Director, Head of Compensation

Head Of Compensation

Samsung Electronics America (SEA) is seeking a Head of Compensation to lead the design, governance, and execution of the company's compensation programs. This is a highly visible role that serves as a subject matter expert and thought partner to the Head of Total Rewards and the broader People leadership team, and acts as the dedicated compensation lead for the People (HR) function itself.

The Head of Compensation will also champion AI adoption across the compensation function, modernizing workflows, tools, and practices to increase speed, accuracy, and insight.

Responsibilities include:

• Serving as the primary compensation subject matter expert and trusted advisor to the Head of Total Rewards and the People leadership team on pay strategy, competitiveness, and emerging trends.
• Leading compensation programs and processes, including our annual merit, promotion and long-term incentive program, from securing budget, award planning, executive review/approval, effective communications and system administration
• Managing executive compensation, including offers to Senior Directors and above, acting allowances and retention agreements
• Leading the design, modeling, budgeting, and administration of long-term incentive programs, including eligibility, grant strategy, vesting, and plan governance in partnership with Legal, Finance, and Total Rewards leadership.
• Owning the end-to-end design and execution of short-term incentive programs on quarterly and semi-annual cycles, including payout modeling, processing, and manager/employee communications.
• Directing the annual merit increase, bonus, and promotion cycles - including budget development, guideline design, system configuration, calibration support, and executive reporting.
• Providing strategic leadership for market research and analysis, directing survey management (survey participation, peer group development, reporting, application) to develop and maintain innovative, compliant, and market-leading compensation programs. Overseeing job architecture and leveling, and salary structure maintenance.
• Being a trusted partner and working closely with HRBPs, Executive Recruiting, and Legal on executive compensation requests such as job evaluation, compensation review and analysis, executive offers and agreements
• Supporting periodic and ad-hoc reviews of targeted populations to review pay relative to internal and external benchmarks and, where applicable, recommend adjustment
• Overseeing compensation operations, including payout support and compliance with pay equity and pay transparency requirements.
• Ensuring all compensation programs comply with applicable federal, state, and local laws (e.g., pay transparency, pay equity) and align with Samsung's global compensation philosophy and governance standards.
• Managing, coaching, and developing a high-performing team of compensation consultants/analysts; setting priorities, allocating workload across concurrent cycles, and building depth and succession within the team.
• Establishing standards, training, and documentation that raise the technical rigor and consistency of the compensation function.
• Identifying, piloting, and scaling AI-enabled tools and workflows across compensation modeling, analytics, market pricing, and reporting; acting as the team's champion for responsible and effective AI adoption.
• Continuously evaluating compensation processes for automation and efficiency opportunities, partnering with HRIS/People Analytics and IT to implement scalable solutions.

Skills and qualifications include:

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Analytics, Finance, or a related field or equivalent practical experience, Advanced degree a plus.
• 10+ years of progressive compensation experience, including direct experience designing and administering short-term and long-term incentive plans.
• 3+ years of people management experience, leading compensation analysts, consultants, or a similar team.
• Demonstrated experience leading annual compensation cycles (merit, bonus, promotion) end-to-end at scale.
• Strong knowledge of compensation operations, including job architecture, market pricing/benchmarking, and salary structure management.
• Clear functional understanding of core HR business practices, processes, and terminology (HRIS, compensation, recruiting, performance management) and the ability to develop solutions to address business problems and requirements
• Experience partnering with senior HR and business leaders as a strategic advisor, not just a program administrator.
• Hands-on experience with HRIS/compensation platforms and advanced Excel/analytical skills.
• Working knowledge of federal, state, and local compensation-related regulations, including pay equity and pay transparency requirements.
• Genuine interest and practical experience applying AI tools to compensation, HR, or analytics workflows.
• Excellent project management and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate complex compensation…