Compensation Lead Palo Alto, CA

LFGroup.ai; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Vision, Dental

401(k) Plan

Paid vacation

Paid holidays

Disability insurance

Life insurance

Job summary

LFG designs, builds and manages pay structures for a growing workforce across office, engineering and hourly roles. As the first compensation hire, you will shape our pay philosophy, bands, and review cycles, reporting to the Head of People and Talent, ensuring fair, competitive and compliant compensation in California, Washington, and beyond.

You will define salary bands, establish data-driven ranges, and partner with Hiring and Equity leads to create a scalable total rewards program as the

Qualifications

• 7+ years of compensation experience
• Hands-on with job leveling, salary bands, market pricing
• Experience designing pay for salaried and hourly roles across multiple states
• Knowledge of CA and WA pay rules including wage/hour and equal pay
• Experience running compensation review cycles and using HRIS
• Strong analytical skills and modeling pay changes
• Discretion with confidential pay information

Responsibilities

• Define our compensation philosophy and how base pay, bonus and equity fit together.
• Build our job architecture: families, levels and criteria for office, engineering, and hourly roles.
• Create salary bands and hourly scales with CA/WA adjustments.
• Benchmark roles against surveys and adjust ranges as markets move.
• Advise recruiters on offers to ensure competitive and consistent pay.
• Design bonus/incentive plans and partner on equity guidelines.
• Establish and run performance and compensation review cycles and merit budgets.
• Review equity pay across roles and ensure compliance with pay rules.
• Collaborate with Finance on headcount budgeting and cost modeling.
• Provide guidance on levels, ranges and raises to managers.

Skills

Compensation design

Job leveling

Market pricing

CA/WA pay rules

HRIS experience

Analytical thinking

Discretion with pay data

Education

CCP certification

Job description

LFG designs, builds and manages power infrastructure for compute systems and utility providers. As our first compensation hire, you'll design how LFG pays its people, reporting directly to the Head of People and Talent. Our workforce spans office staff, engineers and hourly site workers in two states with different labor markets and different rules. You'll build the pay structures, policies and review cycles that keep us fair, competitive and compliant in both, and your work will shape every offer we make as we grow.

What you will do

• Define our compensation philosophy: where we aim to pay against the market, and how base pay, bonus and equity fit together for each part of the workforce.
• Build our job architecture: job families, levels and the criteria for each, covering office, engineering and hourly site roles.
• Create salary bands and hourly wage scales for every level, with separate ranges where the California and Washington markets differ.
• Choose our compensation surveys and data sources, benchmark our roles against them, and adjust ranges as the market moves, including for hard-to-fill data center and skilled trades roles.
• Advise the Recruiting Lead and hiring managers on offers, so new hires are paid competitively and consistently with the people already here.
• Design bonus and incentive plans, and partner with the Equity Lead on equity guidelines and grants.
• Establish and run the performance and compensation review cycles, including merit budgets, promotion increases and guidance for managers.
• Review pay for equity across comparable roles and recommend adjustments.
• Keep pay practices compliant in both states, including exempt and non-exempt classification, wage and hour rules, and the pay ranges required in job postings.
• Partner with Finance on the headcount budget and model the cost of compensation changes.
• Give managers and employees clear guidance on how levels, ranges and raises are decided.

Required qualifications

• 7 or more years of compensation experience, including building or redesigning pay structures.
• Hands-on experience with job leveling, salary bands, market pricing and compensation survey data.
• Experience designing pay for both salaried and hourly or field employees across more than one state.
• Knowledge of California and Washington pay rules, including wage and hour, pay transparency and equal pay requirements.
• Experience running compensation review cycles and working with an HR information system.
• Strong analytical skills, including modeling the cost of pay changes.
• Sound judgment and discretion with confidential pay information.

Preferred qualifications

• Certified Compensation Professional (CCP).
• Experience building compensation programs from the ground up at a company that grew quickly.
• Experience with bonus or incentive plan design.
• Experience with equity compensation at a private company.

Additional Requirements

• Willing to work extended hours and/or weekends as needed
• Must be willing to travel to other LFG locations

Pay Range: $165,000.00 - $210,000.00

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at LFG. You may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of company stock or long-term cash awards, as well as potential discretionary bonuses. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short-term disability insurance, life insurance, and various other discounts and perks. You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year. Employees accrue paid sick leave pursuant to Company policy which satisfies or exceeds the accrual, carryover, and use requirements of the law.

LFG is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with LFG is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of LFG's Aff…

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