Description

Position Summary:

UTHealth Houston is seeking a dynamic, innovative compensation executive to lead enterprise-wide compensation strategy and serve as a strategic thought partner to institutional leaders within a complex academic healthcare environment. As Assistant Vice President, this leader will shape and oversee compensation philosophy, salary structures, incentive programs, merit strategy, and job architecture, while actively guiding leaders through complex decisions—offering clear options, articulating tradeoffs, and helping shape outcomes that balance competitiveness, equity, compliance, and organizational priorities.

Reporting to the Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, the AVP will serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, delivering data?driven insights on market trends, regulatory requirements, and financial impacts. This role plays a critical part in developing and aligning compensation strategies for executive leadership and hard?to?fill positions across clinical, research, and academic specialties—supporting recruitment and retention in highly competitive talent markets. The AVP will partner closely with colleagues across Human Resources, Legal, Finance, Payroll, Talent Acquisition, and executive stakeholders to ensure strong governance, compliance, and operational excellence.

The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in compensation design and analytics, experience navigating regulatory complexity, and a passion for building and leading high?performing teams. This is a unique opportunity to influence institutional strategy and strengthen UTHealth Houston’s ability to attract, retain, and reward exceptional talent—particularly in specialized, high?demand roles critical to the organization’s mission.

Candidates should have a minimum of 8 years of experience in human resources or finance, including at least 5 years of direct compensation experience and 3 years within an academic healthcare environment.

Position Key Accountabilities:

• Sets strategic direction of the design, analytics, and administration of compensation programs and strategies to include base pay, incentives, merit and the annual performance appraisals cycle by directing the creation and implementation of tools, systems, and programs; ensuring coordinated and timely execution across HR functions and stakeholders; identifying and addressing gaps in execution or communication; implementing contingency plans as needed; and continuously adjusting strategies to meet evolving business demands.
• Manages Human Resources and the President's Office as a client for all compensation needs with a customer-centric and solutions-focused approach to include but not limited to job description support, benchmarking, market reviews, incentives, merit and the annual performance appraisal cycle.
• Develops and drafts materials for UTHealth Houston Chief Human Resources Officer and other executive leadership, including analyses, reports, and presentations. Provides input on strategic HR issues as a member of the HR Leadership Team.
• Leads the development and implementation of compensation policies and practices with a customer-centric and solutions-focused approach, to include establishing a regular schedule for sharing market trends, internal factors, and other relevant information with stakeholders.
• Evaluates market data for positions and maintains awareness of industry-leading compensation market conditions to benchmark and oversee staff-level compensation survey processes. Continuously monitors and analyzes the effectiveness of compensation programs and makes data-driven recommendations for improvements and optimizations.
• Sets strategic direction for the executive compensation program to align practices, policies and philosophies with UTHealth Houston's strategies and goals.
• Proactively consults with university leadership on compensation matters, offering data-driven recommendations for annual salary structures and merit pay adjustments, articulating information clearly to ensure understanding of key components and alignment with business objectives.
• Provides scheduled education and training sessions on Compensation Strategy Services philosophies, programs and practices to enhance the expertise and knowledge throughout the university.
• Partners with Talent Acquisition/Executive Recruitment to develop, present, and streamline compelling compensation packages for candidates, and jointly provides strategic consultation to hiring managers as needed.
• Manages third party vendor contracts, budgets and relationships with a focus on cost efficiency, enhanced service quality, and optimized resource use.
• Cultivates strong relationships with colleagues across Human Resources, Legal, Finance, and Executive Leadership teams, fostering a collaborative environment and ensuring a positive experience for all stakeholders.
• Provides strong leadership and direction to the Compensation Strategy Services team while building bench strength and expertise.
• Assists HR leadership in responding to Legislative Budget Requests involving compensation programs and directs responses to requests submitted through the Texas Open Records Act.
• Works directly with Legal, Payroll and Audit to ensure accuracy and compliance in compensation issues.
• Manages Human Resources activities for direct reports in regards to: recruiting and selection; hiring and termination, training, development, mentoring, counseling, performance evaluations, and salary planning.
• Responsible for the design, execution and effectiveness of a system of internal controls which provides reasonable assurance that operations are effective and efficient, assets are safeguarded; financial information is reliable and compliant with applicable laws, regulations, policies and procedures.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Requirements

Certification/Skills:

• Significant experience in compensation including benchmarking, plan design, and reporting, with strong attention to detail and streamlining processes.
• Excellent working knowledge of executive compensation-related laws, policies, and practices.
• Deep understanding of compensation principles, practices, and methodologies, with specific expertise in job architecture, evaluation, salary benchmarking, and incentive design.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across all levels of the organization.
• High level of spreadsheet expertise, presentation design skills, and strong financial, analytical, project management, and problem-solving skills required.
• Ability to manage multiple complex initiatives at the same time.
• Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) by WorldatWork preferred
• Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) by Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) preferred
• Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) by Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional (SHRM) preferred

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources, Business Administration or related field required Master's Degree preferred

Minimum Experience:

8 years of experience in human resources or finance required 5 years of experience in direct compensation experience required 3 years of experience in an academic healthcare environment preferred

Physical Requirements:

Exerts up to 20 pounds of force occasionally and/or up to 10 pounds frequently and/or a negligible amount constantly to move objects.

Security Sensitive:

This position is a security-sensitive position pursuant to Texas Education Code §51.215 and Texas Government Code §411.094. To the extent that a position requires the holder to research, work on, or have access to critical infrastructure as defined in Texas Business and Commerce Code §117.001(2), the ability to maintain the security or integrity of the infrastructure is a minimum qualification to be hired for and to continue to be employed in that position. Personnel in such positions, and similarly situated state contractors, will be routinely reviewed to determine whether things such as criminal history or continuous connections to the government or political apparatus of a foreign adversary might prevent the applicant, employee, or contractor from being able to maintain the security or integrity of the infrastructure. A foreign adversary is a nation listed in 15 C.F.R. §791.4.

Residency Requirement:

Employees must permanently reside and work in the State of Texas.