WatchGuard Technologies is seeking an experienced HR leader to provide maternity leave coverage for our Director, Human Resources – Americas. This role is heavily focused on compensation strategy, annual merit planning, bonus administration, and HR business partnership. The successful candidate will be highly analytical, exceptionally strong in Excel and project management, detail oriented, and comfortable partnering with senior leaders using data to drive compensation decisions.
Key Responsibilities
- Own end-to-end project management of the annual merit review process for ~1,100 employees globally, including budget & timeline development, manager enablement, data accuracy, and on-time delivery of final increases.
- Own calculation of the full company annual bonus payments based on MBO attainment, tracking exceptions (e.g. leaves, transfers, new hires, terminations), and ensuring accurate, timely delivery of final payout data to Payroll.
- Analyze internal equity, market competitiveness, and pay recommendations.
- In partnership with the VP Human Resources, partner cross-functionally with Finance and senior Executives to finalize merit and bonus decisions on a tight timeline.
- Prepare executive-level dashboards, reports, and presentations.
- Ensure compensation decisions are equitable, competitive, and data-driven.
- Own compensation data integrity and reporting.
- Interpret HR metrics and provide actionable insights.
- Ensure compliance with employment laws across the Americas.
- Support strategic HR initiatives during the maternity leave period.
- Deliver accurate, clean HR reporting on-demand based on the needs of the business.
- Partner with HR Business Partners, Directors, Vice Presidents, and business leaders on employee relations, performance management, organizational design, and workforce planning.
- Coach leaders through complex people issues and organizational changes.
- Partner with Legal on employment matters as needed.
- Support employee engagement and organizational effectiveness initiatives.
- Oversee the 2026 MBO attainment and scoring process, including calibration activities, in preparation for bonus calculation.
- Support the 2027 MBO goal-setting process, ensuring employees and managers have the tools they need to set impactful goals.
- Provide HR guidance to leaders throughout the performance review cycle.
HR Business Partnership
Performance Management
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Finance, or related field.
- 8+ years of progressive HR experience.
- Significant experience leading annual merit cycles, MBO based bonus calculation, and performance management/goal-setting processes.
- Strong compensation analysis experience required.
- Strong project management skills, with proven ability to manage multiple concurrent, detail-intensive work steams on tight deadlines.
- Advanced Microsoft Excel skills (e.g. pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, nested formulas); experience working with large datasets is essential.
- Experience partnering with Finance and senior executives.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and presentation skills.
- Technology industry experience preferred.
Success Measures
- Merit review process for ~1,100 global employees completed accurately and on schedule.
- MBO-based annual bonus payments calculated correctly, with exceptions tracked and payout delivered on schedule.
- 2026 MBO attainment closed out and 2027 MBOs set, with the performance management cycle running smoothly and managers well-supported.
- Ensure seamless, trusted HR partnership to business leaders & coverage during the maternity leave period.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Finance, or related field
- 8+ years of progressive HR experience
- Significant experience leading annual merit cycles, MBO-based bonus calculation, and performance management/goal-setting processes
- Strong compensation analysis experience
- Strong project management skills managing multiple concurrent, detail-intensive work streams on tight deadlines
- Advanced Microsoft Excel skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, nested formulas) and experience working with large datasets
- Experience partnering with Finance and senior executives
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and presentation skills
- Technology industry experience
WatchGuard Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about WatchGuard and has not been reviewed or approved by WatchGuard.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is portrayed as comprehensive, including medical, dental, vision, and mental-health support. Feedback suggests plan breadth and quality are a recurring bright spot.
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Parental & Family Support — Caregiver benefits include paid parental leave, backup care, adoption assistance, fertility coverage, and, in some locales, subsidized childcare. Feedback suggests these supports meaningfully enhance the total package for families.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO and holidays are emphasized alongside options like paid sick time and volunteer time. Feedback suggests time off provisions contribute to a favorable work-life balance.
WatchGuard Insights
What We Do
WatchGuard® Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in unified cybersecurity. Our Unified Security Platform® approach is uniquely designed for managed service providers to deliver world-class security that increases their business scale and velocity while also improving operational efficiency. Trusted by more than 17,000 security resellers and service providers to protect more than 250,000 customers, the company’s award-winning products and services span network security and intelligence, advanced endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication, and secure Wi-Fi. Together, they offer five critical elements of a security platform: comprehensive security, shared knowledge, clarity & control, operational alignment, and automation. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit WatchGuard.com.
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