Vice President, Compensation Strategy, Design, and Architecture

Vice President, Compensation Strategy, Design, and Architecture

Role Overview

The VP, Compensation Strategy, Design, and Architecture is responsible for establishing, governing, and evolving Circana's enterprise-wide job architecture and broad-based compensation framework. This role owns the foundational structures that define how work is organized, evaluated, leveled, and compensated globally, ensuring consistency, scalability, and alignment with business and talent strategies.

The VP leads the design and ongoing stewardship of Circana's job architecture, including job families, career streams, level definitions, job evaluation methodologies, leveling criteria, and related governance processes. The role also owns the design of market-aligned compensation structures and frameworks that support equitable, competitive, and consistent pay practices across the organization.

Working closely with Compensation Administration, Total Rewards, Talent Management, HR Business Partners, and business leaders, this role will lead the transformation of Circana's current-state framework into a modern global architecture that supports organizational growth, workforce planning, career development, and compensation decision-making. In partnership with external subject matter experts, the VP will establish sustainable governance practices for maintaining and evolving the architecture over time, including processes for creating, modifying, evaluating, and retiring jobs as business needs evolve.

In addition to designing the future-state framework, this role will play a critical leadership role in driving organizational adoption, stakeholder alignment, and change management to ensure successful implementation of large-scale compensation and workforce architecture transformation initiatives.

Job Responsibilities

Job Architecture Design & Framework Development

• Own the design and evolution of Circana's global job architecture, including job families, career streams, level definitions, job evaluation methodologies, and leveling criteria.
• Establish and maintain a consistent enterprise framework for organizing, evaluating, and leveling work across functions, geographies, and business units.
• Design scalable architecture frameworks that support workforce planning, organizational design, talent mobility, career progression, and compensation decision-making.
• Develop architecture standards and principles that enable consistency and scalability across the enterprise.
• Ensure alignment between job architecture, career frameworks, evaluation methodologies, and compensation structures.
• Partner with Compensation Administration to ensure architecture frameworks can be effectively operationalized, administered, and sustained over time.

Global Pay Structure & Salary Range Design

• Own the design and evolution of Circana's global salary structure framework, ensuring alignment with the company's job architecture, compensation philosophy, and market position.
• Develop market-informed salary structures and range methodologies through analysis of external benchmark data, competitive market practices, and internal workforce considerations.
• Design geographic pay frameworks and market differentiation approaches appropriate to Circana's global operating model.
• Lead financial modeling and impact assessments for proposed compensation structures in partnership with Finance, Legal, Compensation Strategy, and other key stakeholders.
• Establish scalable compensation design principles, methodologies, and governance standards that support consistent and equitable pay decisions across the enterprise.
• Partner with Compensation Administration to operationalize compensation structures and support ongoing administration, market updates, and annual range review processes.
• Ensure alignment between job architecture, grade structures, salary ranges, and market pricing methodologies to create an integrated and scalable compensation framework.

External Job Evaluation & Architecture Partnership

• Lead architecture, job evaluation, and workforce design initiatives conducted with external advisors and subject matter experts.
• Assess and adapt external methodologies and recommendations to align with Circana's business, talent, and compensation objectives.
• Partner closely with external advisors and consulting firms to guide methodology implementation, translate recommendations into practical business solutions, and ensure successful organizational adoption.
• Ensure sustainable internal ownership of architecture frameworks, evaluation methodologies, and governance standards.

Job Evaluation Methodology

• Own and maintain Circana's enterprise job evaluation methodology, including the frameworks, criteria, and standards used to assess, compare, and level work across the organization.
• Establish consistent evaluation principles and decision-making guidelines to support equitable, transparent, and scalable leveling outcomes globally.
• Ensure alignment between job evaluation, job architecture, career frameworks, and compensation structures to create an integrated workforce architecture.
• Design evaluation methodologies that support sustainable pay equity, regulatory compliance, and defensible compensation practices across geographies.
• Define evaluation standards and documentation requirements to support consistent application of the methodology across the enterprise.
• Partner with Compensation Administration to operationalize evaluation standards and maintain consistent application of the methodology.

Architecture Governance & Evolution

• Own the governance and stewardship of Circana's global job architecture, ensuring continued alignment with business strategy, organizational design, and evolving workforce needs.
• Establish and lead periodic reviews of job families, career streams, level definitions, evaluation methodologies, and architecture standards to maintain the relevance and integrity of the framework.
• Define and oversee architecture decision rights, governance processes, and approval mechanisms for creating, modifying, consolidating, and retiring jobs and job families.
• Lead enterprise-wide architecture reviews associated with reorganizations, acquisitions, new business models, emerging skills, and significant workforce changes.
• Monitor architecture health, consistency, and adoption across functions and geographies, addressing exceptions and governance issues as needed.
• Partner with Compensation Administration, Talent Management, HR Business Partners, and business leaders to ensure consistent application of architecture standards and decision-making frameworks.
• Lead change management, stakeholder engagement, and organizational readiness activities associated with compensation, job architecture, and workforce framework transformation initiatives.

