Compensation Analyst (51400)

Gradian is an engineering-led, full-line thermal solutions partner serving data center and other mission-critical, commercial, and industrial markets. Headquartered in Maple Grove, MN, with additional facilities across North America, we design and manufacture liquid cooling systems, air handling equipment, heat rejection units, and modular, factory-assembled thermal management solutions.

Gradian was founded through the unification of four complementary, established brands: MAS HVAC, Daedex, DeepCoolAI, and EcoChillers. Together, we act as a single-source provider, deploying cooling technologies as scalable systems optimized for efficiency, spatial constraints, and overall performance. With a vertically integrated engineering and manufacturing model, we pair rapid design turnaround with precision fabrication, so customers can move faster on complex projects where reliability, timeline, and quality all matter.

Why work here

At Gradian, you'll work alongside others who get genuinely fired up by complex problems, see your work go from first sketch to job site in weeks, not years, and know that while we're developing the technologies critical for AI infrastructure to scale, our culture remains people-first by design.

It is core to our identity that we operate as one team — driving to win together, energizing others, and building lasting relationships that make the work fun and rewarding.

Position Summary:

We are building our Total Rewards function from the ground up, and we're looking for a Compensation Analyst to help design, launch, and administer the compensation programs that will support our company as we scale. This role blends the core, day-to-day responsibilities of a traditional compensation analyst with the ground-floor opportunity to help build a compensation infrastructure — including pay structures, job architecture, and compensation tools — for a newly forming organization.

You'll work closely with the Total Rewards Leader as a hands-on partner: pulling and analyzing data, maintaining systems, benchmarking roles, and helping stand up the frameworks, policies, and tools that will guide how the company pays its people for years to come.

This is an excellent opportunity for a compensation professional who wants both the stability of core comp analyst work and the visibility and creative latitude that comes with building something new.

Key Responsibilities:

• Conduct job evaluations and job matching against market survey data to ensure roles are appropriately leveled and benchmarked
• Participate in and manage compensation survey submissions (e.g., Radford, Mercer, Willis Towers Watson, Culpepper) and analyze results to inform pay decisions
• Partner with HR Business Partners and hiring managers to evaluate new hire offers, promotions, equity adjustments, and internal transfers, ensuring internal equity and market competitiveness
• Support annual compensation cycles, including merit increases, bonus/incentive planning, and equity refresh processes
• Maintain and audit compensation data within the HRIS, ensuring accuracy of pay grades, job codes, FLSA classifications, and compensation history
• Prepare compensation analyses, dashboards, and reports for HR and business leaders
• Respond to day-to-day compensation questions from HR partners and managers, providing guidance grounded in compensation philosophy and policy
• Ensure compliance with pay transparency laws, minimum wage regulations, and other relevant federal/state/local pay requirements
• Assist with FLSA classification reviews and compensation-related audits

• Serve as a power user of the HRIS system for all compensation-related data entry, reporting, and maintenance
• Support configuration, testing, and rollout of compensation planning tools (e.g., merit planning modules, comp cycle software, market pricing tools)
• Help evaluate and implement new or upgraded compensation technology as the company's needs grow

• Partner directly with the Total Rewards Leader to design the company's first formal compensation structure, including pay grades/bands, job architecture, and geographic/location pay differentials
• Help establish a compensation philosophy and framework (e.g., market positioning, pay mix, pay-for-performance principles) appropriate for a growing organization
• Assist in building foundational compensation policies, guidelines, and governance processes where none currently exist
• Support the selection, configuration, and implementation of compensation-related systems and tools as part of building HR infrastructure from scratch
• Help create job leveling frameworks and career ladders in partnership with People/HR leadership
• Develop templates, calculators, and analytical models to support offer-making and pay decisions during a period of rapid hiring
• Document processes and best practices as they're created, since formal precedent doesn't yet exist
• Bring a builder's mindset — comfortable operating with ambiguity, creating structure where it doesn't yet exist, and iterating quickly as the organization evolves

• 2–5+ years of experience as a Compensation Analyst or in a similar compensation/HR analytics role
• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Finance, Information Technology, Economics, or a related field required.
• Solid understanding of core compensation principles: pay equity, market pricing, job evaluation, salary structures, FLSA classification, and incentive design
• Proficiency with an HRIS system (e.g., Workday, ADP, UKG, Paycom, Paylocity, or similar) for compensation data management and reporting
• Strong Excel/Google Sheets skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, data modeling)
• Excellent analytical skills with high attention to detail and data accuracy
• Ability to handle highly confidential information with discretion
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain compensation concepts to non-technical stakeholders

• Experience participating in or administering compensation surveys (Radford, Mercer, WTW, Culpepper, etc.)
• Experience building or helping build compensation structures, pay bands, or job architecture from scratch — startup or high-growth company experience is a strong plus
• Familiarity with compensation planning software (e.g., Pave, OpenComp, CompTrak, PayScale, beqom, or native HRIS comp modules)
• CCP (Certified Compensation Professional) certification or progress toward one
• Experience supporting pay transparency compliance initiatives

• The company has a clear, defensible, and market-competitive compensation structure in place
• HRIS compensation data is clean, accurate, and audit-ready
• Managers and HR partners trust and rely on compensation guidance for hiring, promotions, and pay decisions
• Compensation tools and processes are efficient, scalable, and ready to support continued company growth
• The Total Rewards Leader has a reliable, detail-oriented partner who can both execute core comp work and help shape the function's foundation

This role is a rare combination: the structure and rigor of a traditional compensation analyst position with the impact of helping build a Total Rewards function from the ground up. You'll have direct visibility to leadership, the chance to shape lasting compensation practices, and room to grow as the company — and the Total Rewards function — scales.