Head of Total Rewards

Whatnot Whatnot · Consumer · San Francisco, CA · People

Head of Total Rewards to build and run the function at Whatnot, owning how the company pays, rewards, and supports its team as it scales. This includes compensation philosophy, equity strategy, benefits, mobility, and the systems and team behind it. The role operates at both strategy and execution levels, setting direction, designing frameworks, advising leadership and the Board, and running the actual work.

What you'd actually do

  1. Set and evolve our Total Rewards strategy across compensation, equity, and benefits
  2. Own global compensation governance: job architecture, leveling, salary bands, and equity guidelines
  3. Build and lead a high-performing Total Rewards team
  4. Run semi-annual comp cycles end to end, including budgeting with Finance and calibration across orgs
  5. Scale benefits globally, balancing local needs, compliance, cost, and quality

Skills

Required

  • Total Rewards strategy
  • compensation philosophy
  • equity strategy
  • benefits design and administration
  • global compensation governance
  • job architecture
  • leveling
  • salary bands
  • equity programs
  • high-growth tech company experience
  • scaling organizations
  • international compensation and benefits
  • executive advising
  • Board and Compensation Committee interaction
  • financial acumen
  • budgeting and modeling
  • team leadership
  • hands-on execution
  • judgment in ambiguity

Nice to have

  • pre-IPO to post-IPO experience

What the JD emphasized

  • 12–15+ years of experience in high-growth tech companies
  • leading Total Rewards through rapid scaling and major inflection points (ideally pre-IPO to post-IPO)
  • Deep expertise in compensation strategy and philosophy
  • Proven track record building and leading Total Rewards orgs that scale
  • Strong international experience
  • Executive presence with substance
  • Strong business and financial acumen
  • Built teams that act as strategic partners to the business
  • Ability to be hands-on when needed