Career Frameworks & Talent Alignment

• Partner with Talent Management, HR Business Partners, and business leaders to align job architecture with career development, workforce planning, organizational design, and talent management strategies.
• Ensure job families, career streams, and level definitions support clear and consistent career progression opportunities across the enterprise.
• Establish architecture standards that enable talent mobility, career growth, succession planning, and workforce planning across functions and geographies.
• Collaborate with Talent Management to align career frameworks, competency models, and development pathways with the broader job architecture.
• Provide thought leadership on the intersection of workforce architecture, career progression, and organizational effectiveness to support evolving business and talent needs.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to business leaders and HR stakeholders, translating compensation and workforce architecture principles into practical solutions that support organizational effectiveness and evolving business needs.

Compensation Framework Governance

• Own the governance framework for Circana's global salary structures, including range design methodologies, market positioning approaches, geographic pay strategies, and compensation design principles.
• Lead periodic strategic reviews of compensation frameworks to ensure continued alignment with market conditions, business strategy, workforce needs, and compensation philosophy.
• Evaluate emerging compensation trends, labor market developments, regulatory changes, and organizational shifts to inform future compensation framework enhancements.
• Assess the effectiveness of salary structures, geographic pay approaches, and market positioning strategies, recommending changes as business and talent needs evolve.
• Partner with Compensation Administration to ensure compensation frameworks are effectively operationalized, maintained, and monitored across the enterprise.

Requirements

• 12+ years of progressive compensation experience, including significant responsibility for job architecture, job evaluation, leveling frameworks, compensation design, and workforce architecture strategy within complex global organizations.
• Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, and governing enterprise-wide job architecture frameworks across multiple functions, business units, countries, and regions.
• Deep expertise in job evaluation methodologies and market-leading grading frameworks, including direct experience with Willis Towers Watson, Korn Ferry, Mercer, Aon, or comparable methodologies. Experience implementing, administering, or operating within Willis Towers Watson Global Grading frameworks is strongly preferred.
• Experience in compensation consulting, workforce architecture consulting, or similar advisory environments is strongly preferred.
• Strong compensation design expertise, including salary structure development, market pricing methodologies, geographic pay strategies, compensation governance, and broad-based compensation program design.
• Proven experience leading large-scale job architecture, workforce design, job leveling, or compensation transformation initiatives from strategy and design through implementation, organizational adoption, and long-term governance.
• Demonstrated experience leading organizational change and global rollouts, including stakeholder alignment, communication, and adoption strategies associated with compensation, workforce architecture, or organizational transformation initiatives.
• Experience translating external methodologies, market practices, and business requirements into practical enterprise frameworks that support workforce planning, career progression, talent mobility, and compensation decision-making.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and apply governance frameworks, decision-making standards, and operating models that ensure consistency, scalability, and long-term sustainability.
• Strong financial and analytical capabilities, including workforce modeling, scenario analysis, compensation cost modeling, and assessment of organizational and compensation design alternatives.
• Experience partnering effectively with Finance, Legal, Employee Relations, Talent Management, HR Business Partners, and business leaders to implement enterprise-wide workforce and compensation initiatives.
• Demonstrated understanding of global regulatory considerations and pay transparency requirements, including experience supporting EU pay transparency initiatives, works council environments, and country-specific employment practices impacting job architecture and compensation design.
• Exceptional judgment, influence, consultative leadership, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, challenge assumptions, drive alignment across diverse stakeholder groups, and lead through significant organizational change.
• Ability to operate as a hands-on individual contributor while leading complex enterprise initiatives, balancing strategic design work with detailed analytical, implementation, and change management responsibilities.

Circana Behaviors

Beyond technical skills, experience, and role-specific attributes, these shared behaviors are fundamental to our culture and success. We seek individuals who consistently demonstrate and champion these behaviors in their daily work:

• Stay Curious: Being hungry to learn and grow, always asking the big questions.
• Seek Clarity: Embracing complexity to create clarity and inspire action.
• Own the Outcome: Being accountable for decisions and taking ownership of our choices.
• Center on the Client: Relentlessly adding value for our customers.
• Be a Challenger: Never complacent, always striving for continuous improvement.
• Champion Inclusivity: Fostering trust in relationships engaging with empathy, respect, and integrity.
• Commit to each other: Contributing