Senior Reward Business Partner

  • Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited
  • Manchester, Lancashire
  • May 11, 2026
Full time

Job Description

Are you an experienced Reward leader who thrives in a commercially focused, people-centric environment? This is a rare opportunity to join a high-performing professional services organisation in a pivotal role shaping the firm's reward strategy, governance, and operational delivery across the full reward life-cycle.

As the business continues to evolve, they are seeking a reward lead who can bring insight, challenge, and strategic thinking - while remaining hands-on enough to deliver critical annual reward processes.

The Opportunity

You'll play a central role in helping the organisation attract, retain, and reward top talent, owning and leading key reward cycles and frameworks. This is not a back-office role - you'll be highly visible across the firm, partnering closely with HR Business Partners and senior leaders to influence decision-making and elevate reward capability.

You will lead on:

  • Salary & bonus cycles end-to-end, including April salary review and annual bonus review.
  • Preparing and presenting REMCO packs, including investment modelling and recommendations
  • Compensation benchmarking and market insights
  • Pay transparency initiatives and governance
  • Gender Pay Gap reporting and submissions
  • Oversight of employee benefits, trainee reward frameworks, and Workday-based processes
  • Identifying pay risks, outliers, and trends across service lines
  • Upskilling HRBP's to confidently discuss reward with leaders
  • Building and maintaining a strong external reward network
  • Ensuring operational excellence across the wider reward life-cycle.

You'll be supported by a small team, including one direct report, two senior reward managers, and a junior benefits team, with scope for this role to take broader ownership as the function evolves.

About You

We're looking for a Reward professional who brings:

  • Strong experience in professional services (PE-backed exposure advantageous)
  • Proven experience leading salary, bonus, and governance cycles
  • Confidence operating with senior stakeholders and presenting to REMCO.
  • A proactive, connected, commercially minded approach
  • A collaborative style - someone who enjoys being out in the business, not behind a spreadsheet.

This role would suit someone stepping into a Head of Reward remit or an established Reward leader seeking a broader, more commercially impactful position.

Location & Working Pattern

  • Manchester or Liverpool (travel between multiple sites initially to build relationships)
  • Hybrid: 2-3 days per week in the office
  • Full-time hours with flexibility available

Benefits

A highly competitive package including:

  • Pension matched up to 8%
  • 27 days holiday + bank holidays + your birthday off
  • Flexible bank holidays (choose how you use the 8 days)
  • Discretionary bonus
  • Private medical & health cover
  • Death in service
  • Medical screenings
  • Employee Benefits Trust (EBT)
  • Flexible working policies

What you need to do now.

If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now.If this job isn't quite right for you, but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion about your career.

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