RwandAir Ltd is the flag carrier airline of Rwanda. It operates domestic and international services to East Africa, Central Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, Europe and the Middle East from its main base at Kigali International Airport.
Our mission is to provide unsurpassed, safe, and reliable services in air transportation, including strategically linking Rwanda with the outside world while ensuring a fair return on investment. As part of the expansion strategy, we are looking for interested, qualified, and competent candidates to fill the following position:
Job Title: Head of Organization Design & Total Rewards
Reports to: Chief HR & Administration Officer
Department: HR & Administration
Location: Kigali International Airport, Rwanda
Job Purpose
RwandAir is scaling toward 4-Star status and regional hub leadership without an enterprise job architecture, evidence-based grading, or a governed pay framework – this role builds all three. The Head of Organization Design & Total Rewards owns two halves of one system: how work is organised (structure, layers, spans, roles, job architecture, workforce planning) and what that work is worth (job evaluation, grading, pay, benefits, incentives). This is a build role, not a maintenance role – there is no existing architecture to administer; it must be designed, evaluated, priced, governed and embedded across a workforce of 1,200–1,500 spanning HQ, outstations, flight crew, cabin crew, engineering and ground operations.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Organization Design & Job Architecture
- Own RwandAir’s organisation design standards – spans, layers, decision rights – and lead structural reviews across Commercial, Flight Operations, Ground Operations, Engineering, Cargo, Cabin Services and Corporate functions.
- Design and land a single enterprise job architecture – job families, career levels and role profiles – as the shared reference point for grading, pay, career paths and the skills-based organisation agenda.
- Establish the workforce planning methodology and productivity ratios that convert fleet and network plans into a credible three-year workforce and cost plan.
Total Rewards & Compensation
- Author the RwandAir Total Rewards philosophy – market positioning by workforce segment, pay mix and differentiation logic – and secure ExCo/Board approval.
- Own job evaluation (Korn Ferry Hay, Mercer IPE or WTW GGS), chair the technical panel, and build and maintain salary structures, the annual pay review cycle, and market benchmarking against regional and global carriers.
- Own the rules architecture for crew and technical pay – flight/duty pay, allowances, licence pay – and the benefits portfolio, including medical, pension, staff travel and housing.
Governance & Leadership
- Own the employment cost strategy and the localisation/expatriate rewards framework, advising the CHRO and CFO on structural cost levers.
- Ensure every structural change preserves RCAA/IOSA postholder requirements and regulatory accountability lines.
- Build and lead a small, technically credible Organization Design & Rewards team, transferring capability to Rwandan specialists.
About You – Minimum Standard Qualifications;
Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resource Management, Business Administration, Economics, Statistics, Industrial/Organisational Psychology or a related field, with 10–12 years of progressive HR experience, including at least 5–6 years as a specialist in reward, job architecture or organisation design. A Master’s degree (MBA, MSc HR Management, MSc Organisational Psychology) and accreditation in a recognised job evaluation methodology (Korn Ferry Hay, Mercer IPE or WTW GGS) are strongly preferred.
Essential
- Demonstrable ownership of at least one enterprise-wide job evaluation and grading implementation in an organisation of 1,000+ employees.
- Experience in aviation or another regulated, multi-site, safety-critical industry – aviation strongly preferred.
- Experience designing pay for mixed workforce populations – licensed/technical, operational shift, unionised, expatriate and local.
- Board or ExCo-level presentation experience on pay and structure decisions.
About You – Other Desired Competencies & Skills;
Previous Experience: Essential
- Track record of moving an organisation from no framework to a governed one – sequencing, communicating and landing change rather than issuing policy.
- Comfortable telling an E1 Director that a proposed structure or grade is not supportable, and holding that position under pressure.
- Treats employment cost as a business lever, understanding the P&L consequence of every design and pay decision.
- Handles executive pay, restructuring and individual pay data with absolute discretion.
Job Specific Skills: Essential
- Fluent in organisation design methods (Galbraith Star model, Kates Kesler, Ulrich value-chain logic) and job evaluation/grading mastery.
- Strong compensation and benefits design skills – pay structure construction, market pricing, incentive design and benefits economics.
- Advanced workforce analytics and cost modelling capability, comfortable working directly in the data.
- Working knowledge of aviation operating fundamentals (ICAO/IOSA/RCAA postholder structures, FTL and crew productivity, CASK/ASK) and Rwandan Labour Law No. 66/2018.
- Confident user of HRIS/ERP position management, organisation modelling and compensation modules.
How to Apply:
- An application letter addressed to the Chief HR & Administration Officer;
- Recent Curriculum Vitae;
- Copies of Notarized Degree/Diploma certificates
- Relevant certificates;
- Copies of academic papers;
- A photocopy of the Passport/National ID;
- Three referees
The deadline for submitting application documents (Only PDF Format) is 11th September 2026. Please apply via the link: https://erecruitment.rwandair.com/.
