Head of Pay and Reward - Social Care

Head of Pay and Reward - Social Care

Salary: £80,000 per annum + £5,800 car allowance + 20% bonus
Location: Hybrid, Leatherhead
Full-Time, Permanent (37.5 hours per week)

Remit

Compass Corporate Services are proud to be partnering exclusively with a leading provider of specialist support for people with learning disabilities, autism and associated complex needs. We are seeking a strategic and commercially minded Head of Pay and Reward to lead the organisation’s total reward and payroll functions.

This is an exciting opportunity to shape the future of reward and recognition across a large, complex, multi-site care organisation, ensuring the organisation remains an employer of choice by offering compelling and competitive packages to attract and retain talent.

The Role

Reporting to the Chief People Officer and working closely with senior leaders across HR Services, Systems, and Finance, the Head of Pay and Reward will be responsible for designing and executing a total reward strategy aligned with the organisation’s values and growth objectives.

You will lead a high-performing payroll and rewards team, overseeing compensation, benefits, recognition programs and payroll operations. The role requires deep expertise in compliance, data insights, process improvement, and system optimisation, ensuring accuracy and effectiveness across all pay and reward initiatives.

Key responsibilities include:

• Developing and delivering a compelling total reward strategy.
• Leading annual pay reviews, benchmarking, and job evaluation.
• Overseeing benefit programmes and recognition schemes.
• Driving payroll operations to ensure accuracy, compliance, and timeliness.
• Leading on Gender Pay Gap reporting and statutory returns.
• Implementing systems improvements and contributing strategic insights to SLT.
• Partnering with key stakeholders across People, Finance, and Operations.

Location

This is a hybrid role based in Leatherhead, with flexible home-working options. Some travel may be required.

Essential Criteria

• Extensive experience in pay, reward, and payroll leadership in a large, complex organisation (preferably in healthcare or social care).
• In-depth knowledge of UK payroll legislation, pension schemes, and reward frameworks.
• Experience managing payroll transitions and implementing new systems.
• Familiarity with iTrent and Wagestream systems is ideal.
• Relevant professional qualifications (e.g. CIPP, CIPD Reward) desirable.
• Proven team leadership and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Strong analytical, reporting, and problem-solving capabilities.

The Candidate

The ideal candidate will be an experienced payroll and reward leader with a strong background in large, multi-site organisations, ideally within the health or social care sector. You will be commercially astute, detail-oriented, and passionate about delivering fair and competitive pay and benefits structures that support employee engagement and organisational growth.

You will bring expertise in pay benchmarking, statutory reporting and compliance, along with proven experience in leading teams and managing change. Your ability to communicate complex information clearly, and to build strong relationships across People, Finance and Operations teams, will be crucial to your success.

This role is suited to someone who thrives on operational excellence and continuous improvement, and who has a clear vision for developing a high-performing reward function within a values-led organisation.

Interview Process

This is a multi-stage interview process:

• Initial screening with consultant Isobel.
• Initial screening with internal recruitment team.
• 1st stage Teams interview with SLT, competency question-based.
• 2nd stage face-to-face meeting with SLT (may be held via Teams depending on timing).

Recommendations

Compass Associates Ltd is acting as a Recruitment Consultancy for this permanent vacancy; we offer a £200 John Lewis voucher for a successful recommendation following the completion of probation/rebate.

Compass Associates, established in 2009, is an award-winning, UK specialist Health and Social Care Recruitment Consultancy providing tailored, high quality recruitment solutions for all permanent assignments.