Head of Total Rewards

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 equity easier to understand for leaders and employees.
• Build trust through transparent frameworks, thoughtful education, and direct, kind guidance.

Skills You'll Need to Bring

• 10+ years of experience leading compensation and equity programs in high-growth technology companies, including meaningful scope at senior/executive levels.
• Proven ability to design compensation philosophies and architectures (job structures, market pricing, bands/ranges, governance) that scale with the business.
• Deep experience with executive compensation and working with senior leadership and Boards/Compensation Committees.
• Strong analytical capability paired with great judgment—able to move from complex data to simple, high-quality decisions.
• A builder’s mindset: comfortable creating systems, processes, and tools from scratch, and iterating quickly based on feedback and outcomes.
• High agency and ownership: you take initiative, own the outcome, and create momentum with urgency.
• High standards for craft and clarity in communication; able to influence at all levels with directness and empathy.
• Comfort operating globally, with an understanding of how to adapt frameworks across markets while maintaining coherence.
• You don’t need to be an AI expert, but you’re curious and willing to adopt AI tools to work smarter and deliver better results.

Nice to Haves

• Experience building (or significantly modernizing) compensation tooling and workflows using Notion, BI, and/or HR systems—and leveraging AI to improve speed and quality.
• Exposure to public-company readiness work or experience operating in environments with higher governance expectations.
• Experience partnering with Finance on modeling, budgeting, and long-range planning for comp and equity programs.

Why you'll love working here

• Company-defining scope: Total rewards is a core lever in how we build a generational company; your work will shape who we attract, retain, and grow.
• High visibility + trust: You’ll partner closely with senior leadership and help guide some of the most important people decisions at Notion.
• Build for the future: You’ll have the mandate to reimagine how compensation works in an AI-forward world—and build the systems to make it real.
• Craft-forward culture: Notion is a place where thoughtful, high-quality work matters, and where great operators have room to set the bar.

Notion is committed to providing highly competitive cash compensation, equity, and benefits. The compensation offered for this role will be based on multiple factors such as location, the role’s scope and complexity, and the candidate’s experience and expertise, and may vary from the range provided below. For roles based in San Francisco, the estimated base salary range for this role is $315,000 - $360,000 per year.

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A Note on AIYou don’t need deep AI expertise for every role, but we do expect every Notino to be intellectually curious, drawn to tinkering and discovery, and excited to use AI as a real collaborator in their work. For some roles, AI fluency is a core requirement — when that’s the case, we'll say so explicitly in the qualifications. People who thrive here don’t treat AI as a novelty. They use it to think better, and make their work easier for others to build on.

Equal Opportunity & AccommodationsWe hire talented people from a wide range of backgrounds. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every bullet, we still encourage you to apply. Notion is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any legally protected characteristic. Consistent with applicable law, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Notion provides reasonable accommodations during the application process; if you need one, please let your recruiter know.

Notion is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Notion considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Notion is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please let your recruiter know.