Compensation Lead

Socket.dev; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 185,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Peregrine Technologies is seeking a Compensation Lead in San Francisco to architect and run compensation programs for rapid growth. You will design the philosophy, build job architecture, and own merit cycles end-to-end while providing recruiters and managers with tools to make confident pay decisions.

You will drive market benchmarks, internal equity, and equity program evolution, collaborating with Talent Acquisition, People, Finance, and leadership to scale from ~500 to 1,500+ employees and

Qualifications

• 7+ years of compensation experience with ownership of strategy and architecture.
• Experience scaling compensation in high-growth tech environments.
• Deep equity compensation, benchmarking, and leveling expertise.

Responsibilities

• Scale compensation philosophy and framework.
• Define and implement a company-wide job catalog, families, career tracks, and leveling.
• Own merit and compensation review cycles end-to-end with clear guidelines.
• Build analytics to surface market competitiveness, band positioning, and pay equity.
• Partner with Finance to model costs and budgets and with recruiters to enable offers.

Skills

Compensation strategy

Job architecture

Program design

People analytics

Executive communication

Influencing

Data-driven decisions

Tools

HRIS software

Compensation analytics tools

Job description

Backed by leading Silicon Valley investors, Peregrine helps public safety organizations, state and local and governments, federal agencies , and private-sector institutions address society’s challenges with unprecedented speed and accuracy. Our AI-enabled platform turns siloed and disconnected data into operational intelligence — instantly surfacing mission-critical information to empower better, faster decisions that improve outcomes at every touchpoint. Today Peregrine supports hundreds of customers across 30+ states and two countries, serving more than 125 million people — and we’re amplifying our impact as we expand into the enterprise and internationally.

The Role

Peregrine is looking for a Compensation Lead to architect and run the programs, frameworks, and analytics that support our people through every phase of growth. This role owns compensation strategy, job architecture and leveling, compensation cycles, equity programs, and compensation analytics—and partners closely with Talent Acquisition, People, Finance, and company leadership on how we pay, level, and reward people as we scale. This is a build-and-run role. You'll design the compensation philosophy, build the job architecture and leveling framework, own our merit and compensation review cycles end-to-end, and give recruiters, HRBPs, and managers the tools they need to make confident pay decisions. You'll also build the analytics muscle that surfaces market competitiveness, band positioning, and pay equity before anyone has to ask. As Peregrine grows, you'll have the opportunity to expand your scope and shape how the compensation function evolves.

What You'll Do

• Scale the philosophy and framework.
• Assess Peregrine's existing compensation programs, data, and decision-making processes, and recommend a roadmap that supports growth from roughly 500 to 1,500+ employees.
• Refine and document a compensation philosophy covering market competitiveness, internal equity, and the roles of base, bonus, and equity.
• Establish principles for market data, peer groups, and geographic positioning, and translate them into repeatable guidelines for hiring, promotions, and merit decisions.
• Build the job architecture. Design and implement a company-wide job catalog, job families, career tracks, and leveling criteria.
• Reconcile the new architecture with existing departmental frameworks, and partner with functional leaders, HRBPs, and Talent Acquisition to validate and drive adoption.
• Establish compensation bands backed by market benchmarks and internal equity principles.
• Own the compensation cycles. Run Peregrine's merit and compensation review process end-to-end—including planning, modeling, guidelines, manager inputs, approvals, communications, and post-cycle analysis.
• Build promotion, off-cycle adjustment, and retention award processes that scale with headcount growth.
• Partner with Finance to model costs and budgets.
• Enable recruiters and managers. Build tools and guidance so recruiters can self-serve the compensation inputs they need to construct and close offers.
• Define offer-setting guidelines and manager enablement materials.
• Establish a clear escalation process for exceptions, and use feedback to keep programs useful and understandable.
• Drive analytics and controls. Build compensation metrics and reporting that give People, Finance, and leadership visibility into market competitiveness, band positioning, and pay equity.
• Own survey participation and benchmarking cadence.
• Run recurring pay equity, comp-ratio, and offer-outcome analyses, and turn findings into recommendations.
• Evolve equity programs. Build the framework for new-hire, promotion, and refresh equity grants, balancing attraction and retention against dilution and affordability.
• Help candidates, employees, and managers understand equity as part of total compensation through clear tools and communication.
• Support executive- and board-level compensation. Develop market-informed points of view on executive compensation and prepare clear, defensible analyses for leadership and board discussions in partnership with People and Finance leadership.

About You

You easily move between strategic design and hands‑on execution—you can architect the framework and also build the spreadsheet. You're an effective influencer and listener — able to bridge the world between new Peregrine systems around comp and job families, and the messy, on-the-ground reality of differing departmental contexts, dynamics, and stages of maturity. You’re adaptable and flexible, able to think about what will best for Peregrine from first principles, while still balancing that with best practices and uncompromising focus on results. You partner effectively with recruiters, HRBPs, executives, and board members by communicating clear, well-supported compensation recommendations. You have experience creating programs and infrastructure from the ground up and improving existing processes as needed. You assess ambiguous situations and determine when a formal program is warranted versus when a pragmatic, lighter-weight solution will work. You're comfortable turning messy data into a clean analytical model and translating insights into clear recommendations.

What We Look For

• 7+ years of progressive experience in compensation, with direct ownership of compensation strategy, job architecture, and program design.
• Experience building compensation infrastructure through significant headcount growth, ideally in technology or other high-growth environments.
• Deep expertise in equity compensation, market benchmarking, and job leveling.
• Strong command of HR and compensation systems and data.
• Located in San Francisco and able to work in the office 4 days/week.

Salary Range: $185,000 - $220,000, Annually + Benefits + Equity (if applicable) + Bonus (if applicable) Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors, including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, certifications or licenses, and specific work location. Information on the benefits offered is here.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Peregrine Technologies is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We celebrate diversity and are a proud equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.