Principal Compensation Partner

Cars Commerce; United States; On-site; USD 135,000 - 169,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental & Vision plans

New Hire Stipend for Home Office

Generous PTO

Paid Holidays & Volunteer Day

Job summary

Cars Commerce, Chicago-based, seeks a Principal Compensation Partner reporting to the Sr. Director of Total Rewards to own major compensation processes end-to-end. You will design programs, model equity outcomes, and provide strategic consultation to senior leaders to solve business challenges.

You will help establish job architecture, market pricing, and a scalable analytics platform, ensuring data trust and governance across pay decisions.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive compensation experience, including executive compensation and equity administration.
• Proven ability to own and build compensation processes end-to-end.
• Strong Excel and financial modeling skills.
• Experience presenting to senior leadership and Compensation Committee materials.
• Analytical rigor with clear written and verbal communication.

Responsibilities

• Support executive compensation programs, including base salary, annual and long-term incentives; prepare materials for Compensation Committee.
• Lead design and refinement of core compensation programs and pay equity processes.
• Own equity program administration: grant modeling, vesting, dilution analysis, reconciliation with equity systems.
• Offer strategic consultation to HR partners and senior leaders on business challenges.
• Develop a scalable compensation analytics platform with reusable models, dashboards, and QA.

Skills

Executive compensation design

Equity administration

Compensation program development

Excel & modeling

Leadership communication

Tools

Workday

Radford/Aon

Carta

Pave

Compa

Job description

Be Essential At Cars Commerce

At Cars Commerce, we’re fanatical about simplifying everything about car buying and selling. We do right by our customers and consumers to better connect the industry with simplified and tierless technology to enhance, measure and drive local automotive retail. Whether through our No.1 most recognized marketplace, Cars.com, our industry-leading digital experience, Dealer Inspire, our trade and appraisal technology, AccuTrade, our reputation-based digital wholesale auction marketplace, Dealerclub, or our new Cars Commerce Media Network, Cars Commerce is essential for success in the automotive industry.

No one ever travels alone here: at its core, Cars Commerce is collaboration. In fact, it’s built into the very fabric of our shared values. We like to say we Rise Together – putting people at the center of what we do, from consumer to customer to community. Life at Cars Commerce makes it easy when we share the ethos to be Open to All, encouraging open-minded communication because we know diverse thinking yields better outcomes. But critical to our success is Caring to Challenge and Taking Ownership, fueling a competitive spirit in a respectful environment where we think about tomorrow but act today. At our foundation, we have integrity, Doing the Right Thing, even when it’s hard. It’s our shared commitment to these values that makes Cars Commerce a place where growth becomes not only possible, but downright unavoidable.

But don't take our word for it. We are proud to be named one of Built In's 2026 Best Places to Work in Chicago and across the U.S. Ready to make your mark? Join a team that's driving real change in the automotive industry.

About The Role

Reporting to the Sr. Director of Total Rewards, the Principal Compensation Partner is a senior, hands‑on partner who owns major compensation processes end-to-end — not just supporting them, but designing and building them. This person will:

• Support executive compensation programs, including base salary, annual incentive, and long-term incentive design and benchmarking; prepare analyses and materials for Compensation Committee meetings and executive offer/promotion decisions
• Lead the design and ongoing refinement of core compensation programs — merit cycles, bonus/incentive plans, promotion guidelines, and pay equity processes
• Own end-to-end equity program administration: grant modeling, vesting schedules, dilution/burn rate analysis, and reconciliation with equity management systems
• Provide strategic consultation for HR partners and senior leaders to help solve business challenges
• Design and build a streamlined, repeatable compensation analytics platform — replacing ad‑hoc analysis with reusable models, dashboards, and QA processes so pay data is trustworthy and scalable
• Help establish the company’s job architecture — job families, levels, and career ladders — and build the governance process to maintain it
• Develop the market pricing methodology, salary structure, and geographic differential approach that underpins the company’s pay philosophy
• Develop comprehensive training and enablement programs

About You

• 8+ years of progressive compensation experience, including direct exposure to executive compensation, equity administration, and compensation program development and execution
• Track record of owning and building compensation processes independently — turning ambiguous asks into repeatable, well-documented programs
• Strong Excel and financial modeling skills
• Comfort working directly with senior leadership and, potentially, Compensation Committee materials
• Strong analytical rigor paired with clear written and verbal communication

Preferred

• Experience with compensation or equity systems (e.g., Workday, Radford/Aon, Merrill Lynch, Carta, Pave, Compa or similar)
• Experience partnering with Legal and Finance on executive pay disclosure requirements (e.g., CD&A)
• Prior experience building or scaling a job architecture from the ground up
• Prior experience supporting equity admin

In the spirit of pay transparency, we are excited to share the base salary range for this position. In addition to base salary, some roles are eligible for our bonus and/or equity programs, depending on level and role. Regular full‑time positions are eligible for our comprehensive benefits package. If you are hired at Cars Commerce, your final base salary compensation will be determined based on factors such as skills and/or experience.

Salary Range

$135,300.00-169,150.00

Our Comprehensive Benefits Package Includes

• Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans
• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set‑Up
• Generous PTO
• Paid Holidays, Floating Holiday, Volunteer Day, Recharge Day

Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages!

For US-based Positions

Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States. Please note that we are unable to sponsor employment visas at this time.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.