Lead Total Rewards Partner

Aiven; Helsinki; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity plan

Hybrid work policy

Equipment

PD Plan budget

Wellbeing support

Global Time Off

Country-specific benefits

Job summary

Aiven is seeking a Total Rewards Partner to shape our global reward strategy. This senior role involves advising executives, defining compensation and benefits, and ensuring fairness and growth across markets. You’ll drive analytics, equity run rates, and vendor relationships.

You’ll lead reward processes across performance and talent cycles, integrate AI-enabled capabilities, and provide market insights. Experience with European compensation and international programs is essential, along with

Qualifications

• 6+ years of Total Rewards experience in international environments.
• Strong knowledge of European compensation, equity practices and regulatory trends.
• Skilled at engaging and influencing senior leaders, with confidence presenting to executive-level stakeholders.
• Experience leading complex reward cycles, driving process improvements, and embedding change.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to translate data into insights and strategic recommendations.
• Strong project management and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience with compensation systems and familiarity with both monetary and non-monetary reward approaches.
• Strategic and tactical mindset.
• Thrives in the fast-paced, dynamic environment of an international company in hyper-growth.

Responsibilities

• Advise senior leaders on reward decisions, pay structures, and incentive design.
• Refine and evolve benefits offerings across Europe, ensuring relevance, consistency, and employee impact.
• Oversee and enhance job architecture, ensuring clear career pathways and alignment with pay structures.
• Manage the process, system, and administration of stock options as a long term incentive program.
• Drive all reward-related processes linked to performance and talent cycles, ensuring seamless delivery and strong business alignment.
• Provide senior leadership with robust analysis, benchmarks, and insights to inform decision-making and future strategy.
• Support decision-makers with planned and ad hoc Rewards utilization metrics, KPIs, and analytics.

Skills

Stakeholder engagement

Rewards analytics

European compensation knowledge

Equity practices

Project management

Strategic thinking

Tools

Compensation systems

Stock option management

Job description

We’re a global team of over 400 people, working together to push the boundaries of open-source technology and multi-cloud solutions. Our vision is to help developers, builders, and creators bring their ideas to life with speed and simplicity, by providing a cloud data platform that makes open-source databases, search, streaming, and application infrastructure easily accessible to everyone.

The Role:

As our Total Rewards Partner, you play a critical part in shaping Aiven’s global reward strategy. The individual will design forward-looking approaches to compensation and benefits to attract, motivate, and retain our Crabs. This is a senior role with high visibility, requiring strategic thinking and engagement with senior leaders and the executive team, while also demanding detail-oriented work such as compensation analytics, equity run rates, process management, system oversight, and vendor relationship navigation, all to ensure the reward framework is built on trust, transparency, and drives business growth.

The role involves leading core reward processes and acting as a thought partner to the business, bringing external insights, shaping new initiatives, and ensuring practices remain competitive, fair, and transparent. This role helps define and operationalize the global rewards strategy, ensuring programs are equitable, competitive, scalable, and legally compliant. This role will continuously improve cyclical Rewards processes by leveraging digital rewards capabilities including automation and the use of AI.

What You’ll Do:

• Executive & Senior Stakeholder Engagement: Advise senior leaders and partner with the executive team on reward decisions, pay structures, and incentive design.
• Benefits Strategy: Partner with local teams to refine and evolve benefits offerings across Europe, ensuring relevance, consistency, and employee impact.
• Job Architecture & Salary Ranges: Oversee and enhance job architecture, ensuring clear career pathways and alignment with pay structures.
• Stock Option Management: Manage the process, system, and administration of stock options as a long term incentive program.
• Operational Excellence: Drive all reward-related processes linked to performance and talent cycles, ensuring seamless delivery and strong business alignment. Be structured thorough and detailed in regular business processes, including stock option management, pay review
• Data, Insights & Market Intelligence: Provide senior leadership with robust analysis, benchmarks, and insights to inform decision-making and future strategy. Identify industry trends and incorporate research and macro-economic insights into recommendations.
• Rewards Analytics: Support decision-makers and stakeholders with planned and ad hoc Rewards utilization metrics, KPIs, and analytics. Present complex data clearly and accessibly to business and people leaders.

What We’re Looking For:

• 6+ years of experience with Total Rewards, with exposure to international business environments.
• Strong knowledge of European compensation, equity practices and regulatory trends.
• Skilled at engaging and influencing senior leaders, with confidence presenting to executive-level stakeholders.
• Experience leading complex reward cycles, driving process improvements, and embedding change.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to translate data into insights and strategic recommendations.
• Strong project management and stakeholder management skills
• Experience with compensation systems and familiarity with both monetary and non-monetary reward approaches.
• Strategic and tactical mindset.
• Thrives in the fast-paced, dynamic environment of an international company in hyper-growth.

Global Benefits:

Our global benefits are designed to help you thrive and grow, personally and professionally:

• Participate in Aiven’s equity plan.
• Balance work and life with our hybrid work policy.
• Choose the equipment you need to set yourself up for success.
• Use your Professional Development Plan budget for learning opportunities.
• Receive holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program.
• Inquire about our Global Time Off Commitment (Parental and Sick Leave, as well as Personal Time)
• Enjoy country-specific benefits for our global cast.

Equal Opportunities:

Aiven provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, marital and family status or without regard to any other similar personal attributes. Aiven complies with applicable local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, training and any other terms and conditions related to employment.

At Aiven we are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities or special needs in our working environment and job application procedures. We make all reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities or who otherwise need support to thrive in the workplace. We are committed to continuously improving workplace accessibility. There is an option to request a discussion in the application process but if you have any questions before applying please write to us at [e-mail].