Compensation Lead - Programs

Overview

As a patient-focused organization, University of Utah Health exists to enhance the health and well-being of people through patient care, research and education. Success in this mission requires a culture of collaboration, excellence, leadership, and respect. University of Utah Health seeks staff that are committed to the values of compassion, collaboration, innovation, responsibility, integrity, quality and trust that are integral to our mission. EO/AA

• The Compensation Lead — Programs serves as a senior individual contributor within the Compensation Center of Expertise, with primary responsibility for translating compensation strategy into practical tools, frameworks, guidance, and implementation-ready resources. This role supports major compensation initiatives such as job architecture implementation, career framework integration, compensation program updates, executive job architecture, workforce segmentation, incentive or variable pay design, and other enterprise compensation workstreams.  

• This position is intended for a tool-builder, rollout driver, and solution-oriented partner who can turn complex compensation concepts into usable materials that support consistent decision-making across HR and operational leadership. The Compensation Lead — Programs partners closely with Compensation leadership, Compensation Operations, Compensation Consulting, HR partners, Finance, HRIS, Talent Acquisition, and business stakeholders to ensure compensation programs are scalable, sustainable, documented, and operationally supported.  

• The role provides advanced compensation expertise, program design support, workstream leadership, implementation coordination, stakeholder readiness support, and practical problem-solving. It may provide matrixed guidance, coaching, quality review, and work direction to compensation analysts or project contributors, but does not necessarily serve as a formal people manager. Success in this role requires strong compensation judgment, project discipline, written communication, tool development capability, and the ability to convert strategy into clear, practical, adoption-ready resources 

Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00 am - 4:30 pm

• Hybrid, In office Tuesdays and Thursdays (Subject to change based on department needs)

 

Corporate Overview: University of Utah Health is an integrated academic healthcare system with five hospitals including a level 1 trauma center, eleven community health centers, over 1,600 providers, and a health plan serving over 200,000 members. University of Utah Health is nationally ranked and recognized for our academic research, quality standards and overall patient experience. In addition to our clinical delivery system, we have a School of Medicine, School of Dentistry, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, and College of Health providing education and training for over 1,250 providers annually. We have over 2 million patient visits annually and research grants exceeding $350 million. University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics represents our clinical operations for the larger health system.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions

Advanced Compensation Consultation

• Provides senior-level compensation consultation to HR partners, leaders, and other stakeholders on complex matters, including hiring, promotions, market adjustments, retention actions, interim assignments, bonuses, job evaluations, career framework placement, pay administration, and executive or leadership role questions.
• Interprets compensation policy, job architecture, market data, internal pay consistency, budget constraints, and operational context to develop practical, defensible recommendations that balance business need, market competitiveness, internal consistency, financial stewardship, and precedent risk.
• Manages or supports escalated, high-impact, precedent-setting, politically sensitive, or ambiguous compensation matters with appropriate documentation, routing, and follow-through.

Compensation Program and Workstream Leadership

• Leads significant, defined compensation program workstreams such as job architecture implementation, workforce segmentation, incentive/variable pay program development, executive compensation framework development, or career framework integration.
• Serves as a compensation content and design lead by translating business needs, compensation strategy, and implementation requirements into practical frameworks, tools, guidance, and decision standards.
• Partners with designated project / program resources to support planning, readiness, documentation, and implementation coordination across Compensation Operations, Consulting, and Programs.
• Identifies program ris