Senior Director, Total Rewards and People Operations

About Us

Hungryroot is using AI to build the most consumer-centric food and wellness company to ever exist. We act as your personal assistant for healthy living—getting to know your goals, lifestyle, and budget, and recommending and delivering healthy groceries, easy recipes, and essential supplements for you and your family.

It’s the easiest way to eat healthy, achieve your goals, save time, and discover new foods. We believe food is the foundation of health, convenience should not mean compromise, and that everyone is unique in how they eat and live. That’s why we’re building a future in which healthy living is both easy and enjoyable.

Hungryroot is a distributed team of top talent across 28+ U.S. states. While we have a headquarters in New York City, our remote-first culture emphasizes collaboration, team-building, and flexibility. Expect regular virtual team events, strong ownership and accountability, and an annual company retreat.

About the role

Hungryroot is seeking a Senior Director of Total Rewards to lead the strategy, design, and execution of compensation, benefits, equity, payroll, HRIS, and people analytics. This role is a key driver of our future readiness—responsible for building scalable, high-impact programs that support employee well-being, enable performance, and prepare us for the public markets.

You will partner cross-functionally with Finance, Legal, and People leaders to architect systems that are compliant, competitive, and reflective of our values. You’ll build and lead a lean, high-performing Total Rewards function—including our incredible Payroll and Benefits Senior Analyst—and define the roadmap that supports our distributed, diverse workforce.

Responsibilities

Compensation Strategy & Equity Design

• Evolve our compensation philosophy, job architecture, and leveling systems to public-company standards. Be comfortable presenting to members of the board, primarily the Compensation Committee. 
• Define and manage our annual compensation planning process, including budgeting, market benchmarking, and compensation frameworks tied to performance and ratings.
• Lead equity strategy and execution—including transition from options to RSUs—and establish scalable guidelines for new hire, refresh, and promotion grants.
• Monitor and drive internal pay equity and external competitiveness; ensure compliance with evolving regulations, including pay transparency laws.

Benefits 

• Own the long-term strategy and optimization of employee benefits offerings, with a focus on balancing cost-efficiency, competitiveness, and wellbeing.
• Lead vendor management, plan design, employee education, and annual open enrollment strategy.
• Collaborate with our Employee Experience Lead to identify and implement new wellness programs that align with employee needs and Hungryroot values.

HRIS & Systems

• Lead the team that manages our HRIS (Dayforce), ensuring a high-quality employee experience, data accuracy, and integration with compensation and benefits systems.
• Partner with Finance for reporting, reconciliation, and forecasting.
• Develop and maintain scalable, compliant processes for leaves of absence, ensuring consistent employee and manager experiences across all states.

People Analytics & Workforce Insights

• Leverage data to deliver strategic workforce insights that inform executive and board-level decisions.
• Build dashboards, reporting frameworks, and compensation models that elevate people decision-making and planning across the organization.

Compliance & Policy Governance

• Ensure compliance with all federal and state laws related to compensation, benefits, and employment policies.
• Own and regularly update employee handbooks, partnering with Legal to ensure clarity and alignment with regulatory changes and internal best practices.

Team Leadership

• Be a beacon of our values (Positive, Proactive and Transparent) and effectively manage the Total Rewards team. This role includes one direct report, but will rely on this role sharing what headcount is needed to scale, gaining alignment, and recruiting high performing, values aligned team members.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive experience in Total Rewards or People Operations, including direct ownership of compensation, benefits, payroll, and equity at a high-growth company.
• Experience leading Total Rewards through private-to-public transitions strongly preferred.
• Deep knowledge of compensation structures, benchmarking, and equity design—including RSUs and leveling frameworks.
• Proven track re