Managing Director, Executive Compensation and Board Advisory

Managing Director, Executive Compensation and Board Advisory

As a managing director in the executive compensation and board advisory practice, you will be primarily responsible for selling, leading, and delivering large client engagements and serving as a strategic advisor to clients in your areas of subject matter expertise. You'll also contribute your thought leadership to the overall development of the executive compensation practice and act as a coach and mentor for fellow colleagues. Specific client engagements could include the following:

• Executive compensation benchmarking
• Short and long-term incentive design
• Compensation committee advice/support
• Board advisory
• Working closely with colleagues in other work and rewards practices to sell and deliver on broader rewards strategy projects, including our broad-based employee solutions (compensation, careers, skills, etc.), and our proprietary data and software solutions
• Partnering with colleagues in our other health, wealth, and career businesses on broader opportunities that align with our client's needs (e.g. integrating change and communications support, health and welfare benefits solutions, retirement, etc.)

Responsibilities:

• Serve as the lead executive compensation consultant on client projects, supporting management and/or the compensation committee, developing appropriate reward strategies which align with the overall human capital strategy and support the client's business goals while adhering to Willis Towers Watson quality standards
• Develop and maintain selected key accounts and trusted client relationships at a senior level in a way that results in building long-term client relationships across multiple practices
• Manage multiple and complex executive compensation project engagements in a way that ensures profitable revenue for Willis Towers Watson, associate engagement and development and high client satisfaction
• Think strategically in partnering with clients to pioneer unique approaches to solving their business problems, connecting clients to other WTW colleagues where appropriate
• Provide high quality consulting advice, accurate technical content and engaging deliverables to senior leaders in client companies
• Use highly effective written and spoken communications to deliver detailed findings, analyses and recommendations to senior leaders of client organizations

Excellence:

• Contribute to the development, design and implementation of executive compensation programs and practices for our clients
• Nurture your profile as a thought leader in the executive compensation sphere, through various public relations initiatives that build a strong brand image for our business and contribute towards enhancing the Willis Towers Watson brand and market position
• Provide insight, judgement and intellectual capital to the executive compensation practice and local office teams
• Collaborate with sales operations, legal and client teams on client contracting terms (e.g. scope of work, master services agreements)
• Be a positive role model of WTW values and contribute to building an employer of choice culture of top performing associates committed to client satisfaction, teamwork and excellence in all that is done

Financial:

• Manage own pipeline, assessing the market for client opportunities, then nurturing qualified leads into profitable new business wins
• Support the executive compensation and broader rewards office and regional practice leaders in creating and executing a strategy for penetrating the local and regional market and introducing new clients to the firm in order to meet annual revenue goals
• Identify opportunities to cross-sell new products and services
• Coordinate with existing client teams to identify, develop and win strategic sales opportunities
• Build relationships with internal and external sources to maximize the penetration of key target clients

People:

• Lead executive compensation engagements including developing project plans for execution of large, global engagements leveraging cross-functional teams that work together effectively
• Demonstrate extensive leadership ability by effectively mentoring and developing other consultants
• Build relationships internally and collaborate effectively on cross-functional teams

Qualifications

Requirements:

• Minimum fifteen (15) years of experience in an executive compensation consulting organization, or in a senior compensation role in a large, complex organization
• Excellent academic credentials (e.g., MBA, law, accounting, or actuarial science degrees, certification such as CCP or equivalent)
• Proven compensation consulting success in areas including executive compensation benchmarking, annual incentive design, design of equity compensation programs, and analysis of complex pay issues on implementation of compensation changes
• Excellent analytical skills both in terms of logic of reasoning and analysis of numerical and financial data
• An executive presence with excellent and persuasive oral and written communication skills in an executive setting
• Strong client relationship skills: the ability to influence senior management and the ability to work across all levels of an organization
• Demonstrated capacity to propose and win profitable new business
• Proven ability to lead and develop teams of high performing consulting professionals
• Mentoring/coaching skills
• Self-driven achiever with ability to work effectively in ambiguous situations
• Flexibility and proven ability to diagnose and resolve complex issues
• Demonstrated value for diversity, excellence and integrity in all that is done
• Working knowledge of Excel, MS Word, MS PowerPoint
• Bachelor's degree required, MBA or other relevant advanced degree preferred
• Ability to travel

Compensation and benefits

Base salary range and benefits information for this position are being included in accordance with requirements for various state/local pay transparency legislation. Please note that base salaries may vary for different individuals in the same role based on several factors, including but not limited to location of the role, individual qualifications, education/profession certifications, experience, performance in the role and potential for revenue generation (producer roles only).

Compensation

The base salary compensation range being offered for this role is $250,000- $375,000 USD per year. This role is also eligible for an annual short-term incentive bonus.

Company benefits

WTW provides a competitive benefit package which includes the following (eligibility requirements apply):

• Health and welfare benefits: medical (including prescription coverage), dental, vision, health savings account, commuter account, health care and dependent care flexible spending accounts, group accident, group critical illness, life insurance, AD&D, group legal, identity theft protection, wellbeing program and work/life resources (including employee assistance program)
• Leave benefits: paid holidays, annual paid time off (includes paid state/local paid leave where required), short-term disability, long-term disability, other leaves (e.g., bereavement, FMLA, ADA, jury duty, military leave, and parental and adoption leave), paid time off
• Retirement benefits: contributory pension plan and savings plan (401k)

EOE, including disability/vets

Pursuant to the San Francisco fair chance ordinance and Los Angeles county fair chance ordinance for employers, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Job Info

• Job identification 202600421
• Job category executive
• Posting date 05/19/2026, 12:47 PM
• Locations Willis Tower, Chicago, IL, 60606, US
• Job schedule full time