Total Rewards Partner (d/f/m)

Hub; Madrid; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Shine, the financial copilot for entrepreneurs, seeks a senior compensation and benefits leader to own the rewards agenda across Europe. You will define pay philosophy, salary bands and equity practices, collaborating with Finance, Legal and People partners to ensure market competitiveness and internal equity.

You will drive annual compensation cycles, benchmarking, and total rewards communications, while leveraging data and AI responsibly to scale rewards across multiple countries.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in compensation and benefits, ideally in a scale-up, tech or fintech environment.
• Designed and ran salary bands, job levels and compensation cycles and can explain the reasoning to leadership.
• Comfortable building models in spreadsheets and using benchmarking tools to derive recommendations.
• Knowledge of European pay equity and transparency regulation, or willingness to learn quickly.
• Trusted, discreet partner who can handle sensitive information and build credibility with leaders and teams.
• Keep compensation initiatives simple, fair, measurable and pragmatic for a growing company.
• Fluent in English; French or another European language is a plus.
• Curious about AI and its application to compensation and benefits with appropriate human oversight.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve Shine’s compensation philosophy, job architecture and salary bands.
• Own market benchmarking across locations (France, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Netherlands, Spain and Portugal).
• Design and run the annual compensation review and bonus cycles end to end.
• Advise on offers, promotions and internal moves to protect competitiveness and internal equity.
• Lead pay equity analysis and support EU Pay Transparency Directive readiness.
• Create clear reward communications for employees and managers.
• Use people data to inform decisions and provide leadership with insights.
• Collaborate with Payroll, HRIS and Finance to keep processes accurate and auditable.
• Leverage AI to accelerate benchmarking, equity modeling and manager guidance with human oversight.

Skills

Compensation & benefits

Salary benchmarking

Data analysis

Pay equity analysis

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in HR/Finance

Tools

Google Sheets

Benchmarking tools

HRIS

Payroll systems

Job description

Shine is the financial copilot for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Founded by serial entrepreneurs Rico Andersen and Martin Hegelund, Shine is a leading European fintech unicorn on a mission to restore the joy of running a business, by ending wasted time on financial admin. Shine offers a connected solution for invoicing, accounting, payroll, business accounts, payments, and financing, meaning business owners can focus their energy on growing a healthy business, not held back by manual admin.

Part of something bigger

Today we're part of Cegid, a European leader in cloud software for finance and accounting. Together we're building Europe's leading financial copilot for small businesses and their accountants. Shine already supports more than 400,000 small businesses. As part of Cegid, we now reach over one million small businesses and 15,000 accountants across Europe. We're a multicultural team working from France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, contributing to a wider European network that spans Spain, Portugal.

Your hiring experience matters

Just as we respect our customers' time, we respect yours. Your experience with Shine and Cegid should feel simple, transparent and genuinely supportive. If this sounds like somewhere you want to grow, we'd love to hear from you.

DEPARTMENT at Shine

We make Shine a place where people thrive. From talent acquisition and people partnering to workplace and wellbeing, our mission is to create an environment where everyone can do their best work and feel a sense of belonging – in Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and beyond.

Your Role as a POSITION

This is a high-impact position within the People function, reporting directly to the Chief People Officer. You will be the single owner of compensation and benefits at Shine, shaping and delivering the rewards approach that helps us attract, retain and motivate the talent we need to scale: pay philosophy and structures, salary benchmarking, annual review cycles, equity and incentives, benefits and pay transparency. You work closely with the Chief People Officer, Finance, business leaders and People Business Partners to make sure our rewards are competitive, fair and easy to explain, across every country we operate in. You bring a hands‑on, build‑it‑yourself mindset and know when to bring in partners, platforms and expertise to extend your reach.

• Defining and evolving Shine’s compensation philosophy, job architecture and salary bands, so that pay decisions are consistent, fair and grounded in market data

• Owning market benchmarking across our locations (France, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Netherlands, Spain and Portugal), selecting and managing salary survey providers and keeping our pay positioning current in a fast-moving fintech market

• Designing and running the annual compensation review and bonus cycles end to end: budget modeling with Finance, guidelines and tooling for managers, calibration, communication and post-cycle analysis

• Advising on offers, promotions and internal moves, partnering with Talent Acquisition and People Business Partners to protect both competitiveness and internal equity

• Leading pay equity analysis and preparing Shine for pay transparency requirements, including the EU Pay Transparency Directive, in partnership with Legal and local counsel

• Building clear, simple reward communication for employees and managers, such as total rewards statements, manager toolkits and FAQs, so people understand and trust how they are paid

• Using people data to inform decisions: reporting on pay competitiveness, compa‑ratios, attrition and cost of compensation, and giving the Chief People Officer and leadership team clear insight and recommendations

• Working with Payroll, HRIS and Finance partners to keep processes accurate, auditable and as automated as possible´

• Using AI to make rewards work faster and smarter, for example for benchmarking analysis, pay equity modeling, manager guidance and employee Q&A, while keeping human judgment, data privacy and fairness at the center of every pay decision

About you

• You have min. 6 years of experience in compensation and benefits, ideally in a scale‑up, tech or fintech environment, and you are comfortable owning the full rewards agenda without a team

• You have designed and run salary bands, job levels and compensation cycles, and you can explain the reasoning behind them to a CEO as easily as to a first‑time manager

• You are confident with data: comfortable building models Google Sheets, working with benchmarking tools and turning numbers into clear recommendations

• You understand European pay equity and transparency regulation, or you have the curiosity and rigor to get up to speed quickly

• You are a trusted, discreet partner who can handle sensitive information and build credibility with leaders, People colleagues and employees alike

• You keep things simple, fair and measurable, and you choose pragmatic solutions that fit a growing company over heavy processes

• You communicate fluently in English; French and/or another European language is a plus

• You are curious about AI and already use it in your work, and you know where it adds value in compensation and benefits and where sensitive pay data and decisions need human oversight

Equal Opportunity Employer

We follow the principle of equal treatment to consider all job applicants and do not discriminate based on their gender, sexual orientation, color, racial or ethnic origin, religion, disability, etc. as per applicable law.

Our recruitment process

A 30' first call with Isabella (Director Talent Acquisition) to get to know you better and share more about Ageras.

A 45' interview with CPO to discuss your past experiences and the role we are offering.

A 45' business case presentation to highlight your skills and give you a hands‑on feel for the role.

A 30' team introduction, followed by a soft skills interview to see how we can best support your growth at Shine.