Senior Total Rewards & Workforce Planner

MBZUAI (Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence); Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 350,000 - 520,000; Full time

Job summary

MBZUAI is seeking aSenior Specialist, Total Rewards to design and oversee the Total Rewards framework, including salary structures, benefits, and benchmarking. The role collaborates with Finance and HR to ensure equity, competitiveness, and cost discipline.

You will lead compensation analyses, support annual salary reviews and bonus cycles, develop workforce models, and provide data-driven insights to support strategic decisions across academic and professional services teams in the UAE.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in HR, Business Administration, Economics or related field.
• Postgraduate degree preferred.
• Professional certification in compensation, benefits, reward, or HR is desirable (e.g., CCP, CBP, GRP, CCBP, SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, CIPD, HRCI).

Responsibilities

• Design, review, and administer MBZUAI Total Rewards framework.
• Benchmark compensation and benefits against higher education, research, technology and UAE markets.
• Support annual salary reviews and bonus cycles.
• Provide compensation recommendations for hires, promotions, transfers, renewals.
• Maintain Total Rewards governance, policies, and documentation.
• Develop workforce planning and dashboards to support decision-making.

Skills

Advanced Excel

Stakeholder management

Data-driven decision making

Education

Bachelor’s degree in HR/Business Administration/Economics

Postgraduate degree preferred

Job description

MBZUAI is seeking aSenior Specialist, Total Rewards to design and oversee the Total Rewards framework, including salary structures, benefits, and benchmarking. The role collaborates with Finance and HR to ensure equity, competitiveness, and cost discipline.

You will lead compensation analyses, support annual salary reviews and bonus cycles, develop workforce models, and provide data-driven insights to support strategic decisions across academic and professional services teams in the UAE.