Director, Commercial Excellence - Incentive Compensation

Baxter International Inc. • Deerfield, IL

21h • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Commercial Excellence – Incentive Compensation UCAN is accountable for the end‑to‑end design, governance, and execution of Baxter’s incentive compensation programs across assigned commercial businesses. This role leads a high‑performing team and serves as the enterprise expert on incentive compensation strategy, ensuring programs are aligned with business objectives and delivered with accuracy, compliance, scalability, and operational excellence. The role partners closely with Sales Leadership, Finance, HR, IT, and Analytics to translate commercial strategy into clear, executable incentive plans that drive performance, transparency, and accountability. This role is critical to enabling Baxter’s commercial transformation—ensuring incentive programs evolve alongside changing business models, systems, and growth priorities while maintaining clarity, trust, and disciplined execution across the field.

Requirements

• Deep expertise in incentive compensation plan design, operations, and governance
• Strong people leadership skills with the ability to build, inspire, and manage high‑performing teams
• Advanced critical thinking and problem‑solving capabilities, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and complex trade‑offs
• Strong financial and analytical acumen, including modeling and scenario analysis
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and operate effectively in a matrixed environment
• Demonstrated experience driving process standardization, automation, and operational rigor
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate complex concepts into clear, actionable messages
• High attention to detail with a strong control, risk, and compliance mindset
• Proven success managing senior stakeholders
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Analytics, or a related field (or country equivalent) required
• 10+ years of progressive experience in incentive compensation, sales operations, commercial excellence, or a related discipline
• Advanced experience across the Incentive Compensation technology stack, including CRM and business intelligence tools
• Prior people management experience required

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree or MBA preferred
• Experience operating in complex, matrixed, and global commercial organizations strongly preferred
• Prior experience within healthcare, life sciences, or similarly regulated industries preferred

Responsibilities

• Act as a trusted advisor to commercial leadership, Finance, and HR by translating business strategy into effective incentive plan designs that balance growth objectives, simplicity, risk management, and field motivation.
• Own the full incentive compensation lifecycle, including plan design support, scenario modeling, approval governance, system configuration, quota and territory alignment, payout calculation, validation, and payment execution.
• Lead, coach, and develop a global or regional incentive compensation team, building strong technical expertise, commercial understanding, accountability, and a culture of continuous improvement.
• Establish and maintain robust governance frameworks, controls, documentation, and audit‑ready processes to ensure accuracy, SOX compliance, and adherence to internal policies and external regulatory requirements.
• Drive standardization, simplification, and scalability of incentive compensation processes by leveraging automation, best practices, and data‑driven insights to improve cycle time, accuracy, transparency, and user experience.
• Partner with CRM, incentive compensation systems, and analytics teams to ensure strong system integration, data integrity, and reporting capabilities that provide timely, decision‑support insights.
• Lead change management and communication strategies for new or evolving incentive plans, systems, and policies to ensure strong field understanding, adoption, and confidence.
• Coordinate effectively with commercial leaders and cross‑functional partners including Finance, HR, Legal, IT, and external vendors to resolve issues, manage dependencies, and deliver against commercial timelines.
• Lead the team through IT systems and process transformation initiatives to meet the needs of a changing organization and support future growth.

Benefits

• Medical and dental coverage that start on day one
• Insurance coverage for basic life, accident, short-term and long-term disability, and business travel accident insurance
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP), with the ability to purchase company stock at a discount
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan (RSP), with options for employee contributions and company matching
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Educational assistance programs
• Paid holidays
• Paid time off ranging from 20 to 35 days based on length of service
• Family and medical leaves of absence
• Paid parental leave
• Commuting benefits
• Employee Discount Program
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Childcare benefits

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees