Compensation Programs & Operations Lead

Job description

About the Team OpenAI’s Compensation team helps attract, reward, and retain the people advancing our mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. We develop compensation strategies and programs that support a rapidly evolving business, combining market insight, sound judgment, and thoughtful execution. We partner across People, Finance, Legal, and the business to deliver programs that employees and leaders can understand and trust. About the Role We’re looking for a Compensation Programs & Operations Lead to own the end-to-end program management of our cyclical and ad hoc compensation programs globally. You will turn compensation priorities into executable plans and lead delivery from initial scoping through launch, reconciliation, and continuous improvement. This is a senior, hands-on role for a compensation subject-matter expert who is energized by operations and E2E program ownership. You should bring experience across compensation operations analysis, compensation analysis, business partnership, and program management. Having done this work yourself, you understand the practical details behind compensation decisions and what it takes to implement them accurately. You will establish how our compensation programs run: the calendar, responsibilities, systems requirements, controls, communications, and handoffs that connect program design to the employee experience. You’ll partner closely with Compensation Partners, HR Business Partners, People Operations, People Technology, Finance, Payroll, Equity Administration, and Legal, creating clarity and driving execution as priorities evolve. In this role, you will: Lead our compensation program portfolio. Own the integrated roadmap and calendar for cyclical and ad hoc programs, including compensation reviews, bonus and equity cycles, promotion-related compensation processes, recognition and retention initiatives, and new program launches. Drive programs from planning through completion. Define scope, deliverables, milestones, accountable owners, dependencies, and resource needs. Coordinate work across teams, resolve blockers, and bring decisions and tradeoffs to the right owners early. Translate compensation expertise into practical operations. Work with Compensation Partners and program owners to turn approved designs into clear eligibility rules, calculations, workflows, appr…