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2 minute read
Jose Lopez is a Senior Compensation Data Analyst at BetterComp with over 8 years of industry experience. Based in Northern Nevada, Jose joined the BetterComp team in September 2021 and provides cross functional support to help customers get a more seamless experience in our platform and maximize utility of their market data. We sat down with Jose to discuss more about his role and his life outside of work!
Can you share a brief overview of your professional background and how you ended up in your current role?
I graduated from the University of Nevada Business School majoring in Finance and Economics. I began my professional career as a financial analyst with a local defense contractor (SNC) working on labor projections and modeling. This gave me my first taste of compensation related data and all the complexities involved. After a couple years, I jumped at an opportunity to immerse myself in compensation by leaving the finance department and learning on the job as a compensation analyst. Before I knew it I was modeling fringe benefits, bonus plans, and playing with all things compensation data. Then BetterComp posted a position that aligned to all my favorite aspects of comp data but on a larger scale. BetterComp allows me to play with compensation data on a global and almost universal scale, I couldn’t pass it up.
Describe your role at BetterComp:
Today, we bring in data from just over 80 different compensation survey vendors across all BetterComp customers. The format and structure of the data they provide varies widely between them, so my primary focus is creating normalization processes for the consumption of that data. Using integrated python coding, the output of these processes is a uniform data structure feeding into BetterComp, giving our customers a seamless view across all their survey vendors. Boredom is certainly not part of the job! Whether I am problem solving with our DevOps team, brainstorming with our Data Operations team or pulling together market analysis for our executive team, no two days are alike.
What is your favorite part about your job and working at BetterComp?
The best part about my job is the variability in the intraday. No two days are alike. This is inherent with a start-up environment, but even more evident in compensation. The compensation strategy of different organizations can be as unique as a person's fingerprint, so each approach to refine and normalize the compensation data is like a puzzle. I see it as getting paid to work on puzzles everyday: it's glorious!
My favorite part about working at BetterComp is our embodiment of "Better". Sure, we're better than our competitors, but even more importantly we're better today than we were yesterday, last month, last year, etc. From my first day, there has been an emphasis on incrementally getting better and that just aligns with my soul.
What do you like doing when you’re not at work?
Outside of my exciting days at BetterComp, I moonlight as a wrangler of toddlers (1 and 3 year old) and weekends as a soccer observer (10 year old). My wife is an avid cookie baker and decorator, so I need to constantly be out mountain biking for the sake of my arteries.
What has been your favorite project or assignment so far? Why was it special to you?
With our year-over-year growth, our data operations team saw more than double the survey results volume from 2022 to 2023. Our emphasis on being incrementally Better everyday led us to not only process the additional volume, but do so with an even faster cycle time than the previous year. I am proud to be a part of a team that focuses on technological solutions to augment our small but mighty team.
Fun Fact:
I have owned close to 50 different vehicles. On average, I buy and sell 3 cars per year.
Favorite Book:
Jurassic Park. The theory and level of detail in the book got me hooked. This was the first book I read that had my heart racing at the end. Highly recommended even if you’ve watched all the movies.
