Senior Rewards Specialist, Cleo

• 5+ years in compensation or total rewards roles, ideally within tech or high-growth environments
• Deep experience with market benchmarking (Pave preferred), job levelling, and band design
• Advanced spreadsheet and modelling skills (Google Sheets / Excel), including financial modelling and data visualization
• Strong grasp of equity compensation (options, RSUs, vesting, dilution, refresh)
• Experience running or supporting salary and equity review cycles
• High attention to data quality, structure, and integrity — you think in systems and edge cases

Desirable

• We’re looking for a Senior Reward Specialist to join our People team and lead the technical design, execution, and evolution of Cleo’s compensation frameworks
• You’ll be the subject matter expert on salary banding, benchmarking, equity modelling, and compensation analytics, playing a central role in how we scale our reward architecture across functions, levels, and geographies
• This is a high-impact individual contributor role, reporting directly to the Chief People Officer, and working cross-functionally with Finance, Talent, and SLT
• Own and evolve Cleo’s global compensation architecture, including our level-based banding framework (L1–L7)
• Ensure bands are correctly calibrated to Pave data benchmarks, spanning UK Hybrid, UK Remote, and US geographies
• Apply a consistent approach to bands, widening spreads at senior levels, and calibration against internal job levels
• Lead annual benchmarking reviews and proactively recommend changes based on data trends, market shifts, or business needs
• Build and maintain compensation models for budgeting, scenario planning, and business case support (e.g. pay progression, top-up planning, and equity refresh cycles)
• Analyse compa-ratios, band penetration, and pay distribution across teams to identify risks and opportunities
• Work closely with FP&A on compensation forecasting and reward cost planning
• Partner with People Ops to run seamless salary and equity review cycles, including logic setup, systems testing, and calibration readiness
• Ensure data quality and logic integrity across Pave, Lattice, and HRIS systems
• Support executive compensation and LTIP modelling for senior hires and high-impact roles
• Act as a trusted advisor to Talent Partners and Hiring Managers on offer benchmarking, comp placement, and equity mechanics
• Provide training and toolkits to upskill stakeholders in Cleo’s comp philosophy, banding structure, and reward practices
• Contribute to strategic reward projects (e.g. geo-differentiated pay, incentive design, option pool management)
• You’ll work directly with the CPO and influence reward design at the highest level
• You’ll own the architecture of a comp model used across a business scaling rapidly across two markets
• You’ll play a critical role in how we balance fairness, competitiveness and performance in our reward philosophy
• Work at one of the fastest-growing tech startups, backed by top VC firms, Balderton & EQT Ventures
• A clear progression plan. We want you to keep growing. That means trying new things, leading others, challenging the status quo and owning your impact. Always with our complete support