Senior Compensation Consultant

Senior Compensation Consultant

Seattle Human Resources endeavors to promote an equitable and engaging work environment so employees can do their best work and make a difference for the people and communities we serve. The Department focuses on providing high-quality services to all City employees and departments and works collaboratively with department leaders to align policies, practices, and programs citywide to fulfill the vision of workforce equity and excellence.

As part of this mission, the Compensation & Classification unit administers the Citywide job classification and compensation programs for approximately 12,500 regular employees and more than 1,200 job classifications. This work champions internal and external equity by taking meaningful steps to ensure that similar bodies of work and levels of responsibility are paid similarly across all City departments, and that all positions are compensated fairly and competitively in the market. We are looking for a Senior Compensation Consultant to support these goals.

In this role, you will act as the City's sole internal technical subject matter expert for employee compensation. You will lead the design and administration of the City's market salary data strategy, act as the seniormost compensation consultant within the City's centralized Compensation and Classification team, and support the development and maintenance of Citywide compensation programs in a fast-paced, matrix team environment.

Job Responsibilities

Your top 3 priorities in this role will be:

• Market Data Strategy:
  • Leading the design, administration, and communication of the City's market data strategy and systems to support externally competitive pay for the full scope of the City's classification titles and pay programs
  • Designing and administering the City's salary survey strategy
  • Designing and supporting the City's market data funnel to support accurate and updated market ranges, including identifying and selecting the tools and systems to use for this work
  • Organizing market data and updating it on a regular schedule to ensure the City's pay rates accurately reflect external markets
  • Maintaining a Citywide market ratio tracking and reporting system
• Compensation Consulting:
  • Conducting ad hoc salary studies as necessary and preparing reports for leadership detailing defensible justifications for pay rate and pay range decisions
  • Leading the development of salary structures and pay ranges for classification titles through effective market pricing and compensation analyses to balance external competitiveness, internal alignment, and Citywide pay equity
  • Leading compensation-specific projects and supporting multi-functional projects, including determining scope and tasks, reviewing and approving work products of external consultants, supporting labor negotiations, and developing compensation modeling
  • Leading the compensation analysis work of internal Comp/Class consultants
• Citywide Compensation Program Support:
  • Evaluating the overall performance of the City's compensation programs (e.g., external competitiveness and internal equity)
  • Designing, implementing, communicating, and evaluating compensation processes and program improvements
  • Developing and maintaining Citywide compensation structures, including grade structures, compensation structures, and salary schedules
  • Acting as the owner of Citywide compensation systems and tools (e.g., CompAnalyst), including advising on compensation tool selection, tool setup and configuration, designing processes, providing training, and acting as an escalation point for Citywide compensation tool use
  • Developing and delivering presentations for legislation, including answering questions to defend compensation recommendations

You will be most successful in this role with a combination of the following:

• Experience in:
  • Compensation analysis, including market pricing, salary survey interpretation, performing salary studies, and developing pay ranges
  • Leading the development and maintenance of compensation programs at medium-to-large-sized organizations
  • Making formal pay grade recommendations for titles across an organization
  • Monitoring legal changes that impact compensation, such as changes to minimum wage and overtime eligibility thresholds
  • Working in a unionized environment, including supporting labor negotiations by providing pay band recommendations for titles in bargaining
  • Managing and executing project plans, particularly leading projects with moderate resource requirements, risk, and/or complexity
  • Performing compensation analysis for a wide variety of industries and professions
• Skills or Certification in:
  • Certified Compensation Professional (CCP)
  • Data communication
  • Data management
  • Process development
  • Project management
  • Attention to detail
  • Interpersonal and collaboration skills
  • Advanced Microsoft Excel skills
  • Working knowledge of Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook
  • Market data, compensation management, and compensation modeling software skills, preferably CompAnalyst
• The ability to:
  • Effectively present market data analyses and pay range justifications to non-expert audiences verbally, through written deliverables, and with data visualizations
  • Create sound, defensible, public-facing documents
  • Complete projects in matrix environments with close coordination of deliverables
  • Perform compensation analysis for a wide variety of industries and professions, particularly public safety, utilities, engineering, finance, behavioral health, transportation, education, and others
  • Stay on task, meet deadlines, and communicate proactively

Qualifications

In addition to the ability to perform the tasks described above, you will need to possess the below required qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Human Resource Management, Business or Public Administration, Social Sciences, or a related field
• Three years in compensation analysis, classification and compensation, performing other human resources-related tasks, or a related field
OR
• Associate Degree in Human Resource Management, Business or Public Administration, Social Sciences, or a related field
• Four years in compensation analysis, classification and compensation, performing other human resources-related tasks, or a related field
OR
• Five years in compensation analysis, classification and compensation, performing other human resources-related tasks, or a related field