Head of Total Rewards

Inizio; Dublin; Hybrid; EUR 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Inizio is seeking a Head of Total Rewards to lead our global Total Rewards strategy, spanning compensation, benefits, wellbeing, recognition, and executive reward programmes. You will advise the executive team, HR Leadership Team, Remuneration Committee, and Board on strategic reward matters and governance.

You will oversee EU pay transparency projects, job architecture, benchmarking, and reward governance, ensuring scalable, compliant, and market-competitive programmes across a fast-growing

Qualifications

• Significant senior-level experience leading Total Rewards in a global, high-growth organisation.
• Expertise in global compensation, benefits, and rewards with a strong understanding of US, UK, and Ireland markets.
• Experience designing enterprise-wide reward strategies, managing pay structures, and executive compensation programmes.

Responsibilities

• Set and lead the global Total Rewards strategy aligned with business priorities and culture.
• Own global compensation, benefits, wellbeing, recognition, and executive reward governance.
• Lead annual reward cycles, including salary reviews, bonuses, equity allocations, and executive compensation recommendations.

Skills

Total Rewards strategy

Executive compensation

Global markets

Stakeholder management

Data analytics

Change management

Job description

The Head of Total Rewards will lead the global Total Rewards strategy for Inizio, ensuring our compensation, benefits, wellbeing, recognition, and executive reward programmes are competitive, equitable, scalable, and aligned to our business strategy. As a member of the HR Leadership Team, you will act as the senior subject matter expert for reward, advising the executive team, HRLT, Remuneration Committee, and Board on strategic reward matters, governance, regulatory readiness, and market practice across a complex, high-growth international organisation.

Responsibilities:

• Set and lead the global Total Rewards strategy, ensuring alignment with Inizio’s business priorities, talent strategy, culture, and ambition to be a global employer of choice.
• Own the global approach to compensation, benefits, wellbeing, recognition, executive reward, job architecture, benchmarking, and reward governance.
• Lead the annual reward cycle, including salary reviews, bonuses, equity allocations, and executive compensation recommendations, in partnership with Finance, Company Secretary, Legal, and HR teams.
• Provide strategic advice and insight to the CPO, HRLT, executive leaders, Remuneration Committee, and Board on reward strategy, market competitiveness, affordability, risk, and governance.

Strategic Projects

• Lead priority strategic reward projects including EU Pay Transparency, compensation planning, Gender Pay Gap reporting, global job architecture, executive compensation, and reward technology enablement.
• Own the preparation and quality of Remuneration Committee and Board reward papers, ensuring materials are clear, commercially balanced, and decision-ready.
• Lead the harmonisation of compensation, benefits, and reward policies across Inizio, ensuring programmes are scalable, compliant, competitive, and aligned to our global operating model.
• Oversee transaction readiness and due diligence support, ensuring compensation and benefits data is accurate, well-structured, and able to support M&A, financing, IPO readiness, and other business transactions.
• Define and lead executive compensation reporting and disclosure requirements, ensuring compliance with SEC regulations including Compensation Discussion & Analysis, Summary Compensation Tables, and pay-versus-performance disclosures.

Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Lead, coach, and develop the Total Rewards team, setting clear priorities, building capability, and ensuring strong delivery across global reward activities.
• Operate as a trusted HRLT member, contributing to broader people strategy, organisational priorities, and enterprise-wide decision making.
• Partner with BU HR, People Solutions, People Services, Talent Acquisition, Finance, Legal, Company Secretary, and external advisors to ensure Total Rewards programmes are effectively governed and delivered.
• Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders, influencing executive leaders through clear recommendations, robust market insight, commercial judgement, and board-ready communication.

Data-Driven Decision Making & Compliance

• Establish and maintain strong reward governance across all compensation, benefits, recognition, and executive reward programmes to ensure fairness, transparency, compliance, and alignment with organisational goals.
• Monitor external market trends, regulatory changes, investor expectations, and competitive reward practice, translating insight into practical recommendations for senior leadership.
• Use reward analytics, benchmarking, and workforce data to guide strategic decisions, manage cost and risk, and clearly explain the implications of reward choices to executive and HR stakeholders.

Process Optimisation & Change Management

• Lead the simplification, digitisation, and continuous improvement of reward processes, policies, systems, and governance frameworks.
• Lead change management for major reward initiatives, ensuring clear communications, stakeholder engagement, manager enablement, and appropriate training support.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Significant senior-level experience leading Total Rewards in a high-growth, global organisation, with proven accountability for setting strategy and advising executive stakeholders.
• Expertise in global compensation, benefits, and rewards, with a strong understanding of US, UK, and Ireland markets.
• Experience designing and leading enterprise-wide reward strategies, managing pay structures, overseeing executive compensation programmes, and translating business strategy into practical reward solutions.
• Demonstrated experience leading executive compensation strategy and preparing disclosure materials for U.S. public companies or IPO readiness, with deep knowledge of SEC regulations including CD&A, Summary Compensation Tables, and pay-versus-performance disclosures.
• Proven ability to collaborate cross-functionally with Legal, Finance, and external advisors, and to influence senior stakeholders through the development of clear, board-ready materials and effective support for Remuneration Committee and Board engagement.
• Experience operating as a senior leadership team member, contributing beyond functional expertise to broader people strategy, organisational priorities, and enterprise decision making.
• Strong programme leadership skills, with experience implementing compensation cycles, job levelling, benchmarking, and reward transformation initiatives.
• Strong change management experience, combined with high-quality written and verbal communication, stakeholder management, and influencing skills.
• Strong analytical and data interpretation skills, with experience using reward data to guide decision making and influence senior stakeholders.
• Experience with global job architecture, governance frameworks, reward analytics, and compensation reporting.
• Able to operate effectively in a fast-paced, high-growth, and ambiguous environment.

About us

We help our clients navigate their clinical development and commercialization journey by connecting the best scientific knowledge, market intelligence, actionable data, technology, communication, and creative execution.

With a global presence and multiple career paths, the career possibilities are expanding at Inizio. We're a growing global team of over 10,000 people - a $1.5bn revenue business working with the world’s leading health and life sciences businesses, and we have exciting growth plans. Whoever and wherever you are, we'll empower you with the autonomy you need to experiment, learn, and grow. We'll make sure that you feel valued, supported and, of course, because we're helping our clients to transform healthcare and improve millions of lives you can feel pride in your work at Inizio.

Our Pledge

At Inizio,we value inclusivity, recognize the power of diversity, and inspire the next generation of change-makers. We are an equal opportunities employer. We believe in creating a work environment that values diversity, equity, and inclusion. We strive to recruit from a diverse slate of candidates and foster an environment that provides the right conditions for long-term success. We welcome all applications regardless of race, colour, religion or belief, gender, gender identity, age, national origin, marital status, military veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation and physical or mental disability.

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Don't meet every job requirement? That's okay! Our company is dedicated to building an inclusive and authentic workplace. If you're excited about this role, but your experience doesn't perfectly fit every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right person for this role or others.