Head of Total Rewards

Head of Total Rewards Santa Clara, CA, USA Job description Company and benefits Job ID 68761203061 Date posted 04/27/2026 Department G&A Global Head of Total Rewards About Eightfold Eightfold is building the world’s most advanced Talent Intelligence Platform, powered by agentic AI. We help organizations hire, retain, and grow talent based on skills, potential, and real data—not proxies. This role is a rare opportunity to be a People leader inside an AI-native HR tech company, helping shape not just how Eightfold scales, but how the future of work is built, experienced, and sold. Eightfold is a global leader in AI-native enterprise talent platform, trusted by the world’s largest & most respected Fortune 500 organizations. Our platform is built from the ground up operating at scale across Azure and AWS, deployed in multiple regions globally, including IL4-compliant environments for US Government, supporting users in 100+ countries and 30+ languages. Today, Eightfold is at the forefront of agentic AI, delivering intelligent agents that actively drive outcomes across hiring and talent workflows, while much of the industry is still experimenting with prototypes. Backed by over $410M in funding and valued at $2B+, we are defining the next era of agentic talent systems. What sets Eightfold apart is not just the technology and our mission, but the team behind it. We are a deeply technical, execution-driven organization that values ownership, collaboration, and high standards. Our engineers, product leaders, and go-to-market teams work closely together, in person and across functions, to build systems that scale in the real world. If you’re excited to work on hard problems, move with urgency, raise the bar every day, and help build agentic systems that transform how the world works, Eightfold is the place to do it. About the Role We are hiring a Global Head of Total Rewards to build, run, and evolve our global rewards strategy across compensation, equity, benefits, and sales compensation. This is a high-ownership, senior individual contributor role reporting to the CHRO. You will operate as the company’s end-to-end rewards expert, responsible for both designing the strategy and ensuring strong execution through close partnership. You should be equally comfortable: Building compensation frameworks from first principles Designing executive and sales compensation packages Driving cycles and decisions through cross-functional teams Advising senior leaders when the answer is not obvious This role is not just about maintaining programs. It is about bringing coherence, rigor, and modern thinking to how rewards works at Eightfold as we scale globally. What You Will Do Compensation & Rewards Strategy Design and evolve a global compensation philosophy and framework aligned to performance, growth, and market competitiveness Partner with People Operations and Finance to drive annual compensation cycles, shaping planning, benchmarking, calibration, and budget alignment Advise executive leadership on pay decisions, leveling, and market positioning, especially in ambiguous or high-stakes situations Build clear, practical guidance for managers to make consistent and high-quality compensation decisions Prepare and present Board-level compensation materials in partnership with the CHRO Sales Compensation (Critical Focus Area) Own design and evolution of sales compensation plans across segments and roles Partner closely with Sales, Revenue Operations, and Finance to align plans with GTM strategy, growth goals, and margin considerations Model plan economics, quota structures, and payout curves with a strong point of view Ensure plans are simple, motivating, and drive the right behaviors, not just mathematically correct Act as a trusted partner to GTM leadership, not just a program manager Equity & Executive Compensation Own end-to-end equity program design and administration, including refresh cycles and new hire packages Partner with Legal and Finance on equity strategy, dilution planning, and IPO readiness Design and advise on executive compensation packages with sound judgment and market awareness Improve how equity is communicated so employees understand its value Benefits & Global Programs Evolve a global benefits strategy that balances employee experience, cost, and scalability Partner with People Operations on administration and vendor management, ensuring programs are competitive and compliant Continuously evaluate programs and make practical, data-informed improvements Systems, Data, and AI-Forward Thinking Partner with People Operations to bring structure to rewards data, tools, and workflows Use data and emerging AI capabilities to improve decision quality, efficiency, and insights in rewards Act as an internal thought partner on how rewards can evolve in a skills-based, AI-driven talent model Where relevant, help Eightfold dogfood its own platform and inform future product direction What We Are Looking For 12+ years of experience across Total Rewards, with strong depth in compensation and at least two of the following: equity, benefits, sales compensation Proven ability to operate as a senior individual contributor who both designs and drives execution through others, without relying on a large team Strong experience in sales compensation design in a high-growth SaaS or technology company Experience with equity programs and executive compensation, ideally in a pre-IPO or scaling environment High level of business judgment and comfort advising senior leaders on complex or ambiguous decisions Strong analytical skills and ability to build and interpret compensation models Ability to bring structure to ambiguity and improve partially defined systems Clear, practical communicator who can simplify complex topics and influence decisions Interest in how AI and data will reshape talent and rewards, even if you have not directly used AI in this domain yet How You Operate You are a builder and an operator. You don’t wait for perfect inputs and you don’t over-engineer You take ownership and are comfortable being the go-to expert in the room You bring a strong point of view, but adapt based on data and context You care about both quality of thinking and quality of execution You thrive in environments where the pace is high and the problems are not fully defined