Compensation Augmentation Platform

Problem

The compensation team managed pay decisions for 40,000 employees, but their tooling hadn't kept pace with the scale or speed the business demanded. Bulk compensation changes—market adjustments, equity refreshes, merit cycles—required cumbersome manual processes, spreadsheet handoffs, and lengthy validation cycles. The team had deep compensation expertise but limited exposure to the modern data and development tools that could dramatically accelerate their work.

Constraints

• The compensation team were domain experts, not developers—any new tooling had to be approachable and learnable
• Pay data is among the most sensitive in the organization; security and access controls were non-negotiable
• Changes needed to flow back into Workday as the system of record
• The platform had to handle the complexity of global compensation—multiple currencies, pay structures, and regulatory requirements
• Could not disrupt active compensation cycles during the transition

Approach

1. Assessed the current workflow — Shadowed the compensation team through a full cycle to understand where time was spent, where errors crept in, and where tooling was the bottleneck
2. Designed the platform architecture — Built a database-backed application with a React frontend that gave the team a purpose-built interface for viewing, filtering, and modifying compensation data at scale
3. Built incrementally with the team — Rather than building in isolation and handing it off, I worked alongside the compensation team, teaching them how the database layer, API workers, and React frontend connected so they could maintain and extend the platform
4. Implemented validation and guardrails — Built automated checks that caught errors before they could propagate—budget limit validation, currency conversion verification, and approval routing based on change magnitude
5. Connected to Workday — Ensured all changes flowed back to Workday automatically, maintaining the system of record without requiring duplicate data entry
6. Trained and documented — Ran hands-on sessions covering database queries, React component basics, and the overall architecture so the team could operate independently

Outcome

• Speed: Bulk compensation changes that previously took weeks of spreadsheet work could now be executed, validated, and pushed to Workday in a fraction of the time
• Team capability: The compensation team gained working knowledge of databases, a React frontend, and modern data workflows—skills that extend well beyond this single platform
• Accuracy: Automated validation eliminated the manual checking that had been the primary bottleneck and error source
• Scale: The platform handles the full complexity of global compensation across 40,000 employees without the team needing to manage it through spreadsheets

What I'd Do Next

• Add scenario modeling so the team can preview the impact of proposed changes before committing them
• Build a historical analytics layer to track compensation trends and inform future strategy
• Extend the platform to handle equity grants and long-term incentive planning