Head of Compensation

Job description

At Klaviyo, we value the unique backgrounds, experiences and perspectives each Klaviyo (we call ourselves Klaviyos) brings to our workplace each and every day. We believe everyone deserves a fair shot at success and appreciate the experiences each person brings beyond the traditional job requirements. If you’re a close but not exact match with the description, we hope you’ll still consider applying. Want to learn more about life at Klaviyo? Visit klaviyo.com/careers to see how we empower creators to own their own destiny. Make comp the reason people choose us — and the reason they stay Compensation, as most companies run it, is a compliance function wearing a strategy costume: annual surveys, static bands, spreadsheets nobody trusts, and comp conversations nobody feels equipped to have. We're hiring a Head of Comp to make sure how we compensate people actually works for the business. Not a once-a-year cycle everyone dreads, but a strategic lever. This role is central to how we compete for talent and how we reward the people already here. Three things you'll own 1. Comp architecture — write the new playbook You'll write the playbook for how we think about comp, from the ground up. That means questioning the assumptions baked into how we level roles and price the market today, deciding what's worth carrying forward and what gets rebuilt, and setting a standard nobody's set here before. The specifics are yours to define — the bar is this: a philosophy that scales as we grow, and gives people a real reason to stay. 2. Burn rate & multi-year equity — model what's sustainable Equity is the comp lever most companies manage least well. You'll own the multi-year equity model — refresh grants, dilution, burn rate against plan — so the business can see three years out, not just this cycle. That means partnering with Finance and the exec team on what's sustainable, catching burn rate problems before they become board-level surprises, and building a model that holds up when Leadership and Finance asks the hard questions. 3. Business partnership — be the person leaders call when it's hard Comp gets called in when things are hard: a top performer with a competing offer in hand, a manager pushing back on a leveling decision they don't agree with, a reorg that leaves two people doing the same job at different comp. You'll be the person business leaders call in those moments — someone who can have the tough conversation directly, defuse a tense situation without dodging the real issue, and bring a creative solution instead of just citing policy. That same instinct is also what makes our comp story a recruiting asset: partnering with Talent Acquisition so comp clarity shows up in job posts, offer conversations, and how we talk about pay transparency publicly. Plus, Built AI-first Comp still runs on spreadsheets and manual survey cuts more than almost any other People function. Your job is to change that: define the requirements for market data ingestion, pay equity analysis, and manage self-serve tools, and push the automation forward instead of waiting for someone else to build it. That's what frees you and the team to spend time on the judgment calls that actually need a human, not pulling the same data every cycle. Everything else that doesn't fit in three boxes Real jobs don't stay inside three pillars. Here's what else lands on your desk: • Annual and off-cycle comp strategy — merit philosophy, equity refresh design, and budget modeling. • Executive and board-level comp support — materials for the compensation committee, executive offer structuring. • Partnering with Talent Acquisition on offer strategy for hard-to-fill and competitive roles. • Pay equity analysis and remediation, in partnership with Legal and People Ops. • International comp — extending our comp structures as we grow into new markets. • M&A comp — talent diligence, leveling incoming employees against our framework, and integrating bonus and equity payout structures as we bring acquired teams on board • Special projects — the “just for this” asks from senior leadership that don't fit a template. What you bring Non-negotiables: • 10+ years in compensation, with real ownership of comp strategy and structure at a growth-stage company — not just cycle administration. • You've rebuilt or meaningfully overhauled a comp function or framework before — leveling, market pricing, or philosophy — not just maintained one you inherited. • Deep fluency with modern comp tools and data sources (market pricing platforms, pay equity analytics, compensation management systems) — you've actually used them hands-on. • A track record designing comp structures that hold up under scrutiny: defensible, explainable, and equitable. • A track record navigating tense comp conversations — comp disputes, promotion denials, retention counters — with solutions that hold up, not just policy citations. • You work closely with Talent Acquisition, Finance, and business leaders — comp touches everyone, and you know how to translate between all of them • Experience with pay transparency practices and the regulatory landscape around them. Strong signals: • Experience applying AI tools to automate comp analysis or reporting at scale. • Experience in a company going through rapid growth or a strategic pivot, where the comp structure had to keep pace. • Background spanning both in-house comp leadership and consulting or advisory work. • You default to shipping a version and iterating over waiting for a perfect model. What you'll find here • A build mandate, not a “run the annual cycle” brief. • A Leadership and People team that wants comp to be a strategic lever, not a back-office function. • Business leaders who want a thought partner on comp, not a rate-card lookup. • An organization that backs conviction with investment. • A level and package built for owning comp end to end — not just administering it. None of this is about prettier band charts. It's about giving our leader