Compensation Programs & Operations Lead
San Francisco · 10+ years experience · Full-time · Hybrid · Posted Oct 19, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 10+ years experience
- Employment
- Full-time
- Workplace
- Hybrid
- Location
- San Francisco
About OpenAI
- OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.
- We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.
- For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf.
- Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.
- To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form https://form.asana.com/?d=57018692298241&k=5MqR40fZd7jlxVUh5J-UeA. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.
- We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link https://form.asana.com/?k=bQ7w9h3iexRlicUdWRiwvg&d=57018692298241.
About the role
- The Compensation Programs & Operations Lead will own the end-to-end program management of cyclical and ad hoc compensation programs on a global scale.
- This senior, hands-on role involves translating compensation priorities into executable plans, managing cross-functional delivery, and improving operational processes.
- The role requires a subject-matter expert to bridge the gap between compensation design and the employee experience through robust systems, controls, and documentation.
Responsibilities
- Lead the compensation program portfolio, including cyclical reviews, bonus and equity cycles, and promotion-related processes.
- Define scope, deliverables, milestones, and resource needs for compensation initiatives.
- Translate approved compensation designs into eligibility rules, calculations, workflows, and exception processes.
- Build and review compensation models, validate inputs, and reconcile final outcomes.
- Establish quality checks, access controls, and audit trails for compensation programs.
- Coordinate handoffs to Payroll, Equity Administration, and People Operations.
- Translate business needs into system requirements and lead user acceptance testing for compensation platforms.
- Manage intake and prioritization for ad hoc compensation initiatives.
- Develop operating guides, manager resources, and training materials.
- Measure program accuracy, timeliness, and manual effort to drive continuous process improvement.
Requirements
- 10+ years of progressive compensation experience.
- Substantial responsibility for global compensation programs and operations in a complex, fast-growing organization.
- Deep expertise across base pay, incentives, equity, market benchmarking, salary structures, and job architecture.
- Experience performing core responsibilities of a Compensation Operations Analyst, Compensation Analyst, Compensation Partner, and Compensation Program Manager.
- Proven ability to independently lead complex compensation cycles from planning through implementation and reconciliation.
- Advanced spreadsheet modeling skills.
- Hands-on experience with Workday or comparable HR and compensation platforms.
- Ability to influence across functions and communicate clearly with senior leaders.
Workplace
- Role is based in San Francisco.
Skills
- Program Management
- Compensation Analysis
- Workday
- Equity Administration
- Market Benchmarking
- Job Architecture
