Global Compensation and Benefits Director

Job Description

Avient is seeking a strategic, business-minded, and globally experienced Global Compensation and Benefits Director to join our team. This role offers a unique opportunity to shape and elevate our global total rewards strategy across diverse markets and employee populations.

Our HR Directors are instrumental in driving Avient's success by aligning our people strategy with our business objectives. The Global Director for Compensation and Benefits is a trusted advisor to senior executives, providing insights and expertise on all aspects of our total rewards strategy. This role ensures our talent rewards programs are competitive, equitable, and designed to attract, retain, and reward the industry's best talent. We focus not only on today's needs but also on building a future-ready organization.

Reporting directly to the SVP, Chief Human Resources Officer, this role is a key member of the Global HR Leadership Team, bringing functional expertise and strategic insight to help shape and execute Avient's People Strategy. This leader will have direct responsibility and/or oversight for global benefit offerings (including health, wellness, retirement, and leave programs), global compensation programs (including base pay and salary structures, incentive plans and executive compensation), immigration and mobility programs, and support M&A activities as needed. Within each of these programs and processes, the alignment of global business strategy, talent needs, and market trends balanced with local regulatory and compliance requirements will be a critical skill to ensure our total rewards strategy is competitive and supports our growth.

The ideal candidate is a collaborative, data-driven, and customer-centric leader with deep expertise in global compensation and benefits. They will have a proven track record of balancing local and regional needs with global strategy, navigating complex regulatory environments, and leading high-impact initiatives across a matrixed organization. This individual will also inspire and develop a high-performing global team of total rewards professionals.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions

• Embraces their role of change agent; living the Avient Leadership Behaviors and evolving the culture to achieve our business strategy. Coaches and holds their team accountable to the same.
• Drives a high-performance culture through total rewards practices that promote transparency, equity, innovation, and accountability. Ensures programs support talent attraction, retention, and development across all levels of the organization.
• Leverages digital tools and platforms to enhance the employee experience and streamline compensation and benefits administration. Identifies opportunities for automation, simplification, and improved service delivery.
• Leads and develops a global team of compensation and benefits professionals, providing coaching, feedback, and development opportunities to build a strong talent pipeline and ensure operational excellence.
• Serves as a trusted advisor to senior global leaders, developing and implementing compensation and benefits strategies that align with Avient's business goals. Balances global consistency with regional and local needs, ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
• Provides subject matter expertise and leadership in the design, governance, and execution of global compensation and benefits programs-including base pay, variable pay, equity, executive compensation, health and welfare benefits, and retirement plans. Partners closely with the HR team to ensure global alignment and local relevance.
• Uses data and analytics to tell a compelling story, enabling fact-based decision-making and continuous improvement across total rewards programs. Translates insights into actionable strategies that drive employee engagement and business outcomes.
• Leads and manages complex, high-impact projects, including compensation planning cycles, benefits harmonization, M&A integration, and global benchmarking initiatives. Ensures programs are scalable, sustainable, and aligned with Avient's strategic priorities.
• Proactively manages relationships with external partners and vendors, including compensation consultants, benefits brokers, carriers, immigration and mobility programs, insurance pooling vendors, and benchmarking providers, etc.
• Performs other strategic projects and responsibilities as required to support the evolving needs of the business and the global HR function.

Qualifications

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in human resources, business, finance or related field or equivalent experience. Master's or legal degree preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in compensation and benefits, with a strong track record of designing and leading complex, enterprise-wide total rewards strategies across multiple regions and diverse employee populations. Experience in a global manufacturing or similarly complex, matrixed industry strongly preferred.
• Extensive expertise in executive compensation, equity programs, and global benefits strategy, with a strong understanding of regional compliance requirements and market practices and ability to prepare and present concise materials for Board of Director and Compensation Committee discussions.
• Strong interpersonal communication skills and ability to interact with individuals globally and across all organizational levels.
• Ability to work as part of a team with excellent collaboration skills across other functions and with business partners.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision. Ability to manage multiple tasks and priorities including good time management skills, organizational skills, and taking accountability for tasks and issues.
• Excellent trouble-shooting and problem-solving skills with the ability to "work in the grey" and navigate complex situations in a balanced approach.
• Quick thinking, initiative taking, thirst for learning and unafraid to be out of comfort zone.
• Experience in HR systems and Microsoft Suite required, with expert-level skills in Excel, including pivot tables, VLOOKUP, financial modeling, and data visualization.
• Experience with compensation benchmarking tools (e.g., Mercer) and financial planning systems.
• Ability to synthesize complex data into actionable insights for senior leadership is essential.

Final compensation within this range may vary based on factors including but not limited to background, knowledge, skills, and abilities as well as geographic location of the position. The Company offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements: medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, life insurance, long-term disability insurance, short-term disability insurance, paid time off, paid vacation time, paid parental leave, paid holidays annually. Learn more about our benefits at: Career Opportunities | Avient.

The wage range, other compensation, and benefits information listed is accurate as of the date of this posting. Avient reserves the right to modify this information at any time, with or without notice, subject to applicable law.

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About Us

Our purpose at Avient Corporation is to be an innovator of materials solutions that help our customers succeed, while enabling a sustainable world.

Innovation goes far beyond materials science; it's powered by the passion, creativity, and diverse expertise of 9,000 professionals worldwide. Whether you're a finance wizard, a tech enthusiast, an operational powerhouse, an HR changemaker, or a trailblazer in materials development, you'll find your place at Avient.

Join our global team and help shape the future with sustainable solutions that transform possibilities into realities. Your unique perspective could be the key to our next breakthrough!

We believe that all of our global employees are leaders and that the six most important behaviors for driving our strategy and culture are the same no matter if an employee is a leader of self, a leader of others, or a leader of the business.

By playing to win, acting customer centric, driving innovation and profitable growth, collaborating seamlessly across Avient, and motivating and inspiring and developing others and yourself you will accelerate your ability to achieve Avient's strategic goals, to meet our customer needs, and to accomplish your career goals.

At Avient, we believe a wide variety of thoughts, ideas and backgrounds gives us the creativity to be successful in a rapidly changing world. In support of this, we stress equality of opportunity for all qualified individuals in accordance with applicable laws. Decisions on hiring, promotion, development, compensation or advancement are based solely on a person's qualifications, abilities, experience and performance.

Avient is an equal opportunity employer. We maintain a policy of non-discrimination in providing equal employment to all qualified employees and candidates regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, color, religion, national origin, disability, genetic information, protected veteran's status, or other legally protected classification in accordance with applicable federal, state and local law. If you need an accommodation because of a disability to complete an online application, please contact the Avient HR Team by emailing, View email address on click.appcast.io.