Total Rewards Lead

About Surge AI Our mission is to raise AGI with the richness of human intelligence - curious, witty, imaginative, and full of unexpected brilliance. Surge was founded by engineers and researchers who dreamed of building the next generation of AI. Our platform powers the most capable models in the world, in partnership with the AI models you use every day. At Surge, we believe the path to AGI isn’t just about scaling compute - it’s about embracing the unlimited ceiling of human intelligence and creativity in the data that shapes these systems. Our platform combines elite human expertise with cutting-edge tools for scalable oversight, from building rich RL environments to conducting rigorous evaluations that go beyond benchmarks. We’ve run a profitable business from day one without raising venture funding. The Role As Total Rewards Lead at Surge, you’ll own benefits, compensation, and equity administration. You’ll work with leadership, Finance, Legal, Recruiting, and People Operations to keep things running as we grow, and to shape our programs for the company we’re becoming. This role is ideal for a total rewards generalist who likes being hands-on, wants to bring a point of view to how we reward our people, and wants room to grow a team around the function. What You’ll Do • Own our benefits program, including vendors, open enrollment, renewals, and leave, across hourly, salaried, and international employees. • Document and refine our compensation philosophy, and turn it into bands and guidelines that managers and recruiters can use. • Run merit and promotion cycles on a documented process, so only true exceptions reach leadership. • Partner with Recruiting on competitive offers and current pay ranges, including a consistent path for contributors moving into employee roles. • Run pay equity reviews and be our authority on total rewards compliance, including FLSA, ACA, and state mandates. • Own day-to-day equity administration and build grant, refresh, and promotion guidelines with Finance and Legal. • Build total rewards workflows and market data reporting in our HRIS and comp tools, using automation and AI to stay lean. What We’re Looking for • 5+ years in Total Rewards, with real ownership across benefits, compensation, and equity. • A track record of building programs in high-growth companies, including a benefits program from vendor selection to launch. • Experience running merit and promotion cycles and designing the process behind them. • Working knowledge of equity administration at a private, high-growth company. • Comfort with a mixed workforce: hourly and salaried, US and international. • Strong analytical skills, and you can put a recommendation in front of senior leaders and defend it. • You use AI and automation in your own work, and you’re comfortable building something good enough for now and rebuilding it later.