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.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience at a SaaS/AI/technology company or high-growth enterprise.
- Experience with Workday.
- Experience managing benefits negotiations and renewals.
- Ownership of global equity programs and sales compensation programs.
- AI literacy requirement.
- Prior experience implementing AI-augmented HR processes or a clear plan to operationalize AI at scale.
Benefits
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.