Reward & Recognition (Compensation) Lead, 12 Month Fixed Term Contract

Note: interviews for this role will commence in January 2026 

Snapshot

We are looking for an ambitious leader to join our Talent, Performance & Reward team. This team transforms complex data into compelling narratives on pay and people. As the Lead, you will operate our core reward heartbeat activities and oversee critical processes that ensure we attract and motivate the world’s best talent.

About Us

Artificial Intelligence could be one of humanity’s most useful inventions. At Google DeepMind, we’re a team of scientists, engineers, machine learning experts and more, working together to advance the state of the art in artificial intelligence. We use our technologies for widespread public benefit and scientific discovery, and collaborate with others on critical challenges, ensuring safety and ethics are the highest priority.

The Role

Your primary focus is to delight our clients (the business) through delivery of Reward processes and programs. You will have the freedom to rethink how we deliver these processes in partnership with the Reward and Recognition Operations lead, as well as leading a global team of three Reward & Recognition partners and collaborating closely with the Heads of Reward in North America and EMEA. This is a unique opportunity to innovate compensation effectiveness in a fast-paced environment with unique talent challenges.

Key responsibilities: 

• Client focus: Develop and oversee our strategy for supporting our business leaders in delivering Reward initiatives & programmes
• Team Leadership: Mentor and manage a team of three Partners, ensuring alignment with strategic goals.
• Strategic Frameworks: Develop and oversee compensation and recognition frameworks for the full Google DeepMind organizational structure.
• Advisory: Influence and support senior leaders with sound, data-backed advice on unique reward challenges.
• Optimization: Continuously evaluate the efficiency of compensation programs, innovating to improve the return on our total rewards investment.
• Strategy: Embody a compensation strategy that ensures competitiveness, particularly in high-demand segments like the AI talent market.

About You

In order to set you up for success as a Reward & Recognition Partner at Google DeepMind, we look for the following skills and experience::

• 7+ years of experience in compensation.
• People Management: You have demonstrated experience managing a Reward team, preferably within a global and/or tech environment.
• Operational Excellence: You have a history of holding end-to-end responsibility for complex Reward programs and driving them to successful outcomes.
• Data & Ambiguity: You can assimilate ambiguous information from varied sources to provide meaningful insights using Google sheets (or equivalent), SQL or other database tools and AI enabled tools.
• Communication: You possess excellent communication skills and the ability to build trust and influence senior leaders.
• AI First: You  have strong AI fluency and take an AI First approach to your core work.
• Fast paced environment - You enjoy the energy of a fast-paced team and can manage multiple workstreams without compromising attention to detail.

In addition, the following would be an advantage:

• Experience in a tech company or an environment with unique talent competition.

Deadline to Apply: 6pm GMT, Sunday 11th January 

Note: In the event your application is successful and an offer of employment is made to you, any offer of employment will be conditional on the results of a background check, performed by a third party acting on our behalf. For more information on how we handle your data, please see our Applicant and Candidate Privacy Policy.

At Google DeepMind, we value diversity of experience, knowledge, backgrounds and perspectives and harness these qualities to create extraordinary impact. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, or related condition (including breastfeeding) or any other basis as protected by applicable law. If you have a disability or additional need that requires accommodation, please do not hesitate to let us know.