Sr. Total Rewards Manager

Location

Remote - US

Employment Type

Full time

Compensation

• Tier 1SF/NYC: $250K – $280K • Offers Equity
• Tier 2US Average: $230K – $260K • Offers Equity

The posted range represents the typical compensation range for this role. To determine actual compensation we review the market rate of each candidate which can include a variety of factors including qualifications, experience, and location. Additional benefits are shared as part of the job posting.

About the Role

We’re looking for an experienced Total Rewards leader to build and own Ashby’s total rewards function through our next phase of growth.

This is a builder’s role. Some of the foundation is in place; a lot of it isn’t. You’ll set the philosophy, design the frameworks, build the infrastructure, and run the work day to day. It’s a chance to shape how a company rewards its people rather than administer decisions someone else made.

It’s also unusually analytical, and unusually creative. Ashby’s Total Rewards philosophy is principled and intentionally not one-size-fits-all: approaches vary by function, because different parts of the business compete in different talent markets. Total Rewards partners closely with leadership to provide the structure, documentation, guidance, and governance that keep those approaches equitable, competitive, and scalable. The upshot is that the most interesting problems here don’t have off-the-shelf answers. How do you price a role that survey data doesn’t cover? How do you keep a flexible system fair and explainable? How do you tell, early, that one talent market has moved while the others haven’t? You’ll need real fluency with data, the discipline to structure a problem before you solve it, and the confidence to invent the model when no model exists.

A lot of this work looks less like administering a program and more like a well-run strategy engagement: frame the question, get the data, build the model, pressure-test the answer, and bring leaders a recommendation with the tradeoffs made explicit. The difference is that here you also go implement it.

You’ll partner closely with People Ops, Finance, Talent Acquisition, Legal, and functional leaders to design programs that support how Ashby attracts, retains, and rewards exceptional people - building a more scalable approach while preserving the flexibility each part of the business needs.

We’re looking for someone who has built and scaled Total Rewards in high-growth, VC-backed SaaS companies and is energized by all three of philosophy, systems, and execution - someone who would rather go build the analysis than wait for it.

This role starts as an individual contributor and is expected to grow into people management as the function scales.

Responsibilities

• Building Ashby’s compensation infrastructure
  Bands, leveling alignment, market positioning, review cadences, benchmarking methodology, and clear guidance for offers, promotions, refreshers, and market adjustments - globally, and in partnership with founders, executives, and functional leaders.

• Reading the market and helping Ashby adapt quickly
  Combine market data, internal data, and outside signals to allow us to respond quickly and at scale when conditions change.

• Owning Total Rewards strategy end-to-end
  Compensation, equity, benefits, and perks. With founders and company leaders, define the philosophy, principles, and long-term direction for how we reward people globally.

• Leading benefits strategy and administration
  Own global benefits end to end: strategy, selection, renewals, plan design, competitiveness assessment, broker and vendor management, and the systems and processes behind a strong employee experience.

• Leading equity program infrastructure
  Partner with Finance and company leadership to bring structure, consistency, and scalability to equity practices, support program administration, and help employees understand how equity fits within the broader Total Rewards picture.

• Building scalable systems and operations
  Improve the systems, workflows, documentation, and operational processes behind Total Rewards.

• Acting as a trusted cross-functional partner
  You’re the subject matter expert for Total Rewards at Ashby. You’ll help leaders navigate rewards decisions with sound judgment, fairness, and clarity - and make complicated questions land simply in front of founders and executives.

• Preparing the function to scale
  You begin as a hands-on functional owner, but you’ll build with future scale in mind by establishing the documentation, operating rhythms, standards, and decision-making frameworks the function will need as it grows, and flagging the organizational needs ahead.

Requirements

• Several years of progressive Total Rewards experience, including meaningful ownership of compensation, benefits, and equity programs in high-growth organizations and you’ve built compensation infrastructure from the ground up.
• Analytical first mindset. You build the model, pressure-test your own numbers, and would rather run the analysis yourself than wait for someone else to.
• Structured thinker. You take a messy question, break it into the parts that matter, form a hypothesis, and test it - and you can walk someone through your reasoning without losing them.
• Creative problem solver in the comp space. When benchmarks are thin or the role is new, you reason from first principles and design the approach that fits the problem and not the one you used last time.
• Comfortable where some principles are centralized and other elements are tailored by function, and you can keep that flexibility equitable and explainable.
• Built and scaled compensation frameworks and benefits programs for globally distributed organizations, ideally through periods of significant growth.
• Support leaders with different needs and viewpoints while holding the line on trust, consistency, and decision quality.
• Highly effective at both strategy and execution, and comfortable being the primary owner of the work day to day.
• Exceptional communicator who can make complex Total Rewards topics land with any audience and can show the reasoning behind a number, not just the number. You’re comfortable putting a recommendation in front of founders and defending it.
• Detail-oriented and operationally strong, always looking for ways to improve systems, processes, and program quality.
• Led or managed others, or you’re excited to build and eventually scale a Total Rewards team.

Bonus Points

• Experience building and scaling global compensation and benefits programs across multiple regions and employment models.
• Experience using automation, AI, and technology to make Total Rewards operations faster, more accurate, and more scalable.
• Strong modeling and data skills beyond the standard toolkit including advanced spreadsheet work, SQL, Python, or BI tools.
• A background that blends Total Rewards with strategy consulting, corporate finance or FP&A, or people analytics.
• Experience with tools such as CandorIQ, Pave, and OpenComp.

About the Company

We’re building the next generation of recruiting software and we’re starting with a suite of products that helps talent leaders, recruiters, and hiring managers run an efficient and data-driven hiring process. We are well funded and backed by great investors, including Y Combinator, Elad Gil and Lachy Groom. We have thousands of amazing customers including Snowflake, OpenAI, Shopify, Ramp, Notion, and Zapier (and many others who we cannot name!). Our growth and retention metrics are best-in-class among our peers: we have tens of millions in ARR, growing >100% year over year, very low churn, and many years of runway. We’ll share more details once we meet. In short, it's the perfect time to join! 🚀

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity.
• 10-year exercise window for stock options.
• Unlimited PTO with four weeks recommended per year.
• Twelve weeks of fully paid family leave in the US.
• Generous equipment, software, and office furniture budget.
• $100/month education budget with more expensive items (like conferences) covered with manager approval.
• If you’re in the US, top-notch health insurance for you and your dependents with all premiums covered by us.

Ashby provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities.

Ashby is committed to a fair and transparent hiring process. We confirm that this advertisement is for an active, existing vacancy within our organization. We may use artificial intelligence-driven tools to assist our recruitment team in screening, assessing, and selecting candidates for this position.

Compensation Range: $230K - $280K