Director of Total Rewards & HRIS

Who We Are

Founded in 1926, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is a private, not-for-profit educational, historic, and cultural institution that owns and operates one of the largest and best-known museum complexes in the world. Our mission is “that the future may learn from the past” through preserving and restoring 18^th-century Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital. We engage, inform, and inspire people to learn about this historic capital, the events that occurred here, and the diverse peoples who helped shape a new nation.  

Today, Colonial Williamsburg is the largest living history museum in the U.S. The Historic Area is the 301-acre restored colonial capital with 89 original buildings and 525 buildings reconstructed to how they appeared in the 18th century through extensive archaeological, architectural, and documentary research. The Historic Area is staffed by highly trained, historically dressed interpreters and expert tradespeople who bring the 18th century to life. The Foundation also owns and operates two world-class museums, the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, The Bob and Marion Wilson Teacher Institute, and a renowned research library, the John D Rockefeller Jr Library.

Additionally, Colonial Williamsburg is home to five world class accommodations at the Williamsburg Inn, Williamsburg Lodge Autograph Collection, the Griffin Hotel, the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotels and Suites and the unique Colonial Houses in the Historical Area. Visitors may also indulge in food and drink at our many on site restaurants and taverns that blend a historically inspired dining experience with today’s evolved tastes. Each year over 5 million people visit Williamsburg and another 20 million engage with us digitally.

About the Position

The Director of Total Rewards and HRIS is a strategic leadership role responsible for designing, implementing and managing comprehensive compensation, benefits, and HR information systems (HRIS) services, with a strong focus on compliance, governance, service excellence, and client experience. Reporting to the Vice President of Human Resources, this position builds high-performing teams and fosters strong team dynamics to provide service to employees and leaders. Utilizing best practice and a fit-for-purpose approach to align total rewards strategies with organizational objectives, driving operational excellence in HR technology, and ensuring equitable and competitive
total rewards practices that position the organization as an employer of choice. This role partners closely with senior leadership, Finance, internal HR teams, and external vendors to deliver solutions that attract, retain and engage top talent.

Main Duties:

• Lead the development and implementation of the strategy for HR Solutions across Compensation, Benefits, HR Technology, and HR Data Analytics.
• Communicate and oversee the actions needed to implement the organization’s HR Solutions strategy and programs.
• Coach the team to understand the alignment of functional areas with the wider HR strategy and CW’s mission, vision, and values; motivate people to commit to these to achieve organizational goals.
• Upskill the broader HR team to understand HR analytics and act as subject matter experts to support internal partners in providing data-based service to leaders.
• Develop and lead the compensation, incentive and recognition/reward philosophies, benchmarking structures and administration guidelines for all of CW.
• Partner with our broker to lead the strategy and delivery of all employee benefit programs.
• Review current design, select and administer employee benefits programs including health, dental, vision, retirement, life/disability insurance, leave, and wellness initiatives.
• Manage the annual open enrollment process and benefit changes (onboarding, life events, offboarding), which include effectively communicating benefits plans to employees, leading training sessions, vendor coordination, reviewing and finalizing enrollments and the accurate transmission of data to third parties.
• Responsible for all Total Rewards compliance (DOL audits, ACA, notice requirements, 5500 completions, new legislation etc.)
• Support the FMLA leave administration process in conjunction with the leave management vendor, including communication with employees on leave to facilitate smooth and timely return to work.
• Support the development and execution of the HR technology strategy aligned with the broader HR and business roadmap.
• Gather and synthesize business requirements to build strong business cases that guide leadership and support investment planning.
• Recommend and implement solutions that enhance the HR service delivery, elevate the employee experience, and enable data-informed talent decisions.
• Lead the implementation, optimization, and ongoing management of the HRIS (Workday) to ensure it meets organizational needs across key functions, including human capital management, payroll and absence, benefits, talent optimization and more.
• Lead efforts to maximize return on investment for HRIS by identifying opportunities to expand functionality, enhance user experience, and explore ways that Workday can support.
• Ensure Workday enables the HR function and CW more broadly with strong reporting and analytics capabilities to support all people, talent, and employment-related decisions.
• Leverage technology and industry best practices to deliver timely, accurate insights that empower leaders and teams across the organization.
• Support and coach leadership in adopting a data-driven mindset to strengthen decision-making and strategic planning.
• Oversee and manage a multi-million-dollar Total Rewards and HRIS budget, ensuring accuracy, transparency, and alignment with organizational priorities.

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources management, Human Resources Development, Organizational Development, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Business Administration or a closely related field.
• Seven (7) or more years of progressive HR systems/total rewards experience.
• Five (5) or more years of experience with people management that includes experience managing benefits, HRIS, and compensation functions.
• Experience with salary benchmarking, job evaluation, total rewards strategy, and data analytics.
• Experience managing significant departmental budgets.

Preferred Qualifications:

• CCP, CBP, SHRM-SCP or SPHR certification.
• Experience working in the not-for-profit industry.

Key Skills / Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of U.S. legal / regulatory compliance (federal, state) laws.
• Strong business acumen and the ability to understand and align talent strategies with organizational goals.
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence and build relationships at all levels of the organization
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage priorities and workflow.
• Proficiency in HRIS/Payroll systems and compensation software.
• High integrity, confidentiality, fairness, ethics, and good judgement with the ability to make timely and sound decisions.

Budget Responsibilities:

• Several million (~10 million in Benefits alone through the ERE Budget that houses all Pension, Health,
Dental, etc.)

Typical Work Schedule:
Standard work hours (e.g., 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM)