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Senior Director, Total Rewards – Overview

We are seeking a Senior Director of Total Rewards to serve as the global owner of Cognite’s compensation philosophy, total rewards strategy, and operational governance. This is a high‑impact, business‑critical role at the intersection of strategy, financial rigor, and employee experience. Our global footprint spans the US (Phoenix, Houston, and multistate presence), Norway, India (Bangalore), Japan, Western Europe, and the UAE — with continued growth through new entities and EOR‑based hiring. How we reward, deploy, and develop our talent across these markets is central to our ambition.

Location: Hybrid in Phoenix, AZ, with willingness to travel if required.

Responsibilities

• Global Compensation Strategy & Architecture
  • Own and evolve Cognite’s global compensation philosophy and strategy, ensuring alignment with business growth, talent strategy, and shareholder value creation.
  • Architect scalable compensation frameworks across base salary, annual bonus, equity, and long‑term incentive programs.
  • Evolve our compensation structures for new and existing geographies, ensuring market competitiveness, regulatory compliance, and alignment with local market dynamics.
  • Drive performance differentiation through compensation design, linking directly to Cognite’s performance frameworks, ratings, and career architecture.
  • Monitor global market trends, emerging compensation practices, and evolving pay transparency regulations — proactively adjusting Cognite’s approach to remain competitive and compliant.
  • Ensure compensation governance frameworks are robust, auditable, and scalable across all geographies — appropriate for a company building toward public‑company readiness.
  • Prepare clear, structured materials for Board and Compensation Committee reviews.
• Equity, Incentives & Performance Alignment
  • Own the design and governance of Cognite’s equity programs, including grant models, vesting structures, dilution modeling, and ownership alignment across career stages and employee populations.
  • Design and continuously refine annual bonus structures and incentive frameworks across technical, commercial, and leadership populations.
  • Partner with Revenue Operations, Finance, and executive leadership to ensure incentive models and commission structures align with Cognite’s global total rewards strategy.
  • Ensure equity pool planning, usage tracking, and grant recommendations are accurate, consistent, and aligned with Board and Compensation Committee expectations.
  • Develop compensation models tied to career architecture, creating clear progression pathways and meaningful reward differentiation across levels and functions.
• Global Mobility & Compliance
  • Lead the strategic direction and overall ownership of Cognite’s global mobility function, covering employee relocations, cross‑border assignments, and international hiring — supported day‑to‑day by a dedicated Mobility & Compliance Lead.
  • Oversee EOR strategy and new entity compliance across active and expanding markets, ensuring Cognite can hire compliantly and move quickly, while building scalable internal standards that reduce vendor dependency over time.
  • Partner with Talent Acquisition and People Business Partners on location strategy, global headcount deployment, and workforce footprint decisions.
• Benefits Philosophy & Governance
  • Define and maintain Cognite’s global benefits philosophy, setting principles and guardrails that guide regional People Ops delivery and ensure a coherent total rewards experience globally.
  • Provide oversight of regional benefits programs, identifying gaps or misalignments with global strategy, and partnering with People Operations to address them.
• Operational Excellence & Compensation Execution
  • Own the end‑to‑end operational execution of global compensation programs: annual review cycles, bonus processing, equity planning, and promotion‑related adjustments.
  • Enhance and scale automated compensation processes leveraging platforms such as Pave, Radford, and Cognite’s HRIS & Equity Management tool to ensure efficiency, accuracy, and governance.
  • Partner with Finance to align compensation planning with headcount budgets, financial forecasts, and organizational growth plans.
  • Ensure all compensation processes, records, and decisions meet the auditability and controls standards required for a pre‑IPO company.
• Data, Analytics & Market Intelligence
  • Define and track key Total Rewards KPIs, including market positioning, pay equity, compa‑ratio distribution, retention impact, and incentive effectiveness.
  • Interpret workforce analytics to proactively inform compensation strategy, identify talent risk, and surface actionable insights for senior leadership and the Board.
  • Ensure compliance with global pay transparency regulations and leverage data across HRIS, Finance, and benchmarking platforms to maintain a clear, real‑time picture of Cognite’s total rewards competitiveness.
• Cross‑Functional Partnership & Stakeholder Leadership
  • Serve as a trusted subject matter expert and advisor to the CHRO, CFO, and senior leadership on all compensation, equity, and mobility matters.
  • Partner closely with People Business Partners, Talent Acquisition, and Finance to ensure the rewards strategy is embedded in hiring, performance, and planning processes.
  • Collaborate across the People & Organization team as a genuine, hands‑on partner — sharing knowledge, supporting others, and building the function’s credibility through delivery.
  • Build effective partnerships with regional People Ops teams to ensure benefits governance is applied consistently and with the right balance of global coherence and local flexibility.
• The Impact you bring to Cognite
  • You are a strategic thinker and operational executor — someone who can design the architecture and run the engine. You bring credibility at the Board level and the willingness to be in the detail when it matters.
  • Hands‑on operator: you lead from the front, roll up your sleeves, and take personal accountability for outcomes — you do not outsource the detail.
  • Strong collaborator and genuine partner across People & Organization, Finance, and the business — able to build trust quickly and lead through influence.
  • Exceptional executive presence: structured, clear, and confident in front of the CHRO, CFO, and Board.
  • Strong financial and analytical acumen — able to build models, stress‑test scenarios, and translate data into clear, actionable recommendations.
  • Strong AI literacy and HR technology acumen, with experience leveraging modern tools to drive efficiency and insight in the rewards function.
  • High ownership mindset: you thrive in ambiguity, move with urgency, and hold yourself and your team to a high standard.

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive experience in Compensation, Total Rewards, or related disciplines, with global scope and direct program leadership.
• Deep expertise in equity compensation, executive pay, and incentive design — with hands‑on experience managing equity pools, grant governance, and Board‑level reporting.
• Proven background in a high‑growth technology or SaaS environment, including advisory experience at C‑suite or Board level.
• Experience designing and governing compensation frameworks across multiple geographies, including pay transparency and compliance requirements.

Preferred Experience

• Experience supporting a company through IPO preparation, public‑company transition, and/or M&A processes.
• Background in Global Mobility, including EOR models, tax, pay, and cross‑border compliance requirements.
• Familiarity with compensation benchmarking platforms such as Pave, Radford, or similar tools.
• Experience designing compensation for technical, AI, and engineering talent markets.
• Global team Leadership experience.

Perks & Benefits

• Competitive compensation
• 401(k) with employer matching
• Competitive health, dental, vision & disability coverages for employees and all dependents
• Unlimited PTO
• Paid Parental Leave Program
• Employee Referral Program

Equal Opportunity Statement

Cognite is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment at work and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive the same level of consideration for employment.