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 perspectives.

We want people who share and embody these values. It is vital that our values align — we'd be happy to elaborate on any or all of these during the interview process.

What we offer

Salary: P4: $170,000 P5: $200,000

Highly competitive equity grants are included with full-time offers, as well as semi-annual bonuses tied to your impact, not just your tenure.

Additionally, Arc offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including:

• Healthcare benefits — 99% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision

• Parental leave — 14 weeks fully paid for birthing and non-birthing parents

• Generous time off — Highly competitive PTO with an opportunity to earn more time with tenure

• Income protection — Life and disability insurance for all employees

• Retirement savings — Traditional and Roth 401(k) access

• Water fund — $500 for you to spend each year to get out on the water, however you choose

• Professional development — $500 annual reimbursement for professional development and a monthly AI stipend

• Safety support — Annual reimbursement for PPE, ergonomic equipment, and anything that ensures we keep our crew safe

• Captain training — Training and access to take Arcboats out with friends and family

• Office perks — Daily lunches, snacks, and good coffee while onsite

• Relocation assistance — Available depending on role eligibility.