Senior Compensation Manager

An overview of this role

As a Senior Compensation Manager at GitLab, you'll lead the design, planning, and execution of compensation programs that help us attract, retain, and reward team members. You'll own recurring programs, including the annual focal merit cycle, and provide guidance and oversight for promotion cycles, quarterly equity grant cycles, and semi-annual bonus programs. Working closely with Total Rewards leadership and partners across People, Finance, and Legal, you'll turn program objectives into clear deliverables, establish processes and controls, and see complex cycles through from planning to closeout. Your work will help ensure accurate, timely delivery and a clear experience for leaders, People teams, and team members.

You'll be based in the United States. We prefer a West Coast location to support collaboration with stakeholders across time zones.

What you’ll do

• Lead compensation programs from design and readiness through approvals, processing, communication, and post-cycle review, including ownership of the annual focal merit cycle and oversight of promotion, quarterly equity, and semi-annual bonus cycles.
• Define program calendars, decision points, responsibilities, controls, and success measures. Coordinate dependencies and keep stakeholders informed of progress, risks, and decisions.
• Ensure compliance with eligibility rules and develop process documentation, manager resources, and communications. Advise People Business Partners, Talent Acquisition, and leaders on program application and exceptions, escalating policy and governance decisions when needed.
• Analyze compensation data and program outcomes, develop recommendations for Total Rewards leadership, and partner with Finance on budgeting, cost modeling, and reconciliation.
• Partner with People Technology and IT systems stakeholders to improve workflows, reporting, and usability.
• Validate inputs and outputs, ensure timely processing, maintain audit and control documentation, and protect confidential compensation information.
• Oversee the annual refresh of global compensation and equity ranges to ensure accuracy, and support compensation partners with program delivery and analysis.
• Lead improvements that reduce program risks and friction, strengthen consistency and transparency, and improve the team member experience. Use clear documentation and asynchronous communication to coordinate work across time zones.

What you’ll bring

• Experience designing and operating compensation programs, with expertise in corporate compensation and public company equity and a record of delivering complex merit, equity, bonus, or promotion cycles accurately from planning through closeout.
• Strong analytical and spreadsheet skills, including interpreting compensation data, building scenarios, checking assumptions, and explaining findings to decision-makers.
• An understanding of compensation governance, data integrity, and controls, with discretion and sound judgment when handling confidential information and sensitive decisions.
• The ability to translate policy and strategy into operating procedures, system requirements, and stakeholder guidance, plus experience with human resources information systems and compensation planning tools such as Pave and Workday, and comfort working on a Mac.
• Attention to detail, practical problem-solving skills, and the persistence to work through complex issues and deliver accurate outcomes. You can learn unfamiliar programs, systems, and business contexts quickly.
• The ability to build trusted partnerships, advise leaders and People teams, resolve ambiguity, and move decisions forward without relying on formal authority.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to coordinate with global partners across time zones using asynchronous practices.
• Helpful, but not required: experience supporting a global, distributed workforce, including partners in India or other locations outside the United States; compensation-cycle communications; and experience in a software or technology company.

About the team

The current Compensation team consists of 2 Global Compensation Partners and a Lead Total Rewards Program Manager that collaborates with the Compensation and Benefits teams. We provide compensation programs for 40+ countries globally. Our compensation work brings together People Business Partners, Talent Acquisition, People Operations, and People Technology. We use clear written communication and collaboration to coordinate across a distributed workforce and time zones.