Principal Compensation Partner

Cars Commerce

7d•$135,300 - $169,150

About The Position

Reporting to the Sr. Director of Total Rewards, the Principal Compensation Partner is a senior, hands-on partner who owns major compensation processes end-to-end — not just supporting them, but designing and building them. This person will support executive compensation programs, including base salary, annual incentive, and long-term incentive design and benchmarking; prepare analyses and materials for Compensation Committee meetings and executive offer/promotion decisions. They will lead the design and ongoing refinement of core compensation programs — merit cycles, bonus/incentive plans, promotion guidelines, and pay equity processes. This role will own end-to-end equity program administration: grant modeling, vesting schedules, dilution/burn rate analysis, and reconciliation with equity management systems. The Principal Compensation Partner will provide strategic consultation for HR partners and senior leaders to help solve business challenges. They will design and build a streamlined, repeatable compensation analytics platform — replacing ad hoc analysis with reusable models, dashboards, and QA processes so pay data is trustworthy and scalable. This role will help establish the company’s job architecture — job families, levels, and career ladders — and build the governance process to maintain it. Additionally, they will develop the market pricing methodology, salary structure, and geographic differential approach that underpins the company’s pay philosophy, and develop comprehensive training and enablement programs.

Requirements

8+ years of progressive compensation experience, including direct exposure to executive compensation, equity administration, and compensation program development and execution
Track record of owning and building compensation processes independently — turning ambiguous asks into repeatable, well-documented programs
Strong Excel and financial modeling skills
Comfort working directly with senior leadership and, potentially, Compensation Committee materials
Strong analytical rigor paired with clear written and verbal communication

Nice To Haves

Experience with compensation or equity systems (e.g., Workday, Radford/Aon, Merrill Lynch, Carta, Pave, Compa or similar)
Experience partnering with Legal and Finance on executive pay disclosure requirements (e.g., CD&A)
Prior experience building or scaling a job architecture from the ground up
Prior experience supporting equity admin

Responsibilities

Support executive compensation programs, including base salary, annual incentive, and long-term incentive design and benchmarking; prepare analyses and materials for Compensation Committee meetings and executive offer/promotion decisions
Lead the design and ongoing refinement of core compensation programs — merit cycles, bonus/incentive plans, promotion guidelines, and pay equity processes
Own end-to-end equity program administration: grant modeling, vesting schedules, dilution/burn rate analysis, and reconciliation with equity management systems
Provide strategic consultation for HR partners and senior leaders to help solve business challenges
Design and build a streamlined, repeatable compensation analytics platform — replacing ad hoc analysis with reusable models, dashboards, and QA processes so pay data is trustworthy and scalable
Help establish the company’s job architecture — job families, levels, and career ladders — and build the governance process to maintain it
Develop the market pricing methodology, salary structure, and geographic differential approach that underpins the company’s pay philosophy
Develop comprehensive training and enablement programs