Head of Total Rewards

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement clear, enterprise-wide total rewards programs aligned to TransMedics’ mission, growth trajectory, and operating model, balancing market competitiveness with strong cost and governance discipline
• Build and modernize foundational compensation architecture, including job leveling, salary structures, compensation grades, and market benchmarking, simplifying legacy complexity and creating scalable frameworks
• Establish clear compensation governance, decision rights, and approval processes for offers, promotions, equity grants, and adjustments across the organization
• Partner with the SVP, HR on executive compensation strategy and execution, including equity programs, executive pay design, benchmarking, burn-rate awareness, and preparation of compensation committee and proxy-related materials.
• Serve as a trusted behind-the-scenes advisor to the head of HR on board- and committee-facing compensation topics, ensuring accuracy, rigor, and readiness while operating with discretion
• Assess, design, and evolve incentive compensation programs, including sales incentives and role-specific plans, ensuring alignment with business outcomes and operational realities
• Develop fit-for-purpose compensation solutions for a highly complex workforce, including clinical teams, 24/7 operations and command center roles, pilots, and other specialized or regulated populations
• Provide oversight of benefits programs, ensuring competitiveness, compliance, scalability, and a strong employee experience, while managing vendor and broker relationships
• Partner closely with HR Operations and HRIS to ensure total rewards programs are effectively enabled in Workday, including clean job architecture, pay structures, and data integrity
• Build reporting and analytics capabilities to support compensation decisions, budgeting, workforce planning, and leadership transparency
• Evaluate existing total rewards talent, operating model, and vendors, upgrading capability as needed and building a high-performing team over time
• Support U.S.-centric programs while ensuring readiness for international expansion by rapidly adapting compensation and benefits practices to new geographies as the business evolves
• Operate with high ownership and pace in an ambiguous environment, anticipating issues, solving problems proactively, and delivering practical solutions that do not slow the business

Qualifications & Experience

• 12+ years of progressive experience in Total Rewards, Compensation, or related leadership roles, with a track record of operating at enterprise scale in high-growth, founder-led, or operationally complex organizations
• Deep expertise in compensation design, including job leveling, salary structures, market benchmarking, equity frameworks, and offer governance, with the ability to design systems from first principles rather than replicate prior-company models
• Hands-on experience supporting executive compensation in public or pre-public environments, including equity planning, burn-rate modeling, benchmarking, proxy-related processes, and preparation of compensation committee materials
• Proven ability to establish and enforce compensation governance, approval frameworks, and decision rights, particularly in environments where business leaders have historically driven pay decisions without centralized oversight
• Working knowledge of benefits strategy and administration, with experience setting direction, managing brokers and vendors, and ensuring programs are competitive, compliant, and scalable
• Ideally, has experience designing rewards for diverse populations such as field-based teams, hub-and-spoke models, 24/7 operations, regulated roles, or highly specialized workforces
• Strong analytical capability and executive presence, with the ability to influence senior leaders, challenge assumptions, and clearly articulate tradeoffs and risk
• Experience working with HRIS platforms, with the ability to partner with HR Operations to ensure clean enablement and data integrity

Leadership Attributes

• Builder mentality: energized by complex, high-impact environments and “white sheet of paper” opportunities.
• Practical, not theoretical: uses best practices but adapts them to the business reality.
• High ownership and pace: anticipates issues, solves problems, and doesn’t require heavy oversight.
• Credible partner: can coach leaders, establish decision rights, and raise the bar while maintaining trust.