Director, Compensation

About the role

We're hiring a Director of Compensation to own our broad-based comp strategy end-to-end. This is a senior people leadership role reporting to the Head of Total Rewards. You’ll drive the programs, frameworks, and cross-functional partnerships that keep our pay competitive and fair as we grow into new markets.

Responsibilities

• Drive the design and delivery of annual and mid-year comp cycles with greater precision and speed.
• Work closely with HR Business Partners, Finance, Legal, and senior business leaders to solve hard problems and give them recommendations they can act on.
• Provide recommendations on executive offers, retention decisions, org changes, pay equity questions, and support difficult calls in gray areas.
• Lead compensation programs at scale, including job architecture, market pricing, performance cycles, and pay-for-performance frameworks.
• Transform disparate data into clear recommendations for executives.
• Build compensation programs for international expansion, ensuring competitiveness and compliance in new markets.

Requirements

• 10+ years of progressive compensation experience, with at least 3 years leading a people management role.
• Proven track record directly supporting large R&D; or Engineering functions, with experience advising VP/SVP-level leaders on complex compensation decisions and earning their trust.
• Deep expertise in equity compensation design and strategy.
• You've worked at a tech company where equity is central to the comp philosophy, and you know how to shape it, not just administer it.
• Expertise in spreadsheet work (gSheets and Excel).
• A genuine interest in how AI and technology can make compensation work better, and the initiative to actually go build it.

Qualifications

• Must-have: 10+ years of progressive compensation experience, with at least 3 years leading a people management role.
• Must-have: Proven track record directly supporting large R&D; or Engineering functions, with experience advising VP/SVP-level leaders on complex compensation decisions and earning their trust.
• Must-have: Deep expertise in equity compensation design and strategy.
• Must-have: You've worked at a tech company where equity is central to the comp philosophy, and you know how to shape it, not just administer it.
• Must-have: Expertise in spreadsheet work (gSheets and Excel).
• Must-have: A genuine interest in how AI and technology can make compensation work better, and the initiative to actually go build it.
• Optional: Experience supporting Sales/GTM client groups alongside R&D.;
• Optional: Exposure to executive compensation design and strategy.
• Optional: International compensation experience, especially in the context of expanding into new geographies.
• Optional: Familiarity with AI or advanced analytics tools (Tableau, SQL, Python) to accelerate compensation work.

Skills

• Experience building compensation programs at scale, not just operating within inherited ones.
• Ability to transform disparate data into a clear recommendation for executives.
• Expertise in spreadsheet work (gSheets and Excel).
• A genuine interest in how AI and technology can make compensation work better, and the initiative to actually go build it.

Benefits

Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here.

Pay

The base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here.

Schedule

This role is remote.