Compensation Lead

Perplexity AI; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity AI is seeking a Compensation Lead to build Perplexity’s compensation function and own day-to-day execution. You will develop salary ranges, market benchmarks, and equity guidelines, ensuring compensation is competitive, financially sound, and clear for employees.

Collaborate with People Ops and leadership to align job scope, leveling, and budget. You’ll drive day-to-day decisions on offers, promotions, and pay adjustments, run compensation reviews, and address pay equity across teams

Qualifications

• Technical compensation depth: Hands-on experience with market pricing, salary ranges, cash and equity programs, compensation reviews, and individual pay recommendations.
• Ability to influence decisions: You can turn analysis into a clear recommendation, discuss trade-offs with leadership, and constructively challenge an approach that isn’t working.
• Strong analytical judgment: You can build and audit models, reconcile imperfect data, and explain your assumptions.
• Discretion and clear communication: You handle sensitive information carefully and explain compensation decisions in language that recruiters, managers, and employees can understand.
• Experience building compensation programs: You’ve established or substantially rebuilt compensation frameworks and processes with limited infrastructure, and stayed accountable for running them after launch.

Responsibilities

• Build the compensation foundation and develop recommended philosophy, market positioning, and cash/equity guidelines.
• Develop salary ranges and market benchmarks and price roles consistently across functions and locations.
• Own day-to-day compensation decisions: offers, promotions, pay adjustments, and inquiries with clear approval paths for exceptions.
• Design and run compensation reviews: calendars, planning models, manager guidance, and approval processes across Finance, People Ops, Payroll, and equity partners.
• Inform leadership decisions by modeling cost and employee impact of salary/equity changes and presenting trade-offs.

Job description

• We’re hiring a Compensation Lead to build Perplexity’s compensation function and own its day-to-day execution. You’ll build the programs and processes that support how we hire, recognize, and retain people
• The goal is a compensation approach that is competitive, financially sound, and clear enough for people to use, without adding unnecessary complexity
• Build the compensation foundation. Assess existing practices, data, and tools; prioritize the gaps; and develop recommendations on compensation philosophy, market positioning, and cash and equity guidelines
• Develop salary ranges and market benchmarks. Establish a consistent approach to pricing roles across functions and locations. Partner with People and business leaders on job scope and leveling, and explain where market data is useful or incomplete
• Own day-to-day compensation decisions. Be the primary partner for offers, promotions, pay adjustments, and compensation questions. Evaluate recommendations against market data, internal equity, and budget, with clear approval paths for exceptions
• Design and run compensation reviews. Build the calendar, planning models, manager guidance, and approval process. Coordinate with Finance, People Operations, Payroll, and equity partners to carry decisions through to accurate implementation
• Inform leadership decisions. Model the cost and employee impact of proposed changes to salary and equity programs. Present a recommendation and its trade-offs, then own execution once approved
• Identify and address inconsistencies. Assess pay compression and potential inequities across teams, levels, and locations. Partner with People leadership and Legal on appropriate reviews and recommend actions
• Build processes people can use. Establish decision records, recruiter and manager guidance, and clear explanations of compensation programs. Improve recurring workflows so consistent decisions don’t depend on individual knowledge or one-off conversations
• Own the data and tools behind the work. Establish reliable compensation records, select and manage benchmarking resources, and improve reporting and quality checks. Use approved automation and AI tools where they help, with appropriate protection for employee information and verification of results

You should be comfortable moving between program design and an individual offer, building longer-term structure while keeping today’s decisions movingTechnical compensation depth: Hands-on experience with market pricing, salary ranges, cash and equity programs, compensation reviews, and individual pay recommendationsAbility to influence decisions: You can turn analysis into a clear recommendation, discuss trade-offs with leadership, and constructively challenge an approach that isn’t workingStrong analytical judgment: You can build and audit models, reconcile imperfect data, and explain your assumptions. You know when a benchmark is a useful comparison and when it misses the roleDiscretion and clear communication: You handle sensitive information carefully and explain compensation decisions in language that recruiters, managers, and employees can understandExperience building compensation programs: You’ve established or substantially rebuilt compensation frameworks and processes with limited infrastructure, and stayed accountable for running them after launchIndependent, hands-on execution: You can set priorities, build a workable process, and manage urgent requests without losing progress on longer-term work. You’re comfortable being both the person designing the program and the person checking the data