Director, Global People Operations & Total Rewards

Sonatype • Central, LA

2d

About The Position

The Director of Global People Operations & Total Rewards exists to design, build, and govern the modern operational backbone of Sonatype’s human capital infrastructure. This role is a strategic intersection of corporate data systems engineering, international compensation architecture, and scalable service delivery. As an M5 leader, you are responsible for transforming the People Operations function from a transactional support mechanism into an automated, high-fidelity business utility that drives organization-wide talent density and unit efficiency.
In this role, you will have absolute ownership over the global tech stack configuration, international total rewards structures, data integrity, and compliance guardrails across our distributed workforce. Operating as the organization's preeminent compensation and systems authority, you will eliminate structural process noise and equip managers with the self-service tooling required to lead high-performance teams. Your success is measured by the scalability of our corporate operating model, the market competitiveness of our compensation architecture, and the removal of operational friction across the global employee lifecycle.

Requirements

• Experience leading global People Operations, Total Rewards, HR systems, and operational infrastructure in a complex, global environment.
• Demonstrated experience modernizing, scaling, or rebuilding HR operational architecture, systems, workflows, and service delivery models.
• Deep compensation expertise required, including experience leading compensation strategy, job architecture, leveling, salary structures, market benchmarking, and annual compensation planning processes.
• Must be capable of operating as the senior compensation subject matter expert for the organization, including providing strategic guidance, analytical modeling, governance, and operational leadership without a dedicated internal compensation team.
• Strong experience leading HR technology strategy, HRIS optimization, systems implementation, workflow automation, operational process redesign, and data governance initiatives.
• Strong operational leadership experience across payroll, benefits, compliance, employee lifecycle operations, and global service delivery.
• Demonstrated ability to simplify complexity, reduce operational friction, and build scalable operational models in growing organizations.
• Strong analytical, systems-thinking, and problem-solving capabilities.
• Strong cross-functional leadership and stakeholder management skills across executive, technical, and operational teams.
• Experience operating in high-growth, transformation-oriented, or rapidly scaling environments preferred.
• Strong program management, prioritization, and execution leadership skills.
• Ability to balance strategic transformation work with operational execution and day-to-day delivery accountability.

Nice To Haves

• Experience driving automation, AI enablement, self-service strategies, or digital transformation initiatives within HR or enterprise operations strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead the evolution of the global People Operations operating model to improve scalability, consistency, operational leverage, and employee experience.
• Drive simplification and standardization of global HR processes, policies, workflows, and service delivery models.
• Reduce manual operational dependency through automation, process redesign, self-service enablement, and scalable governance models.
• Build operational infrastructure capable of supporting continued company growth, global expansion, and evolving business complexity.
• Partner cross-functionally to improve decision velocity, operational clarity, accountability, and execution consistency across People processes.
• Lead operational readiness and scalability planning associated with organizational transformation initiatives, global growth, and evolving workforce models.
• Support the development of scalable operating practices that reduce organizational friction while increasing speed, consistency, and operational effectiveness globally.
• Lead the People function’s AI enablement and automation strategy across HR operations and employee support services.
• Identify, prioritize, and implement opportunities to automate, agentify, or streamline repeatable operational work across the employee lifecycle.
• Drive implementation of scalable manager and employee self-service capabilities.
• Lead roadmap development for AI-enabled HR support capabilities, workflow automation, reporting automation, and operational efficiency improvements.
• Partner with IT, Security, Legal, and enterprise AI leaders to ensure responsible, compliant, and scalable use of AI technologies within HR operations.
• Continuously evaluate emerging HR technologies, AI tools, workflow platforms, and service delivery models to improve organizational scalability and operating leverage.
• Help establish modern operational practices that enable HR to scale efficiently while improving responsiveness, consistency, and user experience.
• Lead global People Systems, Analytics, and HR technology strategy, ensuring scalable architecture, strong governance, and reliable operational infrastructure.
• Own HRIS strategy, systems optimization, integrations, workflow design, data governance, and reporting scalability.
• Drive modernization of HR operational architecture, reducing fragmented workflows, duplicate processes, manual reporting dependencies, and operational inefficiencies.
• Establish scalable reporting and analytics capabilities that enable data-driven decision-making across workforce planning, compensation, engagement, organizational health, and operational performance.
• Partner with Finance and business leaders to improve workforce insights, operational reporting, forecasting, and organizational planning capabilities.
• Ensure operational data integrity, reporting accuracy, and strong governance standards globally.
• Develop scalable systems and operational workflows that support organizational growth without proportional increases in manual support requirements.
• Serve as the company’s primary compensation subject matter expert and strategic advisor across global compensation philosophy, architecture, governance, and operational execution.
• Design and scale global compensation frameworks, including job architecture, leveling, salary structures, market benchmarking, pay governance, and compensation planning processes.
• Lead annual compensation planning, including merit cycles, promotions, market adjustments, equity considerations, and compensation decision support.
• Provide analytical modeling and executive guidance related to workforce investment decisions, compensation tradeoffs, organizational scalability, and talent differentiation.
• Partner closely with Finance and executive leadership on compensation budgeting, workforce planning, operating leverage, and organizational design considerations.
• Ensure compensation programs are scalable, analytically grounded, operationally executable, and aligned with evolving business and talent strategies.
• Oversee global benefits strategy and administration in partnership with external vendors and regional stakeholders.
• Oversee global payroll, benefits administration, employee lifecycle operations, and core People Operations processes across regions.
• Ensure operational excellence, compliance, accuracy, and scalability across all foundational HR delivery functions.
• Lead vendor strategy and governance across payroll, benefits, HR systems, and operational service providers.
• Continuously improve service delivery models, operational efficiency, employee experience, and cycle time reduction.
• Build operational resilience, redundancy, and scalable support models across the People Operations function.
• Drive operational governance, documentation, and process discipline to improve consistency, reduce rework, and strengthen execution quality globally.
• Lead, develop, and scale a high-performing global People Operations, Total Rewards, Systems, and Analytics organization.
• Build strong operational discipline, accountability, prioritization, and execution consistency across the function.
• Partner closely with Finance, Legal, IT, Security, and executive leadership to align People infrastructure with broader business and transformation priorities.
• Act as a strategic advisor on organizational scalability, operational effectiveness, workforce infrastructure, and People-related transformation initiatives.
• Support enterprise-wide transformation priorities through strong program management, operational governance, and execution leadership.
• Influence organizational simplification efforts by helping improve operational clarity, scalable governance, decision support, and sustainable ways of working across the People function.

Benefits

• Company Wellness Week - We shut down company operations for a week to enable all employees to pursue personal growth and enjoy a much-needed and deserved rest.
• Paid Volunteer Time Off (VTO)
• parental leave
• diversity and inclusion working groups
• flexible working practices

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed