Head of Reward
Company: AJ Bell
Role summary
Head of Reward is a role at AJ Bell in Manchester, England, United Kingdom (hybrid). Posted 2026-09-02. Experience level: 5-10.
- Job title
- Head of Reward
- Company
- AJ Bell
- Location
- Manchester, England, United Kingdom
- Work arrangement
- hybrid
- Category
- Software Engineering
- Experience level
- 5-10
- Date posted
- 2026-09-02
Looking for a senior leader to shape AJ Bell's employee compensation and benefits strategy! This is a fantastic opportunity to make a real impact on the employee experience and drive the reward framework for a growing company. You'll be instrumental in ensuring our reward programs are competitive and aligned with our business goals.
Job description
Job Description
We’re looking for an experienced Reward professional to join AJ Bell as our new Head of Reward.
This is an exciting opportunity to take ownership of the Reward agenda within a UK listed financial services business with ambitious growth plans. You may already be operating at Head of Reward level, or you could be an experienced Senior Reward Manager or Reward consultant looking for the opportunity to step into your first Head of Reward role.
What’s important is that you bring strong technical Reward expertise, particularly across executive remuneration and listed company reward, alongside the confidence and ambition to build relationships at the highest levels of the organisation and shape our future Reward strategy.
As Head of Reward, you will be responsible for the development, implementation and management of AJ Bell’s Reward strategy across executive and wider employee Reward. This includes base pay, incentives, benefits, share plans and executive remuneration, ensuring our approach supports our business strategy while meeting UK regulatory and corporate governance requirements.
This is a hands on leadership role offering significant exposure across the business. You’ll work closely with our Group People Officer, Executive Committee and senior leadership team, as well as supporting our Remuneration Committee and Board.
What you'll do:
Shape our Reward strategy: Work closely with the HR Director and senior stakeholders to develop and deliver a competitive, sustainable and compliant Reward strategy that supports AJ Bell’s continued growth, talent strategy and employee engagement.
Lead on executive remuneration: Take ownership of executive and senior management Reward, including annual bonus arrangements, LTIPs and other incentive plans. You'll support the development of recommendations and papers for the Remuneration Committee and help ensure our remuneration disclosures meet UK Corporate Governance Code and Listing Rules requirements.
Support RemCo and Board governance: Provide high quality Reward analysis and recommendations to support senior decision-making, working with the HR Director, RemCo and Board. You'll also support engagement with shareholders, investors and proxy advisers on executive remuneration matters where required.
Own our annual Reward activity: Lead key Reward processes including annual salary and bonus reviews, benchmarking and Reward analysis, ensuring our approach remains competitive, equitable and aligned with our business objectives.
Develop wider employee Reward: Review and evolve our pay structures, Reward policies and broader employee proposition, using market insight and data to ensure we continue to attract, motivate and retain great people.
Lead Reward governance and compliance: Ensure our Reward policies and practices meet relevant legislative, regulatory and governance requirements, including those applicable to a UK listed and FCA regulated business. You'll also play an active role in the preparation of the annual Directors' Remuneration Report and associated disclosures.
Oversee employee share plans: Take responsibility for our employee share ownership arrangements, including our Share Incentive Plan (SIP), Free Shares Award plan and CSOPs.
Shape our benefits proposition: Oversee our employee benefits offering, including pensions, healthcare and life assurance, ensuring it remains competitive, valued by our people and cost effective.
What we're looking for:
We're open to candidates from both in-house Reward and specialist Reward consultancy backgrounds. You don't necessarily need to have been a Head of Reward for a significant period. This could be the opportunity for an accomplished Senior Reward Manager or senior Reward consultant to take the next step in their career.
You'll ideally bring:
Strong Reward experience, with particular depth in executive remuneration and incentive design.
Current or very recent experience of working within, or advising, a UK publicly listed organisation, with a good understanding of listed company remuneration and corporate governance requirements.
Experience of executive incentive arrangements, including annual bonus and LTIP design and operation.
Exposure to Remuneration Committees and/or Boards, whether through preparing papers and recommendations, presenting or directly advising senior stakeholders.
A good understanding of Directors' Remuneration Reporting and the UK Corporate Governance Code.
Broader Reward experience beyond executive compensation, which could include annual pay and bonus cycles, benchmarking, pay structures, employee incentives, share plans or benefits.
Strong analytical skills and the ability to turn complex Reward information into clear, commercially focused recommendations.
The credibility and communication skills to build trusted relationships with senior executives, HR colleagues and Board level stakeholders.
A hands on approach and willingness to move between strategic thinking and detailed delivery.
Experience within financial services or another regulated environment would be advantageous, but isn't essential if you bring strong listed company Reward experience.
About us:
AJ Bell is one of the fastest-growing investment platform businesses in the UK offering an award-winning range of solutions that caters for everyone, from professional financial advisers to DIY investors with little to no experience. We have over 762,000 customers using our award-winning platform propositions to manage assets totalling more than £121.5 billion. Our customers trust us with their investments, and by continuously striving to make investing easier, we aim to help even more people take control of their financial futures.
Having listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in December 2018, AJ Bell is now a FTSE 250 company.
Headquartered in Manchester with offices in central London and Bristol, we now have over 1,500 em