Compensation Manager

About MSF USA | Doctors Without Borders

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent international organization that provides medical care to the people who need it most. The organization cares for people affected by conflict, disease outbreaks, disasters, and social exclusion in more than 70 countries.

Our international project teams include medical, logistical, and administrative staff, most of them hired locally and working with their own communities. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of independence, impartiality, and neutrality. We also bear witness and speak out about the experiences of our colleagues and patients.

MSF USA is one of 24 sections supporting the global movement, primarily through staff recruitment, fundraising, advocacy, and communications. We welcome candidates who bring a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to join us in working toward MSF's social mission.

Role Overview

The Compensation Manager will manage and enhance our compensation philosophy, salary structures, and pay governance practices for both domestic and international mobile staff (IMS), ensuring continued alignment with organizational needs, market practice, and internal equity. This role will ensure consistency in salary setting, provide recommendations on salary increase methodologies, support position leveling, and guide hiring salary range decisions.

Role-Specific Outcomes

• Oversee the review, enhancement, and maintenance of MSF-USA's existing compensation framework, ensuring it remains competitive, equitable, and responsive to the organization's changing priorities.
• Develop and implement standard compensation methodologies, practices, and policies, including annual salary increases, market-based adjustments, promotions, interim allowances, and other rewards, in consultation with the People & Culture Leadership Team.
• Lead the US compensation market benchmarking process in line with best practices.
• Assess and recommend salary increase methodologies, including merit and market-based adjustments.
• Ensure consistent and equitable salary-setting practices across the organization through analysis of internal equity, market data, organizational practices, and budget considerations.
• Monitor compensation practices for internal equity, regulatory compliance, and consistency with established policies and governance standards, identifying risks, and recommending corrective actions as needed.
• Partner with the Talent Acquisition Team on job evaluation and leveling for new and existing positions and recommend starting salary ranges for job advertisements in line with salary transparency laws.
• Maintain standard job descriptions for roles across the organization, including developing descriptions for new roles and revising existing descriptions to reflect changes in job scope and responsibilities.
• Partner with the Finance department to ensure that compensation decisions align with budgets and communicate approved salary changes to Finance partners in a timely manner.
• Develop proposals and presentations about compensation programs (including market data and appropriate pay levels/targets) to influence and educate staff, managers, and senior-level decision-makers.
• Oversee the administration of the MSF global grading and rewards framework for IMS, including scaling positions, assessing applicant experience, and setting salaries.
• Leverage HRIS, payroll, compensation, and analytics tools to develop reliable compensation reporting and analysis, monitor pay practices and trends, strengthen data quality, and support evidence-based compensation decisions.
• Contribute to broader People & Culture team projects and other tasks, as needed.

Supervisory Responsibility

The position holds no direct supervisory responsibility but will oversee routine work of several associates in tandem with their direct supervisors.

Desired Qualifications & Experience

• 5-7 years of experience with leading design and implementation of compensation plans, ideally with international and domestic staff in a fast-paced humanitarian environment.
• Demonstrated experience developing or managing compensation structures, salary ranges, and pay practices.
• Experience with job evaluation, position leveling, and market benchmarking.
• Knowledge of compensation principles, salary survey methodologies, and pay governance practices.
• Familiarity with applicable compensation-related laws and regulations.
• Experience working with HRIS and payroll systems to support compensation administration, reporting, data validation, and salary changes; experience with SAP SuccessFactors and ADP a plus. Experience with compensation, analytics, or data visualization tools.
• Experience with Python, R, or similar data analysis tools is a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to provide direction and counsel to senior leaders
• Strong analytical skills, including demonstrated ability to extract, reconcile, model and analyze compensation and employee data across systems and identify data quality or process issues.
• Strategic mindset with a passion for compensation and the ability to influence at all levels of the organization
• Experience navigating ambiguity and adapting to evolving business needs
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills

Travel Requirements

Must be willing to travel for work as needed.

Pay and benefits

In alignment with MSF-USA compensation framework, new hires are offered between the above salary range based on relevant experience, skills, and internal equity.

This role is hybrid, with in-office attendance on either Tuesdays or Wednesdays.