Compensation Lead

Chainlink Labs; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 119,000 - 253,000; Full time

Job summary

Chainlink Labs is seeking an experienced Compensation Lead to own and evolve broad-based compensation programs globally. You will oversee offers, promotions, market pricing, and salary structures, ensuring data-backed, defensible decisions with clear stakeholder communication.

You will build models, dashboards, and analyses to inform leadership on pay equity, job architecture, and workforce planning, while partnering with Finance, Legal, and People teams.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of broad-based compensation experience within a fast-paced, global organization.
• Proven experience owning compensation programs across offers, promotions, compensation cycles, market pricing, and salary structures.
• Strong compensation benchmarking and market-pricing expertise.
• Advanced modelling and analytics in spreadsheets; experience with structured data.
• Ability to translate complex compensation questions into actionable options.

Responsibilities

• Own the execution and evolution of broad-based compensation programs across offers, promotions, cycles, pricing, and salary structures.
• Lead global initiatives across pay equity, job architecture, workforce planning, and compensation design.
• Build compensation models, dashboards, and analyses to inform decisions.
• Conduct benchmarking and market pricing analyses and participate in salary reviews.
• Review complex offers and escalations and provide clear recommendations.
• Partner with People Tech on migration to Pave and data infrastructure.
• Design clear compensation views and resources for managers and partners.
• Advise leaders on compensation strategy and program design.
• Translate data into concise executive-ready recommendations and use AI to scale analysis.

Skills

Compensation strategy

Benchmarking

Analytical modelling

Stakeholder management

Communication

Ambiguity handling

Global compensation

Tools

Excel

Google Sheets

SQL/BigQuery

Pave

Workday

Benchmarking platforms (Radford/Mercer)

Job description

Boston; Atlanta; Canada; Charlotte; Chicago; Miami; Tampa

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

Remote

Department

People

Deadline to Apply

September 22, 2026 at 11:00 PM UTC

Compensation

• US - Zone 2 (e.g. District of Columbia; Austin, TX; Chicago, IL) Annual cash range: $119K – $253K

The estimated cash compensation for this role is based on job-related factors including relevant skills, experience, qualifications, and geographic location. Chainlink Labs follows a zone-based compensation model. In addition to competitive cash compensation, Chainlink Labs provides long-term incentives and comprehensive benefits. Actual compensation packages are discussed and finalized during the offer process.

Note: For select sales roles, the cash compensation range represents a combination of base salary and sales commission.

About Chainlink
Chainlink is the industry-standard oracle platform bringing the capital markets onchain and powering the majority of decentralized finance (DeFi). The Chainlink stack provides the essential data, interoperability, compliance, and privacy standards needed to power advanced blockchain use cases for institutional tokenized assets, lending, payments, stablecoins, and more. Since inventing decentralized oracle networks, Chainlink has enabled tens of trillions in transaction value and now secures the vast majority of DeFi.

Many of the world’s largest financial services institutions have also adopted Chainlink’s standards and infrastructure, including Swift, Euroclear, Mastercard, Fidelity International, UBS, S&P Dow Jones Indices, FTSE Russell, WisdomTree, ANZ, and top protocols such as Aave, Lido, GMX and many others. Chainlink leverages a novel fee model where offchain and onchain revenue from enterprise adoption is converted to LINK tokens and stored in a strategic Chainlink Reserve . Learn more at chain.link .

We are seeking an experienced Compensation Lead to own the operating engine of broad-based compensation at Chainlink Labs. Reporting to the Head of Total Rewards, you will lead compensation programs across offers, promotions, compensation cycles, market pricing, and salary structures, ensuring our decisions are data-backed, defensible, and easy for managers and team members to understand.

This is a hands-on builder role for someone who can move seamlessly between strategy, analytics, and execution. You will partner closely with People Partners, Talent Acquisition, People Ops & Tech, LTI Operations, Finance, and Legal to evolve our compensation function from execution-focused to increasingly recommendation-led.

Your impact

Own the execution and evolution of broad-based compensation programs, including offers, promotions, compensation cycles, market pricing, and salary structures.

Lead global initiatives across pay equity, job architecture, workforce planning, and compensation program design.

Build compensation models, dashboards, and analyses that inform business and People decisions.

Lead benchmarking, survey participation, job matching, market pricing, and pay competitiveness analysis.

Review complex offers and compensation escalations across levels, functions, and global markets, providing clear recommendations

Partner with People Tech on our migration to Pave and the continued development of our compensation data infrastructure.

Design clear, accessible compensation views and resources for managers, team members, and People Partners.

Advise People Partners and business leaders on compensation strategy, programs, and individual decisions.

Translate complex compensation data and trade-offs into concise, executive-ready recommendations.

Use AI and modern tooling to improve the speed, quality, and scalability of compensation analysis, reporting, and communication.

Requirements

7+ years of broad-based compensation experience within a fast-paced, global organization; 10+ years for consideration at the senior level.

Proven experience owning compensation programs across offers, promotions, compensation cycles, market pricing, and salary structures.

Strong compensation benchmarking and market-pricing expertise, including experience with major compensation surveys and datasets.

Advanced Google Sheets or Excel modelling and analytical skills; experience working with structured data is highly valued.

Strong judgment and the ability to turn complex compensation questions into clear options and recommendations.

Experience advising People Partners and senior business leaders on compensation decisions.

Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills across technical and non-technical audiences.

Ability to operate effectively in ambiguity and build scalable processes in a rapidly evolving environment.

Comfortable partnering cross-functionally with teams such as People Operations, Talent Acquisition, Finance, Legal, and HRIS/People Tech.

A builder mindset with an interest in using data, automation, and AI to improve how compensation work gets done.

Preferred requirements

Experience with Pave, Workday, SQL/BigQuery, and/or benchmarking platforms such as Radford or Mercer.

Experience in high-growth technology, fintech, crypto, or AI environments, with exposure to equity/LTI programs, pay transparency, or job architecture.

All roles with Chainlink Labs are global and remote-based. Unless otherwise stated, we ask that you try to overlap some working hours with Eastern Standard Time (EST).

We carefully review all applications and aim to provide a response to every candidate within two weeks after the job posting closes. The closing date is listed on the job advert, so we encourage you to take the time to thoughtfully prepare your application. We want to fully consider your experience and skills, and you will hear from us regarding the status of your application shortly after the closing date.

Commitment to Equal Opportunity

Chainlink Labs is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment in compliance with applicable laws, regulations, or ordinances. If you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability or special need when applying for a role or in our recruitment process, please contact us via this form .

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