Compensation Specialist at Maven

Maven is a market-leading proprietary trading firm allocating internal capital across discretionary, systematic, and market-making strategies. Our collective expertise spans traders, engineers, and technologists, unified by an unwavering dedication to enhance our efficiency as a premier liquidity provider for globally listed derivatives. We leverage groundbreaking execution and pricing technologies to elevate and improve how financial markets operate . Maven continues to scale its operations while preserving the dynamic energy and innovative culture of a start-up, but without the associated risks.

The Role: 

This newly created role represents a strategic opportunity to build the firm's compensation framework from the ground up. As a Compensation Specialist, you will design, benchmark, and evolve compensation structures that reflect our performance-driven culture and operational scale.

Working closely with HR leadership, Finance, ExCo members and functional heads across Market Making and Multi-Strategy, you’ll take ownership of a full-spectrum compensation architecture from salary calibration to long-term incentives. You’ll ensure our Employee Value Proposition (EVP) reflects our values, supports retention, and keeps us competitive within the trading landscape.

Key Responsibilities:

• Build and implement a comprehensive compensation framework to cover fixed pay, variable pay, LTIPs, sign-ons, benefits, and equity  
• Utilise the already established job architecture to support transparent progression and cross-divisional clarity  
• Develop compensation structures tailored to the distinct needs of Market Making, Multi-Strategy, Technology and Operational units
• Conduct benchmarking across peer firms (buyside, banks, tech) for comparable trading and quant roles  
• Analyse compensation trends and competitor positioning to inform reward philosophy  
• Model scenarios for new compensation mechanics (e.g. deferrals, clawbacks, risk-adjusted metrics)
• Own cyclical compensation review processes across the firm, including salary reviews, bonus modeling, and deferred distributions
• Ensuring documentation is structured effectively and adequately recorded to allow for accurate and timely compensation calculations
• Partner with Finance to align models with budget and accrual accounting strategy  
• Ensure governance and documentation to support confidentiality, consistency, and audit-readiness
• Collaborate with the Chief People Officer and ExCo to craft a compelling EVP rooted in company values, competitiveness, and career growth  
• Support senior leaders in reward decision-making and communication  
• Partner with Legal on contractual updates, policy refreshes, and regulatory alignment 

Experience & Capabilities:

• Proven experience in compensation or reward, ideally within financial services, proprietary trading, or high-growth tech  
• Strong technical capability in modeling, benchmarking, and total reward design  
• Ability to navigate high-sensitivity data and align frameworks to commercial strategy  
• Experience working across complex or high-performance environments with diverse role types  
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills—comfortable engaging with ExCo and guiding people managers  
• Excellent attention to detail with a dedication to accuracy, quality, and integrity
• Highly analytical with strong problem solving skills and the ability to balance multiple deadlines
• Strong Excel skills

Compensation & Benefits:

As this role defines the compensation structure it will operate within, the package will reflect seniority, impact, and internal parity.

• Competitive base salary aligned to high-performance financial services  
• Annual bonus linked to firm performance and role outcomes  
• Benefits include private medical, enhanced pension, well-being support, and hybrid working  
• Flexible compensation components based on experience and value-add