Pay and Reward Specialist

Why Southwark?

Are you ready to redefine how pay, reward, and recognition work, within an organisation in a period of corporate wide change and big aspirations? At Southwark Council, we’re not standing still, we’re driving forward an ambitious people strategy that supports a high-performing, inclusive, and modern public service.

Here’s what makes us stand out:

• Transformational Impact: Shape the future of our pay, reward, and benefits offer, influencing how 5,000+ employees are recognised and valued.
• Leadership: Play a key role in successfully delivering legacy projects, business as usual and future reward scoping, including a full pay and grading review, while aligning with the council’s major ERP programme, Southwark 360
• Values-Driven Culture: Be part of a proudly diverse, anti-racist, and inclusive organisation committed to equity and transparency in everything we do.

What You'll Be Doing

We’re looking for an experienced and forward-thinking Pay and Reward Specialist to lead our reward portfolio. You’ll be at the heart of shaping policy, engaging stakeholders, and ensuring our people strategy underpins the success of Southwark 360.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic direction for pay, performance management, benefits, and reward strategies across the Council.
• Lead the review of pay and grading and non-financial recognition initiatives.
• Ensure the effective application of reward policies including market supplements, recruitment and retention initiatives, incremental progression, and allowances including additional duties and acting up payments.
• Partner with Trade Unions and senior HR leaders on pay negotiations and workforce consultation.
• Drive the integration of pay and reward principles within the ERP implementation, improving governance and sustainability.
• Conduct research, pay benchmarking, and policy development to shape evidence-based recommendations.
• Champion equality, inclusion, and transparency across all pay and reward practices.
• Lead and inspire a small, high-impact team delivering complex change at scale.

What We're Looking For

You have a proven track record in reward transformation and systems implementation, ideally within Local Government or a similar large, complex unionised organisation. You bring:

• Deep expertise in pay and reward design, job evaluation, and related employment law.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with confidence navigating trade union engagement and pay negotiations, along with influencing senior leadership discussions and decisions.
• A solutions-focused, proactive mindset with the ability to manage multiple workstreams in a dynamic environment.
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships with trade unions, HR colleagues and key partners.
• A commitment to driving fairness, innovation, and inclusion in everything you deliver.
• Strong communication, planning, and organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise workloads effectively.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, tact, diplomacy, and a employee-focused mindset.
• A proactive, enthusiastic professional with a passion for pay & reward improvement.

Additional Information

About Southwark Council

Southwark Council is the largest local authority social landlord in London, managing 55,000 homes lived in by 40% of Southwark’s residents. We are home to over 18,300 businesses including iconic London venues such as The Shard, The Tate Modern and Borough Market along with many social enterprises and we have a young, diverse, and growing population.

At Southwark we are committed to making our borough just and fair and are taking positive action to tackle inequalities. Our residents and communities are our greatest asset and the passion we have for Southwark is shared by millions of Londoners who enjoy our outstanding cultural offer, use our hospitals, and attend our universities.

Our refreshed borough plan and focus on Southwark Stands Together, (which is our work with Southwark’s communities and the council’s staff to tackle racism, injustice and inequality) underpins all that we do.

Benefits and more information:

https://jobs.southwark.gov.uk/why-us/

Salary: £59,526 - £74,040 plus

JNC annual allowance: £2,724

Recruitment timetable:

Application Closing Date: 11:59 PM on 9th of November 2025

Internal Stakeholder Panel: Mon 24th of November 2025 (MS Teams)

Interview Dates: Tues 25th of November 2025 (in person)

We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together initiative. We particularly welcome applications from members of the black, Asian, and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:

• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
• Are currently in care, or have previously been in care
• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role, in which case we will move the key dates for the process. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

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Attachments

• Job Description & Person Specification