Watershed Compensation Manager at Watershed to lead global compensation program and evolve compensation planning tools. Manage compensation cycles and build understanding of compensation across the company.
Responsibilities
You’ll lead Watershed’s global compensation program. You’ll be our sole dedicated compensation team member, taking ownership of an established, increasingly complex program across the U.S., EMEA, Australia, and Mexico City. This is a hands-on individual contributor role reporting to our Head of People: you’ll build and check the models, validate market benchmarks, run compensation planning, and help employees understand their pay. You’ll bring sound judgment to decisions that balance competitiveness, performance, and financial discipline.
Reporting to the Head of People, you’ll partner closely with Finance, People Business Partners, Recruiting, People Operations, and business leaders. You’ll help shape compensation strategy through analysis and recommendations to the Head of People and founders. You’ll independently own execution of our programs including budgeting, planning, education and rollout.
A major focus will be our compensation tools and planning workflows. You’ll help us move away from manual work toward reliable data, well-tested systems, and a better experience for employees as well as the people making and communicating compensation outcomes.
Own and evolve compensation planning and tools. Lead the development and continuous improvement of planning tools, models, and workflows to strengthen reliability, usability, and efficiency. Identify opportunities to build new capabilities, reduce manual work, and recommend tools and process improvements that support the company’s evolving compensation needs.
Run compensation cycles end to end. Manage timelines, eligibility, cash and equity modeling, budget tracking, approvals, data validation, and final handoffs. Partner with Finance and People Operations to ensure approved decisions are implemented accurately and on time.
Lead global benchmarking. Validate market data and job matches, manage survey participation, and maintain compensation ranges across functions and geographies. Bring judgment to imperfect data, document assumptions, and flag where our benchmarks no longer reflect the talent markets we compete in.
Build compensation understanding. Help employees understand their compensation and equity, equip managers to communicate decisions, and enable recruiters to explain our programs to candidates. Develop practical guides, FAQs, training, and cycle communications, and help deliver education across time zones.
Be the compensation expert for business partners. Advise Recruiting, People Business Partners, and leaders on offers, promotions, role changes, and compensation questions. Make clear, data-backed recommendations and explain the trade-offs.
Keep data and processes dependable. Maintain accurate compensation records, documented decision rules, and appropriate checks and access controls. Improve reporting and reduce recurring manual work using approved automation and AI, with careful protection of employee information and verification of outputs.
Execute executive compensation programs. Prepare analyses and models, coordinate approvals, and carry approved executive compensation decisions through implementation in partnership with the Head of People, founders, Finance, and Legal.
Coordinate across global and functional partners. Work with Finance, Legal, People Operations, and Revenue Operations on local requirements, compensation data, and implementation. Benefits and sales incentive design are owned elsewhere.
Qualification
7+ years of experience in compensationStrong compensation fundamentalsAdvanced spreadsheet skillsHands-on experience with UStrong project management
Required
7+ years of experience in compensation, or equivalent depth of expertise, including hands-on ownership of compensation programs and cycles.
Experience managing compensation programs at technology companies, including SaaS businesses, with an understanding of how cash and equity support hiring, performance, and retention.
Strong compensation fundamentals: market pricing, survey participation, job matching, salary ranges, cash and equity compensation, and budget modeling.
Experience implementing or materially improving compensation planning tools, including configuration, testing, rollout, and adoption. You can translate compensation rules into workflows.
Advanced spreadsheet skills. You can build and audit complex models.
Hands-on experience with U.S. compensation practices and experience supporting compensation in at least one other country. You can learn unfamiliar local requirements and work effectively with regional experts. Experience in Mexico a strong plus!
The ability to turn complex compensation concepts into clear employee education, manager guidance, and leadership recommendations.
Practical fluency with AI tools and prompt engineering and a willingness to use them to improve analysis, documentation, and recurring workflows. You know how to validate outputs and protect sensitive compensation data.
Strong project management, attention to detail, and discretion. You can prioritize independently, follow through, and deliver work that people trust.
Comfort with ambiguity and a genuine interest in being a hands-on, sole compensation specialist with strong cross-functional partners.
Must be willing to work from an office 4 days per week (except for remote roles)
Watershed has hub offices in San Francisco, New York, London, and Mexico City and satellite offices in Denver, Sydney, Paris, and Berlin. Where we have offices, employees are expected to be in office for 4 days per week. Certain jobs are open to being remote and will be specifically noted on the jobs page and in the job description if so.
