Senior Director

At Rite-Hite, your work makes an impact. As the global leader in loading dock and door equipment, we design and deliver solutions that keep our customers safe, secure, and productive. Here, you’ll find innovation, stability, and the chance to grow your career as part of a team that’s always looking ahead. 

PURPOSE AND SCOPE

The Director of Total Rewards is a strategic and operational enterprise leader responsible for architecting, optimizing, and governing the company’s total rewards strategy and infrastructure. This role serves as the enterprise workforce investment strategist and executive advisor, shaping compensation, benefits, executive rewards, and recognition programs as key levers to drive performance, engagement, retention, and long-term value creation.

This leader is responsible for the company’s compensation philosophy, job architecture, pay transparency strategy, and workforce cost modeling approach, ensuring rewards align with business strategy, workforce complexity, and Rite-Hite’s culture and values.

The role leads compensation, executive compensation, benefits, recognition, and reward programs with strong emphasis on process design, automation, governance rigor, operational accuracy, and financial discipline. The Director ensures total rewards remain competitive, performance-driven, market-aligned, and ROI-focused.

This leader designs scalable systems and seasonal work plans that ensure precision, efficiency, compliance, and clarity across all phases of the annual compensation and benefits cycle. The Director plays a critical role in acquisition integration and enterprise reward transformation initiatives, ensuring harmonization, governance consistency, and workforce continuity.

The ideal candidate is both a strategic architect and disciplined operator with deep executive compensation expertise, strong financial acumen, M&A integration experience, and a demonstrated ability to modernize and transform reward systems while enabling leaders to confidently manage pay conversations.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Enterprise Total Rewards Strategy & Workforce Investment

• Develop and execute a total rewards strategy aligned with company business objectives, culture, and market competitiveness, utilizing a Total Rewards Value approach balancing salary, short-term incentives, long-term incentives, and benefits.
• Serve as strategic advisor to the Executive Leadership Team, influencing executive incentive design, governance decisions, and board-level reward discussions.
• Architect scalable compensation and benefits infrastructure capable of supporting growth, workforce complexity, and acquisition integration.
• Lead workforce cost modeling, financial scenario planning, and ROI-driven reward strategy to optimize investment while maintaining competitive positioning.
• Design structured annual and multi-year work plans that reflect seasonal workload cycles (merit planning, bonus cycles, open enrollment, executive compensation reviews, integration activity).
• Clearly define required team structure, capabilities, and external partnerships needed to execute effectively at enterprise scale.

2. Compensation Philosophy, Architecture & Executive Compensation Leadership

• Own and evolve the enterprise compensation philosophy, job architecture framework, and pay transparency strategy.
• Design and administer competitive compensation structures, including base, incentive, and executive compensation programs aligned to performance and business outcomes.
• Lead executive compensation planning, governance, and reporting in partnership with senior leadership and, where applicable, the Board.
• Ensure accurate modeling, financial forecasting, testing, and governance of compensation programs.
• Lead annual salary planning processes including merit, promotions, short-term and long-term incentives.
• Ensure pay equity, regulatory compliance, and alignment with company values and performance expectations.
• Develop leader capability to conduct effective pay and performance conversations.

3. Leader Enablement & Total Rewards Communication

• Design and deploy enterprise-wide compensation and total rewards training for leaders and HR partners.
• Equip leaders with tools, frameworks, and guidance to confidently manage pay conversations and reinforce performance-driven culture.
• Own the total rewards communication and change management strategy to ensure employees understand the full value of their compensation and benefits.
• Align communication strategies to drive engagement, transparency, and trust across workforce segments.

4. Workforce-Segmented Benefits & Recognition Strategy

• Lead a workforce-segmented benefits strategy addressing the needs of multi-generational, manufacturing, field service technician, professional, and executive populations.
• Oversee design and administration of benefit programs to ensure effectiveness, competitiveness, compliance, engagement, and cost discipline.
• Redesign legacy programs to improve utilization, engagement, and measurable return on investment.
• Build and evolve a culture-aligned recognition strategy tied to business outcomes and performance reinforcement.
• Maintain strong vendor oversight, contract negotiation, and performance accountability.

5. Process Design, Automation & Governance Controls

• Evaluate total rewards processes to identify breakdowns, redundancies, and risk exposure.
• Implement structured audit checkpoints across payroll, bonus calculations, executive compensation, and benefit administration.
• Lead system optimization efforts (Workday and related platforms), ensuring accurate data flow, reporting integrity, and automation of process controls.
• Develop KPIs and dashboards to monitor accuracy, timeliness, compliance, cost efficiency, and workforce investment effectiveness.
• Establish documentation and standard operating procedures to ensure repeatability and consistency.
• Reduce error rates through automation, redesign, and accountability mechanisms.

6. Mergers, Acquisitions & Reward Transformation

• Lead total rewards due diligence during acquisition activity.
• Develop integration roadmaps for harmonizing compensation structures, incentive plans, benefits programs, payroll processes, and systems.
• Assess legacy processes and implement standardized Rite-Hite governance and controls.
• Drive enterprise reward transformation initiatives, including modernization, transparency strategy implementation, and system enhancements.
• Ensure smooth transition for employees while protecting compliance, financial accuracy, and workforce engagement.

7. Compliance, Risk Mitigation & Financial Stewardship

• Ensure compliance with all applicable compensation, payroll, and benefits regulations.
• Maintain governance structures that support internal and external audits.
• Partner with Legal, Finance, HRIS/Payroll, and HR leadership to mitigate risk exposure.
• Ensure documentation and controls withstand regulatory and financial scrutiny.
• Monitor total rewards investment effectiveness through financial modeling, benchmarking, and performance analytics.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, or related field; Master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in Total Rewards leadership, and executive compensation.
• Demonstrated experience leading total rewards workstreams during mergers and acquisitions.
• Proven track record of automating manual processes and implementing control frameworks.
• Experience administering and optimizing Workday or similar HRIS platforms required.
• Experience in a complex, multi-entity or global organization preferred.
• Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) strongly preferred.

KNOWLEDGE / SKILL REQUIREMENTS

The ideal candidate will demonstrate:

• Deep expertise in executive compensation design and governance.
• Strong financial acumen and modeling capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to build audit frameworks and reduce error rates in payroll and compensation administration.
• Exceptional operational discipline and project management skills.
• Ability to plan and manage cyclical/seasonal workload fluctuations.
• Strong systems orientation with a continuous improvement mindset.
• Clear, confident communication skills with executive leadership.
• Ability to design team resource plans that support business growth.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead and develop the Total Rewards team.
• Establish clear roles, accountability structures, and performance metrics.
• Build capabilities that reduce reliance on manual intervention.
• Ensure workload planning aligns with business cycles and acquisition activity.

What We Offer

At Rite-Hite, we take care of our people – because when you’re supported, you can do your best work. Our benefits are designed to support your health, your future and your life outside of work:

• Health & Well-being: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, plus life and disability insurance. A robust well-being program with an opportunity to receive an extra day off and more.

• Financial Security: A strong retirement savings program with 401(k), company match, and profit sharing.

• Time for You: Paid holidays, vacation time, and personal/sick days each year.

Join us and build a career where you’re supported – at work and beyond.

Rite-Hite is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law.In accordance with VEVRAA, we are committed to providing equal employment opportunities for protected veterans.We are also committed to maintaining a drug-free workplace for the safety of our employees and customers.