Senior Compensation Manager

Waabi; United States; Hybrid; USD 175,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation and equity

Health, Dental & Vision benefits

Unlimited vacation

Flexible hours and WFH support

Team events and catered meals

Job summary

Waabi is seeking a strategic Compensation Leader to design and manage our global compensation program, including base, equity, and variable pay. You will own the annual cycle, benchmark roles across locations, and forecast spend with Finance. You’ll educate managers and executives on pay strategy and lead equity planning.

In this role you will partner with leadership to align compensation with Waabi's growth, ensure pay equity and compliance, and leverage AI tools to streamline processes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Economics, Finance, Business, Human Resources or related field.
• 7+ years of compensation experience, ideally in high-growth tech with ownership of annual cycles.
• Experience designing compensation philosophy, structures and programs (salary, equity, bonus).
• Strong analytical and modeling skills including forecasting and benchmarking.
• Executive presence with clear communication to employees, managers and executives.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills and discretion with confidential information.
• Interest in applying AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude) to improve workflows.
• Enthusiastic, collaborative, and customer-focused mindset.

Responsibilities

• Anchor compensation in the business trajectory by analyzing growth plans, headcount, geography, and funding.
• Design future compensation structure including base, equity, and variable pay and outline evolution roadmap.
• Own the end-to-end annual compensation cycle and partner with managers and senior leaders to plan outcomes.
• Lead market benchmarking across Waabi's locations for job matching and updates to cash and equity ranges.
• Build bottoms-up compensation forecasts with Finance and model spend and equity usage.
• Lead compensation enablement and education across the organization for managers and employees.
• Translate complex topics into clear recommendations for the executive team and board materials.
• Ensure pay equity and compliance across the U.S. and Canada.

Skills

Compensation design

Forecasting models

Benchmarking

Executive communication

AI tooling experience

Pay equity

Collaboration

Adaptability

Education

Bachelor's degree in Economics, Finance, Business, HR

Tools

Radford

Carta

Pave

Job description

Waabi, founded by AI visionary Raquel Urtasun, is the leader in Physical AI. With a world-class team, we're unlocking the next era of autonomous transportation with technology that's powering commercial autonomous trucks and robotaxis. Waabi is backed by and partners with world leaders in AI, automotive, logistics, and deep tech.

With offices in Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, and Pittsburgh, Waabi is growing quickly and looking for diverse, innovative and collaborative candidates who want to impact the world in a positive way. To learn more visit: www.waabi.ai

About the role

Waabi continues to scale its breakthrough technology into commercial deployment, and how we attract, reward, and retain exceptional people will be central to the ongoing growth and innovation. This role directly shapes that story: understanding where the business is going and ensuring our compensation structure continues to support that trajectory. You'll be responsible for designing for the current and the future while also being the trusted expert for employees, managers, executives, and company leadership when it comes to our compensation approach and program.

You will...

• Anchor compensation in the business trajectory. Build a deep understanding of Waabi's growth path, including headcount plans, commercialization milestones, geographic expansion, and funding outlook, and use it to guide compensation decisions.
• Design the compensation structure of the future and the plan to get there. Define how base, equity, and variable pay work together to support where the business is headed. Understand today’s structure, set the long-term philosophy, ranges, and grant guidelines, then lay out the roadmap and sequencing to evolve if needed.
• Own the end-to-end annual compensation cycle, including administering the compensation tool and partnering with managers and senior leaders to plan outcomes for their teams. Streamline and scale the process, including through AI tools where they add value.
• Lead market benchmarking for all roles across Waabi's locations, deeply understanding the job architecture and talent marketplace, to effectively complete job matching, survey submissions, and recommending updates to cash and equity ranges.
• Build bottoms-up compensation forecasts with Finance, modeling spend and equity usage against the business plan. Own a variety of modeling and analysis projects to inform decision making.
• Lead compensation enablement and education across the organization. Be the single owner of how Waabi teaches compensation:
  • Training managers on the structure, philosophy and how pay decisions are made
  • Helping employees understand the value and mechanics of their total compensation, including stock options
  • Equipping Recruiting to structure competitive offers
  • Building employee communications that tie it together
• Communicate and advise across company leadership. Translate complex compensation topics into clear recommendations and trade-offs for the executive team. Manage preparation of compensation materials for board review and discussions
• Ensure pay equity and compliance through regular reviews and adherence to pay transparency and reporting requirements across the U.S. and Canada.

Qualifications:

• A bachelor's degree in Economics, Finance, Business, Human Resources, or a related field.
• 7+ years of compensation experience, ideally in high-growth technology companies, including owning annual cycles and multi-location benchmarking.
• Experience designing compensation philosophy, structures and programs (salary, variable and equity).
• Extensive analytical and modeling skills (including building forecasts) as well as expertise in benchmarking and survey methodology (Radford, Carta, Pave, etc).
• Executive presence, with clear, confident communication to employees, managers, and senior executives.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills
• Sound judgment and discretion with sensitive, confidential information.
• Enthusiasm for applying AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude) to improve workflows.
• Open-minded and collaborative team player with the willingness to help others.
• Passionate about self-driving technologies, solving hard problems, and creating innovative solutions.

Bonus/nice to have:

• Experience with private company compensation planning, including planning through company evolution (revenue, funding, and maturity).
• Experience managing preparation for board review of compensation programs.
• Direct experience in HIgh-Tech, AI or AV company, with an understanding of how the talent marketplace shapes pay.
• Hands-on experience using AI tools (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT) to automate compensation analysis, modeling, or cycle workflows.

The US yearly salary range for this role is: $175,000 - $260,000 USD in addition to competitive perks & benefits. Waabi US Inc.’s yearly salary ranges are determined based on several factors in accordance with the Company’s compensation practices. Note: The Company provides additional compensation for employees in this role, including equity incentive awards and an annual performance bonus.

Perks/Benefits:

• Competitive compensation and equity awards.
• Health and Wellness benefits encompassing Medical, Dental and Vision coverage (for full-time employees only).
• Unlimited Vacation.
• Flexible hours and Work from Home support.
• Daily drinks, snacks and catered meals (when in office).
• Regularly scheduled team building activities and social events both on-site, off-site & virtually.
• As we grow, this list continues to evolve!

Waabi is a technology start-up building technologies to transform the way the world moves. Join our talented team to be a part of the future and to make an impact!

Waabi is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating a supportive, inclusive, and accessible workplace for all our employees. We seek applicants of all backgrounds and identities, across race, color, ethnicity, national origin or ancestry, age, citizenship, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military or veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or parental status, caregiver status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law. We make workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process please let our recruiting team know.