Working at Watlow
Watlow is a global technology and manufacturing leader who provides world class engineering expertise through innovative thermal products and systems, enabling our customers to thrive. We are making a positive impact every day as our solutions enrich the lives of people everywhere. We have been providing breakthrough thermal solutions for over 100 years! Our corporate values guide us uncompromisingly to always do the right thing, continually learn and improve, respect everyone, and lead with service and humility.
Guided by our values: Do what is right, Always learning and improving, Respect everyone, and Lead with service and humility; we empower our people to turn ideas into real impact. Joining Watlow means becoming part of a team that embraces challenges, grows together, and shapes the future of technology while making a real difference in the world.
At Watlow's Global Headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, we combine a rich legacy with forward-thinking innovation. Our headquarters is a hub for collaboration, advanced engineering, and customer-focused solutions.
We are hiring a: Global Compensation Manager
In this role, you will help develop and lead the strategy, design, and implementation of compensation across Watlow's global organization, the Americas (U.S. and Mexico), EMEA, and APAC. You will support a global job architecture project to establish compensation and total rewards fundamentals worldwide, and serve as a trusted expert on classification, benchmarking, market trends, and total rewards design for leadership across every region. Reporting to the Sr. Director of Human Resources, Global Total Rewards, you will partner with senior leaders and HR professionals across the globe to ensure equitable, competitive, and scalable total rewards that support Watlow's talent and business goals.
What You'll Do:
Shape Global Compensation & Total Rewards Strategy
- Build and implement pay bands and total rewards structures across the global organization, ensuring fairness, equity, and competitiveness.
- Conduct salary and benefits benchmarking to develop market-aligned pay ranges across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.
- Bring thought leadership and secure buy-in for a global compensation and total rewards philosophy that scales with the company's growth.
- Partner with executive leadership to design and evolve short-term incentive plans that drive performance and engagement worldwide.
Lead Global Job Architecture
- Lead the global job architecture project, creating and maintaining job leveling guides that streamline career progression and internal equity worldwide.
- Help identify and configure HCM compensation and total rewards architecture to support managers and employees in merit, benefits, and incentive planning.
Drive Market Insights & Program Execution
- Conduct ongoing analysis of compensation and total rewards trends, market data, and industry best practices across every country where Watlow has team members.
- Manage global survey participation, submission, and purchases; monitor benchmark data, pay structures, and economic trends, recommending changes to maintain competitiveness and internal equity.
- Support or lead special projects, including acquisition integration, organizational restructuring, and systems implementation.
Enable HR & Leadership Effectiveness
- Provide expert guidance to HR and Talent Acquisition teams and leadership on compensation and total rewards matters, including salary negotiations and job offers.
- Ensure full compliance with compensation, benefits, wage, and labor laws by country, including U.S. state/federal requirements (e.g., pay transparency and reporting) and union/works council requirements across EMEA and APAC.
Enhance Systems & Communication
- Coordinate with HRIS on the management of compensation and total rewards tools (e.g., Dayforce), including system enhancements, testing, and merit and incentive administration.
- Develop and deliver formal and informal training and presentations on compensation and total rewards topics.
What You'll Need to Succeed:
- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Finance, or a related field; Master's degree preferred.
- Minimum 7 years' experience overseeing compensation and/or total rewards functions, including experience across multiple countries or regions (e.g., the Americas, EMEA, and/or APAC).
- Demonstrated success developing, implementing, and managing global compensation and total rewards strategies aligned with organizational objectives.
- Experience working with unions and/or works councils is a plus.
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build rapport and influence stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
- Proven analytical skills with the ability to interpret data, identify trends, and make recommendations, tell compelling stories with data.
- Excellent project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver results within established timelines.
- Demonstrated proficiency in Excel and other Microsoft Office applications.
- Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) or Certified Total Rewards Professional highly preferred.
- Multilingual (e.g., Spanish or other languages relevant to the regions supported) is a plus.
Benefits: The Watlow Total Compensation Plan
The health, well-being and financial stability of you and your family is a high priority to us.The Watlow Total Rewards Plan includes competitive compensation and a full range of life and career enhancing benefits:
- Annual Incentive Program
- 401(k) plan that includes a company match on your contribution and an annual company contribution that is tied to company performance
- Wellness incentives
- Employee Personal Assistance Program
- Dental, medical, vision and short-term and long-term disability insurance
- Paid holidays, personal time, and vacation
- Parental leave
- Tuition reimbursement
Diversity & Inclusion
We proactively embrace diversity in all its dimensions across our company and cultivate a culture of inclusion and forward thinking that respects and reflects each team member’s individual strengths, views, and experiences. Watlow takes pride in being an inclusive equal opportunity employer and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.
Please let us know confidentially if you need or require any special accommodations to participate in our recruiting process by emailing us at [email protected].
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Finance, or a related field
- Minimum 7 years of experience overseeing compensation and/or total rewards functions
- Experience supporting compensation across multiple countries or regions, including the Americas, EMEA, and/or APAC
- Experience developing, implementing, and managing global compensation and total rewards strategies
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to influence stakeholders at all organizational levels
- Proven analytical skills, including interpreting data, identifying trends, and making recommendations
- Excellent project management skills and ability to manage multiple priorities within established timelines
- Demonstrated proficiency in Excel and other Microsoft Office applications
- Master's degree
- Experience working with unions and/or works councils
- Certified Compensation Professional or Certified Total Rewards Professional certification
- Multilingual ability, such as Spanish or another language relevant to supported regions
Watlow Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Watlow and has not been reviewed or approved by Watlow.
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Healthcare Strength — Benefits include medical, dental, vision and life insurance, alongside an Employee Assistance Program, wellness incentives, and flexible spending accounts. Some locations also provide onsite wellness clinics, reinforcing comprehensive health support.
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Retirement Support — Retirement offerings feature a 401(k) with company matching, with materials also noting an additional annual company contribution tied to performance. This structure supports longer‑term financial security beyond base pay.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off includes paid vacation, personal time and holidays, with parental leave highlighted in postings. PTO accrual appears tenure‑based.
Watlow Insights
What We Do
Watlow is a global industrial technology company that uses its world-class engineering expertise, advanced thermal systems and manufacturing excellence to provide a wide array of temperature control, power control, heater technologies and temperature sensing platforms. Watlow brings its experience to a broad cross section of industries, including semiconductor processing, environmental chambers, energy processes, diesel emissions, medical and foodservice equipment. Since 1922, Watlow has grown in product capability, market experience and global reach. The company holds more than 1,100 patents and employs more than 4,200 team members working in 11 manufacturing facilities and nine technology and development centers in the United States, Mexico, Europe and Asia. Watlow covers 95 countries through sales and distribution offices around the world.
