Total Rewards Manager

About the Company

Bestow exists to modernize the life insurance industry—a product that is one of the world's most important yet hardest to build, distribute, and update. As a leading vertical technology platform, Bestow serves some of the largest and most innovative life insurers, unifying the fragmented, legacy value chain to enable carriers to launch products in weeks instead of years. Powered by AI and automation, Bestow helps the industry move faster, reach more people, and deliver on its promise. Backed by leading investors (Goldman Sachs, Hedosophia, NEA, Valar, 8VC) and trusted by major carriers, Bestow is built by a team that values precision, purpose, and heart.

About the Team

Bestow is building a dedicated Total Rewards function for the first time. Currently, compensation, equity, and benefits work is distributed across People, Finance, and Legal with no single owner. This role will own the full total rewards portfolio (pay, equity, and benefits) end-to-end, bring rigor to benchmarking and communication, and partner closely with Finance, Legal, and the board's compensation committee as Bestow scales. This is a hands-on, builder role at a company still standing up its Total Rewards infrastructure. Expect to both set strategy and execute (Pave configuration, equity modeling, benefits renewals) in year one.

Responsibilities

• Own Pave end-to-end: benchmark configuration (market cut, percentile, geographic tiers), comp cycle setup, and data integrity between BambooHR (HRIS) and Pave.
• Manage the Total Rewards Assessment & Roadmap: audit current comp and benefits philosophy, market positioning, and tooling.
• Maintain and refresh salary bands: anchor to a clear, consistently-applied benchmarking philosophy; review and resolve flagged band outliers by job family.
• Partner on job leveling: bring consistency to a leveling framework and support a more standardized leveling process.
• Own the bi-annual merit, promotion & bonus cycle: design and execution in Pave, partnering with Finance on budget and approval workflows.
• Equity Administration: partner closely with Legal and Finance teams to maintain an up-to-date equity database.
• Manage overall equity program: ongoing market benchmarking of equity practices, equity analytics, and end-to-end execution of refresh and promotion equity cycles.
• Assess geographic pay ranges: make the case for them as Bestow's workforce becomes more distributed.
• Own benefits strategy: annual renewal strategy, plan design changes, and new offering evaluation (e.g., lifestyle spending accounts, wellness perks, voluntary benefits), in partnership with the broker.

Requirements

• 5-8+ years in compensation, total rewards, or a closely related HR discipline, including direct experience with equity administration at a venture-backed or newly-public company.
• Ops-rooted: Ideally began in or spent time in people operations.
• Platform-fluent: Hands-on experience with a comp benchmarking/planning platform (Pave, Radford, or similar) and running end-to-end merit/comp cycles.
• Equity-fluent: Direct experience managing equity programs: grant sizing methodology, equity analysis, refresh/retention programs, Carta or similar cap table tools, and board/compensation committee-facing materials.
• Benefits-savvy: Benefits strategy experience, including renewals, broker management, and plan design decisions.
• Analytically sharp: Advanced Excel/analysis skills; comfort building and defending a compensation model from first principles rather than following a template.
• A strong partner: Excellent cross-functional partnership skills; this role works constantly with Finance and Legal and needs to translate technical comp/equity concepts for managers and employees.

Bonus points: Experience standing up a Total Rewards function from scratch at a similarly-sized company (~100-250 employees); familiarity with job architecture/leveling framework design; insurance, fintech, or other regulated-industry experience.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity based on role.
• Policies and managers that support work/life balance, including flexible paid time off and parental leave programs.
• 100% paid-premium option for medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Lifestyle stipend to support your physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing.
• Flexible work-from-home policy and open to remote.
• Remote and WFH options, as well as a state-of-the-art office in Dallas’ Deep Ellum for those who prefer an office setting.
• Employee-led diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Recent Employer Awards: Best Place for Working Parents 2023, 2024, 2025; Great Place to Work Certified 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025; Built In Best Places to Work 2022, 2023, 2025; Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Texas 2022, 2023; Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Financial Services and Insurance 2022, 2023, 2024.