strong knowledge of Canadian compensation, benefits, employment standards, pay equity, and related legislative requirements; competency in U.S., Mexico, Europe, and APAC rewards practices is strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience designing salary structures, incentive plans, job evaluation frameworks, market benchmarking processes, and compensation governance.
- Experience overseeing HRIS, payroll governance, time and attendance, and global mobility programs and working closely with functional owners to ensure integrated, compliant, and effective HR operations.
- Experience establishing governance, controls, and compliance review processes for temporary staff, contractor, agency worker, and related contingent workforce payments.
- Experience developing KPIs, dashboards, scorecards, and global reporting routines that translate HR and rewards data into actionable insights for senior leadership.
- Experience assessing economies of scale across global programs, vendors, platforms, and HR systems, with the ability to recommend consolidation, standardization, automation, or optimization opportunities.
- Experience overseeing pension, retirement, and legacy benefits programs, including governance, compliance, vendor relationships, communications, and risk management.
- Experience partnering with Finance, Legal, Payroll, HRIS, and Mobility, brokers, consultants, external vendors, and senior business leaders.
- Experience leading or supporting mergers and acquisitions from a total rewards and HR operations perspective, including due diligence, integration planning, harmonization of programs, employee transition considerations, and post-close governance.
- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Finance, or a related field; CCP, CEBS, GRP, CHRP/CHRL, or equivalent certification is preferred.
Working Conditions:
- Based in Canada (with some global oversight across multiple regions and time zones).
- At least 3 days in office - Scarborough.
- Minimal domestic and international travel may be required to support regional TR teams, leadership meetings, vendor reviews, or major program implementation - up to 10%.
Compensation:
The salary range for this role is $160,000 - $185,000. Compensation is thoughtfully determined based on your experience, skill set, and alignment with our internal compensation framework. We're always happy to answer questions about compensation through the hiring process.
Apply now.
