Lead Total Rewards Partner

We’re a global team of over 400 people, working together to push the boundaries of open-source technology and multi-cloud solutions. Our vision is to help developers, builders, and creators bring their ideas to life with speed and simplicity, by providing a cloud data platform that makes open-source databases, search, streaming, and application infrastructure easily accessible to everyone. The Role: As our Total Rewards Partner, you play a critical part in shaping Aiven’s global reward strategy. The individual will design forward-looking approaches to compensation and benefits to attract, motivate, and retain our Crabs. This is a senior role with high visibility, requiring strategic thinking and engagement with senior leaders and the executive team, while also demanding detail-oriented work such as compensation analytics, equity run rates, process management, system oversight, and vendor relationship navigation, all to ensure the reward framework is built on trust, transparency, and drives business growth. The role involves leading core reward processes and acting as a thought partner to the business, bringing external insights, shaping new initiatives, and ensuring practices remain competitive, fair, and transparent. This role helps define and operationalize the global rewards strategy, ensuring programs are equitable, competitive, scalable, and legally compliant. This role will continuously improve cyclical Rewards processes by leveraging digital rewards capabilities including automation and the use of AI. What You'll Do: Executive & Senior Stakeholder Engagement: Advise senior leaders and partner with the executive team on reward decisions, pay structures, and incentive design. Benefits Strategy: Partner with local teams to refine and evolve benefits offerings across Europe, ensuring relevance, consistency, and employee impact. Job Architecture & Salary Ranges: Oversee and enhance job architecture, ensuring clear career pathways and alignment with pay structures. Stock Option Management: Manage the process, system, and administration of stock options as a long term incentive program. Operational Excellence: Drive all reward-related processes linked to performance and talent cycles, ensuring seamless delivery and strong business alignment. Be structured thorough and detailed in regular business processes, including stock option management, pay review Data, Insights & Market Intelligence: Provide senior leadership with robust analysis, benchmarks, and insights to inform decision-making and future strategy. Identify industry trends and incorporate research and macro-economic insights into recommendations. Rewards Analytics: Support decision-makers and stakeholders with planned and ad hoc Rewards utilization metrics, KPIs, and analytics. Present complex data clearly and accessibly to business and people leaders. What We're Looking For: 6+ years of experience with Total Rewards, with exposure to international business environments. Strong knowledge of European compensation, equity practices and regulatory trends. Skilled at engaging and influencing senior leaders, with confidence presenting to executive-level stakeholders. Experience leading complex reward cycles, driving process improvements, and embedding change. Strong analytical skills, with the ability to translate data into insights and strategic recommendations. Strong project management and stakeholder management skills Experience with compensation systems and familiarity with both monetary and non-monetary reward approaches. Strategic and tactical mindset. Thrives in the fast-paced, dynamic environment of an international company in hyper-growth. Amazing! What’s next: If you think Aiven is the place for you and that our Values align with yours, send us your resume and we’ll get in touch! Global Benefits: Our global benefits are designed to help you thrive and grow, personally and professionally: Participate in Aiven’s equity plan. Balance work and life with our hybrid…