VP, Total Rewards

Boston, NH - USA

Monthly Salary: Not Disclosed

Posted on: 8 hours ago

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

About you:

Merlin is building the autonomy stack that will define the next generation of aerospace defense and mobility. As we scale and prepare for private-to-public readiness we need a Vice President of Total Rewards who is both a strategist and a builder someone who can design the vision and execute the work required to bring it to life.

This is not a traditional VP role with layers of infrastructure already in place. It is a foundational leadership role ideal for someone who can move fluidly between long-range strategic design and hands-on execution. You will influence the culture guide how we position ourselves in the talent market and set principles that define what it feels like to work at Merlin while also operating as the primary architect and executor of our rewards programs.

If you thrive in a builder environment enjoy both designing the blueprint and constructing the scaffolding and want to create a total rewards function that can scale to public-company standards this is that opportunity.

Responsibilities:

Compensation & Equity Strategy Execution:
Define and continually evolve Merlins compensation philosophy ensuring it aligns with our culture talent strategy and business trajectory.
Architect our job architecture leveling frameworks and salary bands and personally build the underlying systems and tools that bring them to life.
Own the entire annual compensation cycle modeling scenarios building tools guiding calibration creating communications and ensuring leaders are prepared to make thoughtful data-driven decisions.
Lead equity strategy and administration (options RSUs forecasting modeling) partnering with Finance and Legal on governance audits and employee education.
Prepare compensation and equity programs for audit-ready public-company compliance ensuring every workflow stands up to external scrutiny.
Benefits Strategic Design Hands-On Ownership:
Develop Merlins benefits philosophy and roadmap aligning offerings to the needs of our workforce.
Manage broker and vendor relationships while also doing the day-to-day work: evaluating plans executing renewals supporting employees and driving benefit communications.
Analytics Infrastructure & Compliance:
Build compensation and rewards dashboards templates models and reporting frameworks from the ground up.
Maintain exceptional data hygiene across our HRIS (Rippling) equity platform and compensation systems.
Ensure compliance with pay transparency requirements labor laws equity regulations and IPO-readiness standards.
Cross-Functional Leadership & Influence:
Partner deeply with Finance Legal and People Ops to align headcount planning equity budgeting compensation governance and SEC-ready processes.
Provide practical hands-on coaching to managers and executives not just high-level frameworks but tactical tools and clear guidance they can use immediately.
Influence Merlins culture by embedding fairness transparency and clarity into every touchpoint of the employee lifecycle.

Requirements

10 years in Total Rewards Compensation or HR Operations within high-growth tech aerospace robotics engineering or similarly complex environments.
Experience building (not just inheriting) compensation benefits and equity programs ideally including job architecture and compensation philosophy design.
A hands-on operator who genuinely enjoys modeling comp scenarios fixing workflows working in spreadsheets and implementing systems.
Experience preparing for or supporting a private-to-public transition (IPO SPAC or late-stage readiness).
Deep expertise in benchmarking equity design salary structures pay compliance and incentive mechanisms.
Analytical structured communicator; capable of turning complexity into clarity and building scalable systems without unnecessary process.
Comfortable supporting technical engineering flight test and autonomy-focused teams where rigor and precision matter.

Nice to Have:

Experience working with a Board of Directors or Compensation Committee.
Familiarity with Rippling Radford Option Impact or similar tools.
Multi-state or global compensation/benefits experience.

Required Experience:

Exec

About you: Merlin is building the autonomy stack that will define the next generation of aerospace defense and mobility. As we scale and prepare for private-to-public readiness we need a Vice President of Total Rewards who is both a strategist and a builder someone who can design the vision and exe...

About you:

Responsibilities:

Compensation & Equity Strategy Execution:
Define and continually evolve Merlins compensation philosophy ensuring it aligns with our culture talent strategy and business trajectory.
Architect our job architecture leveling frameworks and salary bands and personally build the underlying systems and tools that bring them to life.
Own the entire annual compensation cycle modeling scenarios building tools guiding calibration creating communications and ensuring leaders are prepared to make thoughtful data-driven decisions.
Lead equity strategy and administration (options RSUs forecasting modeling) partnering with Finance and Legal on governance audits and employee education.
Prepare compensation and equity programs for audit-ready public-company compliance ensuring every workflow stands up to external scrutiny.
Benefits Strategic Design Hands-On Ownership:
Develop Merlins benefits philosophy and roadmap aligning offerings to the needs of our workforce.
Manage broker and vendor relationships while also doing the day-to-day work: evaluating plans executing renewals supporting employees and driving benefit communications.
Analytics Infrastructure & Compliance:
Build compensation and rewards dashboards templates models and reporting frameworks from the ground up.
Maintain exceptional data hygiene across our HRIS (Rippling) equity platform and compensation systems.
Ensure compliance with pay transparency requirements labor laws equity regulations and IPO-readiness standards.
Cross-Functional Leadership & Influence:
Partner deeply with Finance Legal and People Ops to align headcount planning equity budgeting compensation governance and SEC-ready processes.
Provide practical hands-on coaching to managers and executives not just high-level frameworks but tactical tools and clear guidance they can use immediately.
Influence Merlins culture by embedding fairness transparency and clarity into every touchpoint of the employee lifecycle.

Requirements

10 years in Total Rewards Compensation or HR Operations within high-growth tech aerospace robotics engineering or similarly complex environments.
Experience building (not just inheriting) compensation benefits and equity programs ideally including job architecture and compensation philosophy design.
A hands-on operator who genuinely enjoys modeling comp scenarios fixing workflows working in spreadsheets and implementing systems.
Experience preparing for or supporting a private-to-public transition (IPO SPAC or late-stage readiness).
Deep expertise in benchmarking equity design salary structures pay compliance and incentive mechanisms.
Analytical structured communicator; capable of turning complexity into clarity and building scalable systems without unnecessary process.
Comfortable supporting technical engineering flight test and autonomy-focused teams where rigor and precision matter.