Global Compensation Lead

SUMMARY

About Ketjen

Ketjen Corporation is a provider of advanced catalyst solutions to leading producers in the petrochemical, refining, and specialty chemicals industries. Our company is driven by a strong set of core values: curiosity, care, collaboration, humility, accountability, and integrity. These values guide our decisions, shape our culture, and define how we work together to deliver exceptional value to our customers and communities.

About the Role
The Global Compensation Lead develops and manages the implementation of compensation programs that provide a competitive level of pay, motivation, and reward to employees across the globe. This role focuses on cash compensation programs supporting broad employee populations and leads key global compensation initiatives and projects. The Global Compensation Lead reports directly to the Total Rewards Director and is based in Houston. The ideal candidate brings strong analytical capabilities, deep compensation expertise, and the ability to operate effectively in a global, evolving environment.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Global Compensation Program Strategy & Design

• Develop, implement, and administer compensation programs that are cost-effective and provide strong competitive positioning for the enterprise, including compensation structures, salary surveys, salary increases, job evaluations, and short-term incentive plans.
• Manage the deployment of the global job classification and grading system, ensuring job profiles reflect market best practices and internal structure.
• Assure proper evaluation of jobs through senior levels.
• Maintain knowledge of country and region-specific compensation practices, requirements, and norms.
• Monitor the effectiveness of compensation programs and recommend modifications.
• Participate in and lead key global compensation projects.

Compensation Planning & Analysis

• Responsible for managing global salary submissions and performing detailed compensation analyses to ensure alignment with market data, internal equity, and company pay philosophy.
• Analyze and recommend job grade placement, salary levels, incentive plan participation, and long-term incentive eligibility using third-party surveys and internal comparable data.
• Oversight and benchmarking of non-exempt pay practices such as allowances, shift differentials, step-up pay, and related programs.
• Manage end-to-end execution of the annual performance and pay review process, including planning, system setup, manager guidance, and implementation support.

Stakeholder Partnership & Advisory

• Counsel managers on individual salary decisions and compensation-related matters.
• Provide guidance to leaders on compensation philosophy, pay positioning, and market competitiveness.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Human Resources, Finance, Mathematics, Statistics, or related field
• Minimum of five years of experience in compensation
• Proficient with Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint)
• Excellent communication and analytical skills
• Self-starter comfortable operating in ambiguity and taking ownership of unresolved or evolving issues
• Strong alignment with Ketjen’s core values: curiosity, care, collaboration, humility, accountability, and integrity

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in global, industrial sectors with diverse, distributed, and shift or rotational workforces
• Exposure to European Unions and Works Councils
• Familiarity with sales incentive plans
• Experience with Workday
• Proficiency with PowerBI
• Proficiency with Hay Point job evaluation methodology
• Professional certifications such as CEBS, GBA, CBP, CCP, SHRM-CP/SCP, or PHR/SPHR