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ClayClayNew York, NY

Head of Compensation

Owns Clay's compensation function, designing salary structures, variable-pay and equity programs, compensation cycles, and supporting tooling. The role requires 8+ years of hands-on compensation experience, strong technical expertise, excellent communication, and sound judgment in a scaling environment.

225k – 275k/yr
Hybrid8+ YOEPeople Ops

About the role

Responsibilities

Philosophy and Architecture

  • Own Clay's compensation philosophy and salary structures, evolving them as the company scales.
  • Build pay programs aligned with Clay's business, talent market, and stage.
  • Own market benchmarking and survey strategy to keep compensation bands current, defensible, and competitive.
  • Partner on go-to-market compensation, including variable-pay and incentive structures for revenue-generating teams.
  • Build the system of record for compensation, documenting what Clay pays, why it pays it, and how the programs connect.

Programs and Cycles

  • Design and run compensation cycles, including reviews, promotion and adjustment decisions, and offer approvals.
  • Own equity program design and partner with Finance on administration.
  • Partner with Revenue Operations on variable-compensation administration, ensuring plans are accurately implemented, calculated, and paid.
  • Build compensation workflows and tooling, including offer visualization and recruiter-facing data lookups.

Communication and Enablement

  • Translate compensation concepts into clear guidance for managers and employees.
  • Equip managers and recruiters to have confident, informed conversations about pay.
  • Advise the People team and business leaders on compensation questions related to hiring, retention, and promotion.

Requirements

  • 8+ years of compensation experience with significant hands-on program design experience, ideally including time at a scaling company.
  • Deep technical foundations across base pay, variable pay, and equity, including understanding of program mechanics and administration.
  • Experience with variable-compensation programs, including sales and go-to-market incentive plans.
  • Experience building or substantially rebuilding compensation structures, leveling frameworks, and review processes from scratch.
  • Fluency with equity compensation.
  • Ability to balance strategic vision with operational detail.
  • Strong judgment and a commitment to fair, thoughtful pay decisions.
  • Exceptional communication skills, including the ability to make complex compensation situations clear and build trust.
  • Comfort working in ambiguity and building programs that do not yet exist.
  • Bias toward action balanced with sound judgment around compensation risk.

Nice to Have

  • Experience with multi-country compensation, including the UK and Europe.

Skills

compensation strategysalary structuresmarket benchmarkingvariable compensationequity compensationsales incentive planscompensation cyclesleveling frameworkspeople operationsRevenue Operationscompensation tooling

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