Compensation Architect - Total Rewards

Mercor; Toronto; On-site; CAD 69,000 - 276,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor’s People team is building its compensation and equity foundation from scratch. We are seeking Total Rewards practitioners with depth in compensation design or equity program management, able to shape global pay systems, equity schemes, and related governance.

You will design bands, manage cycles, benchmark against peers, and simplify structures to drive behavior. This role offers paid conversations on live questions and flexible engagements, with hourly rates depending on depth of

Qualifications

• Built salary bands, leveling, and job architecture from the ground up.
• Owned an annual compensation cycle: merit planning, promotion decisions, bonus programs, equity refresh
• Benchmarked against a peer set you then had to defend to a skeptical exec team.
• Designed incentive structures that were simple, credible, and changed behavior.

Responsibilities

• Design compensation design & architecture.
• Manage equity programs and governance.
• Benchmark and defend pay decisions.

Skills

Compensation design

Equity program mgmt

Benchmarking methodology

Tools

HRIS tooling

Job description

Mercor's People team is building its compensation and equity foundation from scratch. We want to think it through with people who have done it before.

We're looking for Total Rewards practitioners with depth in one or both of the following. Either one on its own is enough.

Compensation design & architecture

• Built salary bands, leveling frameworks, and job architecture from the ground up
• Owned an annual compensation cycle: merit planning, promotion decisions, bonus programs, equity refresh
• Benchmarked against a peer set you then had to defend to a skeptical exec team
• Designed incentive structures that were simple, credible, and changed behavior

Equity program management

• Designed option and RSU programs: grant guidelines, pool planning, vesting structures, refresh philosophy
• Worked through 409A valuations, plan governance, and grant administration at a venture-backed company
• Built the modeling and communication that lets candidates and employees understand what their equity is worth

Those two are what we screen on. Nothing below is required. If you have the whole Total Rewards picture, say so.

Also valuable

• Compensation philosophy, benchmarking methodology, pay equity and pay transparency
• Compensation design for a global or contractor workforce at scale
• Benefits program design, HRIS and compensation tooling
• Executive compensation, plan governance, or equity through IPO readiness

Context

Mercor is a Series C company at a $10B valuation, scaling from roughly 500 employees, with a large global contractor network alongside a growing full-time workforce. Nothing is settled yet: what the compensation philosophy should be, how levels map across very different functions, how equity gets granted and explained.

How this works

Applying starts with a short screen. If your background fits, we'll invite you to a paid conversation about a live question we're facing. You're paid for it whether or not anything follows.

Rate is $50-$200/hr depending on depth of experience. Engagements run a few hours at a time, scoped to one question.

We review every submission.