What motivation scheme can be offered to a programmer who solves complex problems (the last line of support, no one could cope with the task)?

Question

Project management

There is a department with 1C specialists: consultants, programmers, etc.
There is the most experienced programmer, who was also a consultant, and in general has outgrown ordinary positions.
I would like to nominate him for a position like "hard problem solver" with responsibilities:

• Supervision of the work of other specialists
  
• Work with the most difficult tasks (either no one has coped with it, or it is new and no one, in principle, knows which way to take it)
  
• Work on the internal architecture (how and where to develop our system, what to improve in the work of specialists, etc.)
  

Naturally, compensation should be worthy. And everyone loves the idea. But this question poses a dead end:
the Director wants to see specific and measurable performance indicators. And I can't think of any that would fit.
For ordinary programmers, it is considered simply - according to hours paid by clients. And here I don’t even know ... You can’t tie it to the volume of work for the department, nor to the time the tasks are completed. Paid hours are also not an indicator.
Does anyone have relevant experience?

Answer 1

0. Avoid the state when there is a "star" in the company
0.1 Try to have the star teach 2+ people to his level or close to him
1. Ask the person what he would like to do
2. Dissuade staff who do not understand what it is IT, from KPI

Answer 2

Such people no longer have an hourly KPI, but a project-by-project one (so many projects are decided per quarter / year). And there are their own assessment methods.

Answer 3

Send your super cool specialist on vacation to the south of the mainland, from where he will not be available at all for 25 days.
Upon returning, the places from which the strongest flow will be can be called "reference points" and some kind of KPI will be screwed to them.
The question of how much money the company will lose in this case is worth special attention, however, this goes beyond the scope of the issue of staff motivation, but everything will be obvious to your director.

Answer 4

The director wants to see specific and measurable performance indicators. And I can't think of any that would fit.

Send this programmer on vacation.))
Let everyone who is ready to implement this task put down:
1. the complexity of the task from 1..5,
2. the time for which the person undertakes to complete this task
3. the rate per hour for this task
Calculate the risks + 33% (to the average time) and further according to the formula .
We consider the optimal costs and give them to the right person (taking into account his current workload).
Whether to reserve the result or not (give the same one to several people for execution) is up to the situation.

Answer 5

The director wants to see specific and measurable performance indicators.

It's impossible.
There is only one way out - to replace the director.