Global Benefits Strategy & Operations Lead

Mistral; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Mistral is seeking a Benefits Manager to own and scale the benefits infrastructure across multiple countries. You will partner with HR, Finance, and Legal to ensure offerings are compliant, competitive, and streamlined for employees.

You will manage brokers and vendors, drive market benchmarking, design scalable processes, and leverage HRIS and analytics to inform decisions while ensuring a positive employee experience during enrollment and life events.

Qualifications

• Experience managing benefits for multi-country organizations during hypergrowth.
• Deep knowledge of benefits regulations in EU and/or US with ability to advise experts.
• Skilled in negotiating with brokers, insurers, and external vendors.
• Proven ability to design, document, and improve scalable benefits processes.
• Proficient with HRIS/benefits platforms, strong reporting, and interest in automation/AI.
• Excellent stakeholder communication and cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Own benefits strategy end-to-end across countries, including enrollment, renewals, changes, and offboarding, ensuring compliance.
• Benchmark market competitiveness and propose local adjustments within Total Rewards framework.
• Manage brokers, insurers, and benefits vendors; lead RFPs and renewals.
• Ensure compliance with local benefits, insurance, and social-security regulations across jurisdictions.
• Design and enhance scalable benefits processes and policies; lead improvement projects as we scale.
• Maintain high-quality benefits data, build reporting and KPIs, translate insights into actions.
• Deliver empathetic communications during enrollment and life events; support mobility and immigration needs.
• Collaborate with Finance for budgeting and forecasting; coordinate with HR Ops and payroll for deductions.

Skills

Multinational benefits mgmt

Regulations knowledge EU/US

Vendor management

HRIS/benefits platforms

Stakeholder communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

About Mistral

Mistral provides full-stack AI solutions: from frontier models to developer tools, applications, and compute. We partner with enterprises tackling the hardest problems across high-stakes industries like finance, manufacturing, defense, healthcare, and the public sector, co-creating customized AI systems that they can run on their terms.

We are a dynamic, collaborative team passionate about AI and its potential to transform society. Our diverse workforce thrives in competitive environments and is committed to driving innovation. Our teams are distributed between Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. We are creative, low-ego and team-spirited.

The role

As a Benefits Manager at Mistral, you will own and scale the benefits infrastructure supporting our team across multiple countries. You will partner closely with HR, Finance, and Legal to ensure our benefits offerings are competitive, compliant, and aligned with our growth, translating complex compliance and operational needs into streamlined, employee-focused experiences.

What you'll do

• Own benefits strategy end-to-end across our countries, including enrollment, renewals, changes, and offboarding, ensuring reliable issue resolution and compliance.

• Drive benefits strategy by benchmarking market competitiveness, proposing local adjustments, and recommending offerings in line with our Total Rewards strategy.

• Manage brokers, insurers, and benefits vendors: lead RFPs and renewals, negotiate cost-quality trade-offs, and enforce service level agreements.

• Ensure compliance with local benefits, insurance, and social-security regulations in all operating jurisdictions, proactively adapting practices and flagging evolving risks in cooperation with Legal.

• Design and enhance benefits processes and policies to be clear, scalable, and well-documented; lead impactful improvement projects as the company scales.

• Leverage data to inform decisions by maintaining high-quality benefits data, building reporting and KPIs (such as cost per employee, participation, utilization, satisfaction), and translating insights into actionable recommendations.

• Own the employee experience of benefits by delivering clear, empathetic communications during enrollment and life events and sensitively handling situations such as illness, family changes, or loss.

• Partner with Finance for benefits budgeting and forecasting, and collaborate with HR Ops and payroll to ensure deductions and contributions are accurate and timely.

• Serve as a key contributor on Mobility, working closely with cross-functional groups to keep our immigration and mobility offerings compliant and competitive.

What we're looking for

• Experience managing benefits for multi-country organizations during hypergrowth and new market entry

• Deep knowledge of benefits regulations and practices in at least one core region (EU and/or US), with sound judgment for consulting experts

• Skilled in managing, negotiating with, and holding external vendors and brokers accountable for cost and service quality

• Proven ability to design, document, and improve scalable processes

• Proficient in HRIS/benefits platforms, strong reporting, and keen on automation/AI to increase efficiency

• Excellent stakeholder communication: empathetic with employees, credible with leadership on strategic trade-offs

• Team-first, low-ego mindset with a focus on cross-functional collaboration and employee experience
  

What We Offer

We offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your well-being, growth, and work-life balance. Benefits vary by country and may include healthcare coverage, parental leave, retirement plans, relocation support, wellness programs, meal and transportation allowances, and other location-specific perks.

For the most up-to-date details on benefits available in your location, please refer to our Benefits page.

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