Global Benefits Specialist

Job Description

Job Description

Who are we?

Smarsh empowers its customers to manage risk and unleash intelligence in their digital communications. Our growing community of over 6500 organizations in regulated industries counts on Smarsh every day to help them spot compliance, legal or reputational risks in 80+ communication channels before those risks become regulatory fines or headlines.  Relentless innovation has fueled our journey to consistent leadership recognition from analysts like Gartner and Forrester, and our sustained, aggressive growth has landed Smarsh in the annual Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing American companies since 2008.

The Global Benefits & Leave Specialist supports the design, administration, and continuous improvement of Smarsh’s global benefits, wellness, and leave programs across multiple countries. This role serves as a key operational partner within the Total Rewards function, ensuring employees receive a high-quality experience while maintaining compliance with country-specific regulations and company policies.

The Global Benefits & Leave Specialist independently manages day-to-day benefits and leave administration activities, partners with external vendors and internal stakeholders, and provides guidance to employees and managers regarding benefit offerings, leave programs, wellness initiatives, and related processes. This role also supports global program scaling as the organization continues to grow internationally.

This position requires strong knowledge of benefits and leave administration, experience supporting global employee populations, sound judgment, attention to detail, and the ability to manage sensitive and confidential information in a fast-paced environment.

• Global Benefits Administration

  • Administer global employee benefits programs including medical, dental, vision, retirement, life insurance, disability, wellness initiatives, and supplemental benefit offerings across multiple countries.
  • Support benefit operations in the US and international regions, including coordination with country-specific vendors, brokers, and administrators.
  • Serve as a subject matter resource for employees regarding benefit eligibility, enrollment, life event changes, and plan utilization.
  • Manage benefits onboarding and annual open enrollment processes, including employee communications, education sessions, and system coordination.
  • Ensure accurate benefits data management and payroll deductions through HRIS and payroll systems.
  • Partner with the Global Benefits/Total Rewards Manager to support program enhancements, renewals, benchmarking, and process improvements.
  • Identify opportunities to improve employee experience, operational efficiency, and scalability of global benefits processes.

  Leave of Absence Administration

  • Administer leave of absence programs including FMLA, statutory leave programs, disability, parental leave, sick leave, and country-specific leave requirements.
  • Coordinate directly with employees, managers, HR partners, and third-party administrators regarding leave eligibility, documentation requirements, timelines, and return-to-work processes.
  • Track employee leave status and maintain accurate documentation while ensuring confidentiality and compliance.
  • Support international leave administration and coordinate with regional partners to ensure alignment with local regulations and practices.
  • Escalate complex or high-risk leave matters appropriately while exercising sound judgment in routine case management.

  Wellness & Employee Experience

  • Coordinate and support global wellness initiatives and employee wellbeing programs in partnership with Total Rewards and People teams.
  • Assist in the development and execution of employee education and engagement efforts related to benefits and wellness offerings.
  • Support communication strategies that improve employee understanding and utilization of available programs and resources.
  • Gather employee feedback and identify opportunities to enhance participation and overall employee experience.

  Compliance & Governance

  • Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and international regulations related to benefits and leave administration, including ACA, ERISA, COBRA, HIPAA, FMLA, and applicable country-specific requirements.
  • Maintain accurate records, documentation, and reporting for audits, renewals, and regulatory compliance activities.
  • Support annual compliance filings, benefits audits, and vendor reporting requirements.
  • Monitor changes in legislation and escalate potential impacts to leadership.

  Vendor & Stakeholder Partnership

  • Partner with brokers, insurance carriers, leave administrators, and external vendors to ensure timely issue resolution and quality service delivery.
  • Assist with vendor management activities including enrollment accuracy, billing reconciliation, reporting validation, and operational issue resolution.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with Payroll, HR Operations, Legal, Finance, and People Business Partners to support effective program administration.
  • Contribute to ongoing process documentation and operational best practices.

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field preferred.
• 4+ years of experience in benefits, leave administration, HR operations, or Total Rewards.
• Experience supporting global employee populations and/or benefits administration outside the US strongly preferred.
• Knowledge of US benefits and leave regulations including FMLA, ACA, ERISA, COBRA, and HIPAA.
• Familiarity with international benefits and leave practices in countries such as the UK, India, Canada, or EMEA/APAC regions preferred.
• Experience working with HRIS, benefits administration systems, and payroll platforms.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines independently.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Ability to handle sensitive and confidential information with discretion.
• Demonstrated customer service orientation and employee support mindset.

• Healthcare insurance: We provide medical, dental, and vision insurance, and a flexible spending account that allows you to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for eligible out-of-pocket expenses.
• Stock options.
• Personal time off: A healthy work-life balance is critical to your success at the office. Smarsh offers a “take-what-you-need” time off policy as well as flexible work arrangements.
• 401K Match: Smarsh provides a 4% 401K match for which employees are fully vested on day one.
• Sabbatical: The Smarsh sabbatical programme provides a time to recharge, study or simply do something you are passionate about away from the workplace. Employees are eligible after six years of service.
• Recognition: We’re big on kudos for a job well done. Our employee-recognition programme enables co-workers to nominate their peers who best embody our core values for recognition.

The above salary range represents Smarsh's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible base compensation at the time of posting. 

Any applicable bonus programs will be discussed during the recruiting process. 

The salary for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, internal equity, experience, education, location, specialty and training.

Don't meet every requirement? Apply anyway! We value diverse candidates and encourage applications, even if you don't perfectly match the job description. Studies have shown that some strong candidates may self-select out of the interview process prematurely, at Smarsh we encourage an inclusive, high-performing environment.

Smarsh is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to their race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran. Smarsh invites all qualified interested applicants to apply for career opportunities. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. Including frequency of functions

About our culture

Smarsh hires lifelong learners with a passion for innovating with purpose, humility and humor. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. We work closely with the most popular communications platforms and the world’s leading cloud infrastructure platforms. We use the latest in AI/ML technology to help our customers break new ground at scale. We are a global organization that values diversity, and we believe that providing opportunities for everyone to be their authentic self is key to our success. Smarsh leadership, culture, and commitment to developing our people have all garnered Comparably.com Best Places to Work Awards. Come join us and find out what the best work of your career looks like.