Director of Total Rewards

Come work with us:

Metropolitan Commercial Bank (“MCB” or the “Bank”) is a New York City–based, full-service commercial bank providing tailored banking solutions to businesses, institutions, and individuals. Founded in 1999, MCB operates banking centers in Manhattan and Boro Park, Brooklyn, within New York City, as well as in Great Neck on Long Island, New York, and Lakewood, New Jersey. The Bank recently expanded to Miami, Florida with their newest Brickell banking center.

Metropolitan Commercial Bank offers a comprehensive suite of commercial, business, and personal banking products and services to small businesses, middle-market and corporate enterprises, private and public institutions, municipalities, and local government entities.

The Bank has earned national recognition for its financial performance, innovation, and strategic growth. The Bank was named one of Newsweek’s Best Regional Banks in 2024 and 2025. Additionally, MCB recently received Editor’s Choice recognition at the Banking Tech Awards USA for Digital Onboarding & Omnichannel Banking and in 2026, the Bank earned Great Place To Work certification and received the Web Award Standard of Excellence for MCBankNY.com.

We are a client-focused organization that values technological innovation and excellence. A strong technical mindset, AI fluency, and adaptive skills are essential for our employees to effectively contribute to our mission and drive our success. We foster human–AI teaming and strong governance to ensure technology is used responsibly and in alignment with Bank policies and procedures. For more information about the Bank, please visit the Bank’s website at MCBankNY.com.

Position summary: 

The Director of Total Rewards serves as the Bank's enterprise Head of Total Rewards and is equally accountable for the strategy, design, governance, financial stewardship and effectiveness of compensation and employee benefit programs. The role integrates pay, incentives, benefits, retirement, leave and wellbeing into a cohesive Total Rewards strategy that supports business performance, attracts and retains talent, promotes equitable outcomes, strengthens the employee experience and meets regulatory and fiduciary expectations. The role translates this strategy into disciplined programs, decision frameworks and recommendations for the CHRO, executive leadership and Board governance bodies.

Standard 4-day in-office requirement, 1 day remote (of your choosing and subject to manager's approval)  

Essential functions and responsibilities

• Develops and recommends an integrated Total Rewards strategy, philosophy and multi-year roadmap that gives equal strategic focus to compensation and benefits and aligns both with business strategy, workforce priorities, employee needs, affordability and risk appetite.
• Owns the overall effectiveness of the Bank's Total Rewards portfolio, including program design, governance, financial sustainability, employee value, market competitiveness and measurable outcomes across compensation and benefits.
• Advises the CHRO, CEO, Compensation Committee, Board and senior leadership through clear analysis, recommendations, disclosures and decision materials covering compensation, executive rewards, benefits, retirement, wellbeing and related risk considerations.
• Serves as functional owner for job architecture and leveling, salary structures, market pricing, annual compensation programs, short- and long-term incentives, equity programs and executive compensation, subject to applicable approval authorities.
• Owns the strategy, governance and responsible stewardship of the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP), balancing employee ownership and reward objectives with disciplined oversight of participation, share utilization, compliance, employee experience and the prudent use of the Bank’s equity resources.
• Leads compensation planning, modeling and annual review processes, balancing external competitiveness, internal equity, individual contribution, business performance, affordability and prudent risk management.
• Establishes compensation governance, decision standards and controls that support consistent, equitable and defensible outcomes, including pay-equity review, incentive-plan oversight and documentation of exceptions.
• Partners with independent compensation consultants and aligns practices with the Compensation Committee charter, applicable securities and banking requirements, proxy and regulatory disclosures, and documented governance procedures.
• Partners with the HR Director to align compensation, career, performance, promotion and talent frameworks so that pay decisions reinforce role accountability, capability growth and performance expectations.
• Monitors compensation market practices, regulatory developments and emerging reward strategies and converts relevant insights into recommendations for program design or governance changes.
• Leads the strategy, design, administration and continuous improvement of employee benefit programs, including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability, wellbeing, leave and retirement programs.
• Develops a comprehensive benefits and population-health strategy that improves employee value and outcomes while managing long-term cost, plan sustainability and organizational risk.
• Provides financial stewardship of benefit programs through budgeting, forecasting, utilization and claims analysis, cost management, plan-performance monitoring and evaluation of return on investment.
• Leads benefit and retirement vendor strategy, including consultant and carrier relationships, contract negotiations, service expectations, performance reviews, renewals and accountability for corrective action.
• Oversees 401(k) plan administration and governance, including operational compliance, fiduciary support, employee education and participation in applicable management committees.
• Owns leave-program design, policy, vendor strategy and regulatory requirements and establishes standards for leave administration; partners with Talent Operations on employee transactions, systems, payroll coordination and service delivery.
• Ensures compliance with applicable compensation, benefits, retirement and leave requirements, including ERISA, COBRA, FMLA and other federal, state and local obligations, and maintains audit-ready documentation and controls.
• Defines and approves authorized compensation, incentive, benefit and deduction inputs for processing by Talent Operations through payroll and HR systems, with clear evidence of appropriate approval.
• Partners with Talent Operations to maintain controls over the transmission, validation and implementation of approved Total Rewards inputs; periodically reconciles outcomes to approved programs while Talent Operations retains accountability for payroll processing and operational controls.
• Defines business requirements for Total Rewards technology, data, reporting and Workday processes; Talent Operations owns configuration, integrations, security and technical administration.
• Establishes balanced Total Rewards dashboards, KPIs and executive reporting that provide comparable visibility into compensation and benefits effectiveness, cost, competitiveness, equity, employee value, utilization, risk and operational performance.
• Translates complex compensation, benefits, utilization, market and financial data into actionable recommendations and clearly communicates tradeoffs, risks and expected outcomes to senior leaders and governance bodies.
• Builds capability and accountability across the Total Rewards team, promotes collaboration with Finance, Legal, Risk, Payroll, Talent Operations and business leaders, and ensures compensation and benefits receive appropriate expertise, capacity and leadership attention.

DECISION RIGHTS AND COLLABORATION

This role holds equal functional accountability for compensation and benefits strategy, design, governance, financial stewardship, program requirements and outcome monitoring. The role determines what employees are authorized to receive under approved programs and recommends material changes through the appropriate CHRO, management or Board governance. Talent Operations owns how approved compensation, benefit and deduction outcomes are configured, processed, controlled and delivered through payroll and HR technology. Shared processes require documented approvals, clear handoffs, reconciliation and escalation of exceptions.

Knowledge, skills and abilities:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Human Resources or related discipline.
• 10+ years of relevant compensation and benefits experience, preferably within banking or financial services.
• Experience building Total Rewards programs in a regulated and publicly traded environment.
• Demonstrated expertise in compensation governance, executive compensation, job architecture, benefits, retirement and wellbeing.
• Exceptional analytical, communication, influence and Board-material development skills.
• Knowledge of deferred compensation programs preferred.
• Driven by a passion and curiosity to continuously learn how various technological systems, including AI, can enhance the work that you do

Potential Salary: $175,000 - $225,000 annually

This salary range reflects base wages and does not include benefits, bonus, or incentive pay. Salary bands are purposefully wide ranging to encompass the different factors considered in determining where a candidate falls in the range, including but not limited to, seniority, performance, experience, education, and any other legitimate, non-discriminatory factor permitted by law. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed here.

Metropolitan Commercial Bank provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

This applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.