About the Role:
Reporting to the Sr. Director of Total Rewards, the Principal Compensation Partner is a senior, hands-on partner who owns major compensation processes end-to-end — not just supporting them, but designing and building them. This person will:

• Support executive compensation programs, including base salary, annual incentive, and long-term incentive design and benchmarking; prepare analyses and materials for Compensation Committee meetings and executive offer/promotion decisions

• Lead the design and ongoing refinement of core compensation programs — merit cycles, bonus/incentive plans, promotion guidelines, and pay equity processes

• Own end-to-end equity program administration: grant modeling, vesting schedules, dilution/burn rate analysis, and reconciliation with equity management systems

• Provide strategic consultation for HR partners and senior leaders to help solve business challenges

• Design and build a streamlined, repeatable compensation analytics platform — replacing ad hoc analysis with reusable models, dashboards, and QA processes so pay data is trustworthy and scalable

• Help establish the company’s job architecture — job families, levels, and career ladders — and build the governance process to maintain it

• Develop the market pricing methodology, salary structure, and geographic differential approach that underpins the company’s pay philosophy

• Develop comprehensive training and enablement programs

About You:

• 8+ years of progressive compensation experience, including direct exposure to executive compensation, equity administration, and compensation program development and execution

• Track record of owning and building compensation processes independently — turning ambiguous asks into repeatable, well-documented programs

• Strong Excel and financial modeling skills

• Comfort working directly with senior leadership and, potentially, Compensation Committee materials

• Strong analytical rigor paired with clear written and verbal communication

Preferred:

• Experience with compensation or equity systems (e.g., Workday, Radford/Aon, Merrill Lynch, Carta, Pave, Compa or similar)

• Experience partnering with Legal and Finance on executive pay disclosure requirements (e.g., CD&A)

• Prior experience building or scaling a job architecture from the ground up

• Prior experience supporting equity admin

 

In the spirit of pay transparency, we are excited to share the base salary range for this position. In addition to base salary, some roles are eligible for our bonus and/or equity programs, depending on level and role. Regular full-time positions are eligible for our comprehensive benefits package. If you are hired at Cars Commerce, your final base salary compensation will be determined based on factors such as skills and/or experience. If the salary range is close to what you're seeking, then we encourage you to apply and learn more about the total compensation package for this position.

Salary Range

$135,300.00-169,150.00

Our Comprehensive Benefits Package includes:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans

• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up

• Generous PTO

• Paid Holidays, Floating Holiday, Volunteer Day, Recharge Day

Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages!