Chief Total Rewards & AI-Driven Compensation Leader

Zendesk, Inc.; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 283,000 - 425,000; Full time

Job summary

Zendesk, Inc. is seeking a Vice President, Total Rewards to lead global compensation, equity, benefits, and HR compliance. You will design and govern programs, benchmark, model costs, and partner with executives to drive pay strategy.

You will push AI-enabled automation in rewards, deliver board-ready materials, mentor a high-performance team, and scale operations across multi-jurisdictional compliance in a hybrid US-facing role.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of HR with Total Rewards and executive compensation expertise.
• 7+ years in senior/global leadership with multi-jurisdiction scope.
• Experience designing enterprise compensation, equity and benefits programs.
• Experience implementing HR automation and AI-enabled solutions.
• Data-driven with HRIS and compensation/benefits platforms.
• Experience creating board materials and presenting to C-suite/Boards.
• Experience in private/PE-backed firms and public companies.
• Strong governance and collaboration with Legal, Finance, TA, Technology.

Responsibilities

• Design and govern competitive compensation, equity and benefits programs (base, variable, sales comp) informed by benchmarking and cost modeling.
• Partner with Executive Leadership to design and administer executive compensation programs.
• Drive AI and analytics tools to automate compensation analysis and surface pay equity insights.
• Simplify total rewards operations, establish governance, and scale support into Employee Services.
• Own executive presentations and board materials on total rewards strategy and progress.
• Mentor and develop a high-performing Total Rewards team.

Skills

Total Rewards

Executive compensation

Data analytics

HRIS

Board materials

Cross-functional collaboration

People analytics

Tools

Workday

Job description

Zendesk, Inc. is seeking a Vice President, Total Rewards to lead global compensation, equity, benefits, and HR compliance. You will design and govern programs, benchmark, model costs, and partner with executives to drive pay strategy.

You will push AI-enabled automation in rewards, deliver board-ready materials, mentor a high-performance team, and scale operations across multi-jurisdictional compliance in a hybrid US-facing role.