Vice President, Total Rewards

About the role

The Vice President, Total Rewards will lead compensation, benefits, accommodations, and HR compliance across Zendesk. They will define and execute a holistic total rewards strategy, set enterprise standards, and enable scalable delivery through service teams, automation, and AI.

Responsibilities

• Design and govern competitive compensation, equity and benefits programs (base, variable, sales comp) informed by benchmarking, pay-equity analysis and cost modeling.
• Partner with Executive Leadership to design and administer executive compensation programs including base pay, short- and long-term incentives, bonuses, and commissions that drive company performance.
• Drive the adoption of AI and analytics tools to automate compensation analysis, surface pay equity insights, model scenario impacts, and reduce manual, error-prone processes.
• Simplify and reduce complexity in total rewards operations — rationalizing policies, eliminating redundant processes, establishing clear governance and scaling support into our Employee Services team.
• Own executive presentations and board materials on total rewards strategy, benchmarking results, and gap remediation progress.
• Mentor and develop a high performance Total Rewards team.

Requirements

12+ years of progressive HR experience with deep Total Rewards and Executive compensation expertise; at least 7 years in senior/global leadership or equivalent scope.

Proven experience designing and operating enterprise compensation, equity and benefits programs at global and complex SaaS/technology or comparable companies.

Experience implementing or leading selection/governance of HR automation and AI-enabled solutions.

Data-driven operator comfortable with people analytics, HRIS and compensation/benefits platforms to measure and iterate program impact.

Collaborative executive with demonstrated ability to influence and partner with cross-functional partners (Legal, Finance, TA, Technology) and communicate with senior leadership.

Experience creating board materials and presenting succinctly to C-suite and Boards.

Experience leading within private, PE backed firms and public companies.

Strong track record managing multi-jurisdictional compliance issues.

Qualifications

• AI literacy requirement.
• Ownership of global equity programs and sales compensation programs.
• Prior experience implementing AI-augmented HR processes or a clear plan to operationalize AI at scale is expected.

Skills

• Compensation and benefits design.
• HR automation and AI.
• People analytics and HRIS.
• Executive leadership and board presentation skills.
• Global compensation and benefits management.

Benefits

Zendesk offers a comprehensive benefits package including health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, and more. The US annualized base salary range for this position is $283,000.00-$425,000.00. This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives.

Pay

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $283,000.00-$425,000.00.

Schedule

This position may be eligible for remote work.