Compensation Analyst - Police & Fire Pay Plans

AlphaGov is seeking a Public Safety Compensation Analyst to develop police and fire pay recommendations as part of a municipal compensation and classification study. You will evaluate existing pay structures, benchmark comparable departments, and design practical salary plans that support recruitment, retention, and internal equity.

This engagement requires experience with public safety compensation, including rank structures, step progression, specialty pay, and pay compression between ranks.

What you’ll do

• Review police and fire job classifications, salary schedules, pay policies, and relevant labor agreements.
• Identify comparable jurisdictions and benchmark positions based on responsibilities, rank, and organizational scope.
• Analyze base salaries, salary ranges, step progression, incentives, and specialty pays, accounting for differences in work schedules.
• Assess market competitiveness, internal equity, and pay compression within and between ranks.
• Recommend pay structures and progression approaches that reflect the municipality’s operational needs and compensation objectives.
• Develop cost estimates and implementation options, including employee placement within proposed pay schedules.
• Prepare clear findings and present recommendations to municipal leadership, human resources, finance, and public safety officials.

• Direct experience analyzing compensation and designing pay plans for municipal police or fire departments.
• Experience conducting salary benchmarking within municipal compensation and classification studies.
• Understanding of public safety rank structures, pay progression, incentives, and specialty assignments.
• Strong Excel modeling skills and the ability to produce accurate, traceable comparisons and implementation cost estimates.
• Ability to explain compensation findings and tradeoffs clearly to technical and nontechnical audiences.

Experience evaluating both police and fire compensation, including union and nonunion environments, is preferred.

Submit your résumé and a brief summary of relevant municipal studies. Identify the departments covered, your responsibilities, and the pay plans or recommendations you developed.