Director, Compensation
Alcon · Geneva
At Alcon, we're passionate about enhancing sight and helping people see brilliantly. With more than 25,000 associates, we innovate fearlessly, champion progress, and act swiftly to impact global eye health. We foster an inclusive culture, recognizing your contributions and offering opportunities to grow your career like never before. Together, we make a difference in the lives of our patients and customers. Are you ready to join us?
This role is part of Alcon's Human Resources function, a team that collaborates across the business to shape company culture, manage talent, align associates to our purpose, and support associate development to help our people and the world see brilliantly.
The Director, Compensation is primarily responsible for leading broad-based compensation programs, including base salary structures and job evaluations, to ensure Alcon remains competitive and equitable. You will build relationships with external vendors and provide consultative support to business units, evaluating market data and legal requirements to maintain internal equity and external competitiveness.
Leads broad-based compensation strategy across International markets, ensuring programs support business objectives, talent priorities, and organizational growth. Serves as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on compensation strategy, pay equity, market competitiveness, and evolving regulatory requirements, while driving global consistency, local market relevance, and effective change adoption.
In this role, a typical day will include:
- Lead compensation strategy design and implementation for markets outside the Americas, aligning rewards programs with business priorities and talent needs.
- Serve as a strategic advisor to HR and business leaders on:
- Pay decisions, workforce planning, organizational design, market positioning, and talent retention.
- Design, evolution, and adaptation of compensation programs, ensuring alignment with Alcon's compensation philosophy, pay equity objectives, and governance standards.
- Drive pay equity analyses, remediation strategies, and transparency initiatives, including partnering with the Compensation Operations team to ensure preparedness for compliance with country gender pay gap reporting/pay transparency regulations (e.g., EU Pay Transparency Directive, Switzerland Fair-On-Pay law, Australia gender pay equality law, etc.)
- Provide strategic insights and recommendations impacting International markets to Global Compensation/Total Rewards/HR projects based on external market trends, workforce data, and emerging legislative developments.
- Lead change management and stakeholder engagement efforts for compensation programs, policies, and transformations across diverse markets.
- Establish and maintain governance frameworks that balance global consistency with local regulatory and compliance requirements.
- Develop and lead a high-performing team, strengthening consulting capability, business acumen, and strategic influence.
WHAT YOU’LL BRING TO ALCON:
- 12+ years in roles of expanding responsibility within the Compensation or Total Rewards function in a global enterprise, of which at least 5 years is as a manager of professionals.
- Subject matter expert on Mercer International Position Evaluation® or Willis Towers Watson Global Grading System®, job architecture and pay structure design.
- Strong understanding of the evolving challenges of leading change in global organizations and how various functions contribute towards enterprise goals, especially in European, Middle Eastern/African, and Asian contexts.
- Experience engaging with Works Councils or Collective Agreement bodies. Deep knowledge of the EU Pay Transparency Directive and familiarity with other fair pay initiatives across International. Demonstrated success in facilitating senior Regional/Country leadership hires, including international assignments and transfers, and developing/delivering Compensation training content for employees and leaders.
- Native speaker fluency in English. Proficiency in major European languages a distinct advantage.
Education:
University or Masters degree in International Business, Economics, Finance, Law, or Human Resources, with strong emphasis on data analytics and modeling, case study resolution, and multi-stakeholder communications.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Working knowledge of Workday®, Syndio® platform, Payroll systems, Project Management, Performance Management, and/or Sales Incentive Plan design.
- Experience in the Life Science, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, and or HR/Management Consulting industries a plus.
- Culturally agile. Structured thinker. Advanced presentation skills; articulate and confident communicator/public speaker/trainer.
HOW YOU CAN THRIVE AT ALCON:
● Manage your own workload and schedule while hitting your set targets
● Collaborate with teammates to share best practices and learnings as work evolves
● See your career like never before with focused growth and development opportunities
Alcon Careers
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