Engagements
Where I tend to come in.
I take on a small number of engagements at a time, scoped to the work as it actually needs to be done rather than how it's typically packaged. Every engagement begins from first principles: what you're really trying to build, what it has to deliver, and where your current infrastructure has stopped scaling with you. The four shapes below are how that work tends to land — never where it starts.
Fractional Total Rewards Leadership
For CHROs, CPOs, and founders who need senior Total Rewards leadership — comp philosophy, equity, governance — without committing to a full-time hire.
I embed with your team for a defined period, typically one to three days a week, and own the work the way a head of total rewards would: pay philosophy and architecture, job architecture and leveling, organizational design, equity and STI design, benefits strategy, board materials, and the cross-functional choreography with Finance, Legal, and HRBPs that holds it all together.
Best fit when you've outgrown the people infrastructure that got you here — when job architecture, leveling, organizational design, and the pay programs they support need to be rebuilt for the scale, sophistication, or scrutiny of what comes next. Typical triggers: a fundraise, an acquisition, a public filing, or a comp reset that has to land before the next board cycle.
AI-Enabled HR Operating Model
For CHROs and CPOs whose HR function is built for a pre-AI world — and who want it redesigned across compensation, talent, performance, and employee experience, with the senior judgment to know what to automate and what to leave alone.
I redesign the HR operating model around embedded AI — which decisions get made by humans, which get supported by models, and how the team operates differently as a result. The work spans the full HR surface: compensation (where I've recently spent the deepest time), talent acquisition, performance management, employee inquiries and HR helpdesk, skills and career architecture, and the HRIS/data layer underneath. Claude is my primary reasoning partner across the engagement, paired with Python for the custom modeling and scenario work that doesn't fit off-the-shelf. Everything else lives in your environment — Workday, SuccessFactors, UKG, Power BI, Smartsheet, or whatever you've built around.
Best fit when your HR function is doing manual work that should now be model-supported, your current toolset has stopped scaling with the questions the business is asking, or you're scaling faster than your team can absorb by hiring alone.
HRIS Architecture & Redesign
For companies sitting on an HRIS that isn't delivering what was promised — or about to deploy one and wanting it built right the first time.
I redesign HRIS environments from the ground up — whether that's fixing a year-one implementation that didn't land the way the original consultant pitched, or leading a fresh deployment from selection through go-live. Either way, the work runs through the same foundations: configuration, governance, audit controls, data architecture, and the workflow redesign that turns a system into something that delivers. Having sat on both the customer side and the architect side, I know exactly where vendors quietly leave you holding the bag — and how to dig you back out.
Best fit when you're a year or two into a Workday, SuccessFactors, or UKG deployment and it's not delivering what was originally pitched — or when you're scoping a fresh implementation and want it architected to fit your business rather than the vendor's reference template.
Compensation Program Design
For companies that need senior compensation expertise on a discrete problem — a salary structure refresh, a bonus redesign, an equity rebuild, a sales comp overhaul, or pay equity and governance work that has to hold up.
I design and redesign compensation programs across every layer — base pay, short-term incentives, long-term incentives, and sales compensation. Most engagements pull in more than one: a salary and leveling refresh, an annual bonus rebuild, an equity program redesigned for the next stage, or a sales comp plan that finally aligns with how the business actually wins. Pay equity audits, Comp Committee materials, and regulatory readiness — proxy analyses, ISS/Glass Lewis review, EU Pay Transparency — are part of this work when they're needed, not the front of it.
Best fit when your comp programs need a senior redesign — base, bonus, equity, sales comp — or when pay equity, governance, or regulatory readiness has to land at a level the board can stand behind.
Not sure where you fit?
That's normal — most engagements start somewhere adjacent to one of these and shape themselves around the actual problem. The first conversation is free.