Compensation Manager, Management

Who We Are

Founded in 1926, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is a private, not-for-profit educational, historic, and cultural institution that owns and operates one of the largest and best-known museum complexes in the world. Our mission is “that the future may learn from the past” through preserving and restoring 18th-century Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital. We engage, inform, and inspire people to learn about this historic capital, the events that occurred here, and the diverse peoples who helped shape a new nation.

Today, Colonial Williamsburg is the largest living‑history museum in the U.S. The Historic Area is the 301‑acre restored colonial capital with 89 original buildings and 525 buildings reconstructed to how they appeared in the 18th century through extensive archaeological, architectural, and documentary research. The Historic Area is staffed by highly trained, historically dressed interpreters and expert tradespeople who bring the 18th century to life.

The Foundation also owns and operates two world‑class museums, the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, the Bob and Marion Wilson Teacher Institute, and a renowned research library, the John

D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. Additionally, Colonial Williamsburg is home to five world‑class accommodations at the Williamsburg Inn, Williamsburg Lodge Autograph Collection, the Griffin Hotel, the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotels and Suites, and the unique Colonial Houses in the Historic Area. Visitors may also indulge in food and drink at our many on‑site restaurants and taverns that blend a historically inspired dining experience with today’s evolved tastes.

Each year over 5 million people visit Williamsburg and another 20 million engage with us digitally.

The Compensation Manager is responsible for supporting and advancing the organization’s compensation strategy through the development, implementation, and maintenance of competitive and compliant pay programs for both exempt and non‑exempt roles. This position leads and executes end‑to‑end compensation initiatives, including program design, planning cycles, data collection and analysis, presentation development, and cross‑functional communication. The role manages the compensation team and partners closely with HR, Finance, Accounting, Legal, IT, Operations, and other stakeholders to ensure compensation programs support business objectives and are administered consistently.

Key responsibilities include managing annual merit and bonus processes, market pricing, job evaluation, maintaining job architecture integrity, and participating in compensation surveys. The position also drives process improvements, enhances reporting and compliance practices, supports training and communication around compensation philosophy, and develops new policies and procedures. This role plays a critical part in ensuring competitive, equitable, and legally compliant compensation practices across the organization.

• Must reside in or be ready to relocate to Virginia.
• Support compensation strategy by developing, recommending, implementing, and maintaining exempt and non‑exempt pay programs across all functional areas.
• Lead end‑to‑end compensation initiatives that include compensation design and planning cycles, data collection, data analysis, presentation development, communication, and program implementation.
• Influence HR and other cross‑functional business partners, including Accounting, Finance, Legal, Operations, Communications, and IT, to achieve desired business outcomes through data‑driven presentations.
• Responsible for annual compensation processes including merit and bonus planning.
• Manage various compensation‑related projects involving revision, development, and re‑design of existing compensation programs and modeling cost of incentives and programs.
• Assist in designing job architecture, levels, and pay grades in conjunction with the compensation team, management, and HRBPs.
• Maintain the integrity of the job architecture ranges as new positions are created and revised.
• Participate in large‑scale compensation surveys to collect…