Senior Total Rewards Manager

What we're building

The marine industry supports recreation, global commerce, and national defense. And yet it runs on technology that hasn't meaningfully changed in fifty years. Until now.

Arc is on a mission to electrify the marine industry. We're rethinking powertrains, software, and vessel designs from first principles. And we're already executing. We started with consumers to develop and harden our core technology. We're now scaling production of our flagship model with new models and sectors on the horizon. Now we're extending our platform to commercial applications, starting with tugs, ferries, and defense, with years worth of signed contracts and a pipeline that spans every vessel type on the water.

The technology is proven, the momentum is building, and the opportunity is enormous. The marine industry is going electric and Arc is building the platform that powers it.

Who we're looking for

We’re looking for someone who’s fired up by our mission and ready to build. You’ll thrive here if you adapt quickly, take ownership, and care about the details.

This is a full-time, on-site role at our Los Angeles headquarters. You’ll report to our Director of People and work closely with a lean, high-trust team where everyone’s work matters.

What you'll do

Owning Arc’s compensation philosophy, salary targets, and equity strategy, and running annual and off-cycle compensation planning, including bonus cycles, promotions, and equity refreshes

Benchmarking pay using compensation data sets to keep us competitive in the market while balancing business pragmatism

Designing and administering benefits programs, including health, 401(k), leave, wellness, and Arc-specific perks

Building and modernizing the systems, processes, and tools that let total rewards scale reliably from today’s 200+ person crew to 500+, while preserving culture and enhancing employee value proposition

Designing compensation frameworks, manager enablement tools, and incentive programs that give people leaders more ownership over how they recognize their teams while landing as meaningful, visible rewards

Developing differentiated pay strategies across engineering, technical, hourly, and revenue-generating roles

Building Arc’s executive compensation strategy and evolving our equity programs, including valuation methodology and cash↔equity trade options

Partnering with Recruiting on offers, leveling, and candidate-facing communication

Ensuring compliance with federal and California pay transparency, equal pay, and benefits regulations

Communicating total rewards clearly to our crew through onboarding, open enrollment, and ongoing channels

Minimum Qualifications

7+ years of experience in compensation, benefits, or total rewards spanning both exempt and non-exempt roles, with meaningful experience operating at a strategic level, building programs and philosophy

Experience building or significantly evolving a company’s compensation infrastructure and tools to support growth

Experience designing executive and manager-level equity compensation, including ISOs, NSOs, RSUs, and milestone or impact-based equity grants

Proficiency with comp benchmarking tools (Pave, Radford, Mercer, or similar) and HRIS platforms (Rippling, Gusto, or similar)

Fluency with modern tools (AI and others) to get more leverage out of time, enable better collaboration across the People team, and communicate total rewards to the company effectively

Ability to translate ambiguous, cross-functional business needs into clear compensation philosophy, policies, and exception frameworks

A strong point of view on compensation strategy, paired with the ability to build a rationale and influence senior leadership stakeholders around it

Strong analytical and modeling skills, with proficiency at leveraging modern AI tools to improve efficiency and increase quality

Bonus Qualifications

Experience scaling total rewards at a fast-growing startup

Background in EV, hardware, aerospace, or defense companies

Experience designing compensation for distinct technical or engineering disciplines with different market premiums

Experience with pre-IPO equity programs, including valuation methodology, cash↔equity trade design, and alternative payout structures

Comfortable pushing at a fast but sustainable pace

Enthusiasm for boating and the water

At Arc, we encourage diversity and consider all qualified applicants equally for employment, regardless of background, identity, or status. You're always welcome to reach out even if you don't meet many of these qualifications. Passion and aptitude make up for a lot.

Our values

We move with urgency and build with care. We value these five things above all else:

Ownership over both your work and the company's success

Empathy for colleagues and for customers

Humility in problem solving and collaboration

Pragmatism for navigating ambiguity quickly and sensibly

Inclusion of different backgrounds, opinions, cultures, and perspective…