Senior Manager, Americas Compensation

About us:

One team. Global challenges. Infinite opportunities. At Viasat, we’re on a mission to deliver connections with the capacity to change the world. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the globe communicate. We’re looking for people who think big, act fearlessly, and create an inclusive environment that drives positive impact to join our team.

What you'll do:

The Americas Senior Compensation Manager is a unique, high-impact dual role combining compensation strategy leadership with advanced technical stewardship of our compensation ecosystem. This individual will lead the Americas compensation team while serving as a global subject matter expert (SME) for rewards data infrastructure, modeling, and automation (specifically within Workday and advanced Excel ecosystems) and annual compensation planning processes.

A key focus of this role is striking a balance between strategic management and execution: mentoring a team of compensation analysts while architecting complex compensation models, executing annual review cycles, and ensuring pay equity across the region.

The day-to-day:

Compensation Strategy & Consultation

Take lead role in enterprise-wide compensation strategy definition, aligning pay programs with business objectives, talent priorities, and market competitiveness

Lead design and execution of annual and mid-year compensation planning cycles (merit, bonus, equity), ensuring alignment to budget, performance, and pay-for-performance principles

Reinforce compensation philosophy, frameworks, and governance to drive consistency, equity, and transparency across the organization

Partner with Executive Leadership and Finance to define compensation budgets, scenarios, and forecasting for global planning cycles

Translate business strategy into actionable compensation programs that attract, retain, and motivate key talent segments

Provide high-level consultation to HR Business Partners and Business Unit leaders on competitive, equitable, and legally compliant pay practices.

Lead complex, regional compensation initiatives, including the design of salary structures, market benchmarking strategies, and geographic tier differentials.

Collaborate closely with the Global Rewards leadership to align Americas programs with global governance frameworks.

Technical Leadership & Systems Architecture

Serve as a technical architect for rewards data, overseeing the end-to-end configuration, testing, and optimization of the annual compensation review process within Workday.

Drive continuous process improvement and automation across the compensation lifecycle, engineering complex calculations, Workday advanced fields, and streamlined eligibility rules.

Provide advanced technical oversight for data validation, large-scale data cleansing, and the build-out of interactive, dynamic dashboards to translate raw data into actionable insights for executive leadership.

People Leadership & Team Management

Directly manage, coach, and develop a high-performing team of compensation professionals across varying levels.

Oversee workload distribution and strategic alignment for senior individual contributors, guiding on enterprise-wide data modeling, core cycle planning, total rewards and ad-hoc executive rewards projects.

Foster a collaborative environment that balances day-to-day business partnering with deep technical data analysis.

What you'll need:

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Finance, Mathematics, or a highly quantitative field. Master’s degree or relevant certifications (CCP, Workday Pro) are highly preferred.

Experience: 10+ years of progressive experience in compensation, total rewards, or financial/people analytics roles, with a minimum of 3-5 years focused on Workday compensation or total rewards management.

Workday Mastery: Deep technical proficiency in Workday HCM and Workday Advanced Compensation module management (configuration, business processes, and matrix reporting).

Advanced Data Analytics: Mastery of advanced data modeling concepts, Power Query, Power Pivot, macros (VBA), and advanced functions (e.g., INDEX-MATCH, XLOOKUP).

Regulatory Knowledge: Deep understanding of US/Americas pay regulations, compliance frameworks (FLSA, state-specific pay transparency laws), and pay equity auditing practices.

Citizenship: US Citizenship is required.

What will help you on the job:

Workday HCM, Workday Advanced Compensation, and Workday Pro certifications are highly preferred.

Deep understanding of Compensation processes and experience delivering Workday-based solutions.

Experience designing and managing sales compensation plans.

Ability to navigate complex organizational changes and influence stakeholders at all levels.

Experience applying advanced analytics, AI, or digital workforce considerations to rewards and workforce strategy.