Senior Compensation Manager

dbt Labs

About The Position

dbt Labs is the pioneer of analytics engineering, helping data teams transform raw data into reliable, actionable insights. Since 2016, we’ve grown from an open source project into the leading analytics engineering platform, now used by over 50,000 teams every week. As of February 2025, we’ve surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and serve more than 5,400 dbt Cloud customers, including JetBlue, HubSpot, Vodafone New Zealand, and Dunelm. We’re backed by top-tier investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Altimeter. At our core, we believe in empowering data practitioners: Code-based data transformations unlock transparency, flexibility, and collaboration Analysts should adopt software engineering best practices to build trusted data products Core analytics infrastructure should be open source and user-controlled Analytic code—not just tools—should be shared and community-driven dbt is now synonymous with analytics engineering, defining the modern data stack and serving as the data control plane for enterprise teams around the world. And we’re just getting started. We’re growing fast and building a team of passionate, curious people across the globe. Learn more about what makes us special by checking out our values. We’re hiring a Senior Compensation Manager to serve as a senior individual contributor and trusted expert on our People team. This role is designed for someone who brings deep compensation expertise, exercises strong independent judgment, and thrives with high autonomy and broad ownership. This role needs an experienced practitioner who: operates as a SME, leads significant, enterprise-wide initiatives, and influences outcomes across our function. In this role, you will own and evolve our compensation programs end-to-end, partnering closely with our teams across: People Business Partners (PBPs), Talent Acquisition, Finance, and Legal. This is a high impact IC role that reports into our Senior Director of Total Rewards and People Operations, and it comes with high visibility, established trust, and the ability to shape how we attract, retain, and reward talent at a global scale.

Requirements

8–12 years of progressive experience in compensation or total rewards
Demonstrated ability to operate independently on significant, high-impact initiatives
Deep expertise in job architecture, market pricing, pay equity analysis, and program design
Strong analytical foundation with experience building and explaining complex models
Proven ability to influence without authority and partner effectively across functions
Clear, confident communicator who can tailor messaging to technical and non-technical audiences
High judgment, discretion, and a strong sense of fairness

Responsibilities

Act as the company’s compensation expert
Serve as the primary subject matter expert for compensation at dbt Labs, applying deep knowledge to complex and high impact decisions
Lead and contribute to the development of compensation principles, structures, and programs that support company goals
Apply sound judgment to ambiguous, novel, or nuanced compensation challenges
Own compensation strategy and execution
Design, maintain, and evolve global compensation bands across functions, levels, and geographies
Lead annual benchmarking efforts using Radford, Pave, and other market data sources as well as manage software tools and systems
Ensure cash and equity programs are competitive, equitable, and aligned with our values
Drive significant programs and projects
Own the end to end planning and execution of company-wide merit and promotion cycles
Build and maintain sophisticated models for salary planning, equity refresh strategy, burn-rate monitoring, and retention risk analysis
Lead compensation diligence and modeling for new country expansion and organizational change
Partner across the business
You will be the senior compensation partner to our PBPs, Talent Acquisition, and functional leaders. Our bar for partnership is high and we expect our team to lead by example.
Advise on complex compensation scenarios including new-hire offers, promotions, internal mobility, and exception cases
Communicate advanced compensation concepts clearly to diverse audiences and influence decision-making
Operate with rigor, integrity, and independence
Partner closely with finance on planning, forecasting, and compensation assumptions
Support TR leader in compensation committee and BOD materials as needed
Own compensation governance and compliance as we scale globally, ensuring alignment with local regulations and local talent expectations
Build for scale
Maintain and evolve global Total Rewards documentation to ensure clarity and transparency
Identify and implement improvements to compensation processes, tools, and policies
Anticipate future needs and proactively design solutions that scale with our business