Director, Global Compensation & Exec Pay

Zendesk; Illinois; Hybrid; USD 196,000 - 294,000; Full time

Job summary

Zendesk is seeking a Director, Compensation to own strategy, governance and execution of global compensation programs. You will partner with Finance, Legal, Payroll, and Total Rewards to drive pay decisions, equity support, budget management, and talent strategy across regions.

You will build scalable operations, establish policy guardrails, implement analytics, and lead a team responsible for compensation planning, benchmarking, and executive compensation support.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required or equivalent in HR, business, finance, or economics.
• 12+ years of global/executive compensation experience or enterprise HR leadership.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience, including managing managers.
• Strong track record partnering with senior Finance, Legal, Payroll, HR, and business leaders.
• Demonstrated success building scalable compensation programs, governance, and playbooks.
• Experience with forecasting, budgeting, accruals, and compensation planning for enterprise programs.
• Deep knowledge of pay principles, market pricing, pay equity, job architecture and compliance.
• Experience leading vendor strategy including RFPs, negotiations, and contract reviews.
• Strong executive presence and ability to communicate complex issues to senior stakeholders.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity with disciplined accountability.
• Discretion handling highly confidential information.

Responsibilities

• Direct and oversee the global compensation function, including advising, analytics, tools, policy governance, and support.
• Develop, modify, and execute global compensation policies to align with objectives and values.
• Establish strategies and operating models for pay decisions, market pricing, and annual cycles.
• Provide guidance on policy interpretation, exceptions, and competitive pay decisions.
• Partner with Finance, Payroll, Legal, Talent Acquisition, and Total Rewards on planning and budgeting.
• Lead compensation analytics, benchmarking, pay equity, and executive-ready reporting.

Skills

Global compensation

Executive leadership

Data analytics

Policy governance

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in HR/Business/Finance

Tools

Compensation systems

Vendor management

Job description

Zendesk is seeking a Director, Compensation to own strategy, governance and execution of global compensation programs. You will partner with Finance, Legal, Payroll, and Total Rewards to drive pay decisions, equity support, budget management, and talent strategy across regions.

You will build scalable operations, establish policy guardrails, implement analytics, and lead a team responsible for compensation planning, benchmarking, and executive compensation support.