Head of Payroll & Equity (AI)

Location: San Francisco, CA or Seattle, WA, United States. Hybrid policy: staff are expected to work from one of the offices at least 25% of the time, with some roles requiring more office attendance.

Annual salary: $570,000–$610,000 USD

Company

Anthropic develops reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems intended to be safe and beneficial for users and society.

What you will do

• Lead the equity administration and payroll teams, setting strategy, priorities, and operating cadence.
• Design and maintain equity and payroll controls to public-company standards.
• Drive systems strategy across equity platforms, payroll, compensation systems, and integrations.
• Oversee international expansion, including new-country payroll setup, cross-border equity compliance, and mobility programs.
• Partner with Accounting on stock-based compensation, payroll accounting, reporting, close, and audit.
• Build scalable processes, automate manual work, and plan headcount and resources for both functions.

Requirements

• 15+ years of experience across equity compensation and/or payroll operations, including significant leadership of senior functional leaders.
• Experience operating equity and payroll functions to public-company standards.
• Deep familiarity with equity platforms such as Shareworks or E*TRADE and Workday payroll, including cross-system architecture ownership.
• Experience building and scaling global operations across multiple jurisdictions.
• Strong people leadership skills and experience developing senior functional experts.
• Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.

Nice to have

• CEP or CPP certification.
• Experience with international mobility programs, worker secondments, and cross-border tax considerations.
• Experience leading complex system implementations or migrations at scale.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative environment focused on high-impact AI research and long-term safety goals.
• Competitive compensation and benefits, including optional equity donation matching.
• Generous vacation and parental leave.
• Flexible working hours and office-based collaboration.
• Visa sponsorship is available, although successful sponsorship depends on the role and candidate. Immigration lawyer support is provided.