Associate Vice Chancellor, Enterprise Rewards Solutions

Key Functions and Expected Performance:

• Enterprise Rewards Strategy: Lead Vanderbilt’s total rewards architecture—including compensation, benefits, incentives, and wellness—to ensure competitiveness, internal equity, and alignment with institutional mission and talent priorities.
• Operational Partnership: Radically collaborate with divisional leaders, enterprise-wide stakeholders, and operations teams to implement improvements that elevate the employee experience, streamline people service delivery, and reinforce the university’s Employee Value Proposition (EVP).
• Workforce Enablement: Modernize systems, tools, and policies to enable seamless service delivery and data-driven, experience-centric design.
• Immigration & Global Talent Mobility: Oversee faculty and staff immigration and mobility programs, ensuring compliance, advocacy, and a smooth experience for international talent.
• Data-Driven Decision-Making: Leverage workforce analytics, AI-powered insights, and market intelligence to inform equitable pay, incentive strategies, and workforce planning.
• Strategic Advisory: Advise senior leaders on labor market trends, rewards investments, and enablement strategies—often in partnership with HR Business Partners.
• Team Leadership: Lead and develop a high-performing team, including direct oversight of the Executive Director of Workforce Compensation & Benefits Solutions.
• Vendor & Risk Management: Manage key vendor relationships across benefits, payroll, and immigration, ensuring compliance, fiduciary integrity, and institutional alignment.
• Strategic Initiatives & Industry Leadership: Advance bold rewards innovations that support Vanderbilt’s strategic priorities and elevate its position as a workforce thought leader.
• Operational Excellence: Champion core operations executed with speed, agility, and innovation—positioning Vanderbilt as a model for research universities and beyond.

Supervisory Relationships:

This position reports directly to the Vice Chancellor for People, Culture, and Belonging. It has supervisory responsibility for the Executive Director, Workforce Compensation & Benefits Solutions and related leaders in rewards, wellness, payroll, and mobility. 

Education and Certifications

Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree (e.g., MBA, JD, MPA) strongly preferred.

Experience and Skills:

• At least 15 years of progressive leadership experience in total rewards, compensation, HR strategy, or related workforce domains—ideally within complex, matrixed environments.
• Proven ability to lead high-performing teams and influence across organizational boundaries.
• Deep expertise in compensation philosophy, benefits design, and enterprise rewards strategy with a focus on scalability and employee experience.
• Strong grasp of operational service delivery for compensation and benefits, providing subject matter expertise to functional leaders.
• Strategic systems thinker capable of translating complexity into innovative, actionable solutions.
• Demonstrated AI acumen and the ability to apply AI-driven tools and analytics to improve workforce insights, personalization, and operational efficiency.
• Experience managing immigration, global mobility, and navigating regulatory frameworks in both domestic and international contexts.
• Track record of driving exceptional core operations with speed, agility, and scale to support institutional excellence.
• Proven leadership in launching bold, forward-thinking initiatives that expand the reach and impact of HR practices across diverse industries.
• Commitment to advancing Vanderbilt’s role as an industry leader through strategic advocacy, operational innovation, and workforce transformation.
   

At Vanderbilt University , our work - regardless of title or role - is in service to an important and noble mission in which every member of our community serves in advancing knowledge and transforming lives on a daily basis. Located in Nashville, Tennessee, on a 330+ acre campus and arboretum dating back to 1873,