Head of Total Rewards

Job description

WHO WE ARE Notion is the collaborative AI workspace where teams and agents think together https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkpYpWfEK5s. We're building one place where your knowledge, projects, meetings, and AI tools live side by side, so work feels faster, clearer, and less fragmented. Millions of individuals, small teams, and large companies run their work on Notion. Notinos (our employees) are customer zero in bringing this future of work to life. We care about craft, humanity, and building things that last — not just shipping the next feature, but setting a standard for how modern teams (with humans and agents working together) think and execute. ABOUT THE ROLE We’re looking for a Head of Total Rewards to make compensation and benefits a true talent-density lever at Notion. This role will be part of the People Leadership Team and will report to our Chief People Officer. This is not a “run the standard comp playbook” role. You’ll reimagine our total rewards philosophy for a new era: one where Notion is scaling fast, operating in a highly competitive market, and building AI into how work gets done. You’ll bring the vision and craft to transform how we design, communicate, and operationalize total rewards - so our programs are clear, fair, competitive, and set the foundation for a pay-for-performance culture that motivates our people to go above and beyond. You’ll lead a team across compensation, equity, and benefits, and you’ll be a key partner to the C-Suite, Finance, Recruiting, and our Compensation Committee. Executive compensation is a core part of the scope, as is building the operating system (tooling, data, processes, governance) that lets us move with speed and precision as we grow - while staying thoughtful about risk, compliance, and scale. We’re looking for a high-agency builder who takes ownership and operates with urgency - someone who can move quickly without sacrificing judgment or craft. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We work from our offices on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays (our Anchor Days) because we do our best thinking and building together in person. We’re looking for someone who’s excited to work alongside the team during those days. WHAT YOU'LL ACHIEVE - Set the vision for Total Rewards as a talent-density lever - Define and evolve a clear compensation and equity philosophy that supports our strategy, values, and operating model - and own the outcomes end-to-end. - Design programs that drive clarity, motivation, and retention for high performers - while maintaining internal equity and external competitiveness. - Reimagine our compensation architecture - Own our job/leveling alignment inputs, pay bands, market pricing strategy, and decision frameworks so we can scale consistently without losing nuance. - Build mechanisms for fast, high-quality comp decisions (offers, promotions, internal mobility, retention, and exceptions). - Lead equity strategy across the employee lifecycle - Own the equity framework and refresh strategy in partnership with Finance and Legal, ensuring our approach scales globally and remains competitive. - Establish clear narratives and guidelines that help leaders and employees understand how equity works at Notion. - Own executive compensation + Comp Committee - Partner with senior leadership and the Board/Compensation Committee to design and deliver executive compensation programs and governance. - Prepare materials, analyses, and recommendations that are crisp, defensible, and aligned with company priorities. - Build AI-forward total rewards tooling - Be a builder: design and ship the systems that power total rewards operations—using Notion and other tools to automate workflows, improve data quality, and increase decision velocity. - Identify where AI can remove busywork (benchmarking, insights, scenario modeling, communications, manager enablement) and build toward a comp operating system that’s fit for an AI world. - Operate with rigor: data, governance, and global readiness - Establish metrics and dashboards to monitor competitiveness, equity, spend, and program effectiveness; translate insights into action. - Ensure compensation governance is scalable and compliant across geographies; partner with Legal and Finance on risk management and controls. - Support company scaling activities by ensuring our compensation practices, documentation, and governance can meet higher expectations over time. - Lead, grow, and develop the Total Rewards team - Manage and develop a team across compensation, equity and benefits; set clear goals, raise the bar on craft, and build a high-agency culture. - Coach cross-functional partners and leaders on compensation decision-making with clarity and confidence. - Communicate with clarity and conviction - Create communication strategies and enablement that make compensation and e