Director, Sales Compensation and Planning

Ping Identity•Denver, CO

5d•$130,000 - $220,000

About The Position

At Ping Identity, we believe in making digital experiences both secure and seamless for all users, without compromise. We call this digital freedom. And it's not just something we provide our customers. It's something that inspires our company. People don't come here to join a culture that's built on digital freedom. They come to cultivate it. Our intelligent, cloud identity platform lets people shop, work, bank, and interact wherever and however they want. Without friction. Without fear. While protecting digital identities is at the core of our technology, protecting individual identities is at the core of our culture. We champion every identity. One of our core values, Respect Individuality, reminds us to celebrate differences so you are empowered to bring your authentic self to work. We're headquartered in Denver, Colorado and we have offices and employees around the globe. We serve the largest, most demanding enterprises worldwide, including more than half of the Fortune 100. At Ping Identity, we're changing the way people and businesses think about cybersecurity, digital experiences, and identity and access management.

Requirements

7–10 years of progressive experience in sales compensation, sales operations, revenue operations, finance, or closely related functions, with direct ownership of sales compensation strategy, design, and operations.
Deep hands-on experience owning end-to-end sales compensation programs in a B2B SaaS or recurring-revenue environment.
Strong expertise in compensation modeling, capacity and quota planning, attainment analysis, incentive operations, and exception management.
Demonstrated success partnering cross-functionally with Sales, Finance, Legal, HR, and systems or commissions teams.
Strong project management skills with the ability to run complex planning cycles, coordinate multiple stakeholders, and deliver against deadlines.
Advanced analytical and data modeling capability, including the ability to turn complex analysis into clear business recommendations and executive-ready narratives.
Strong executive communication skills, including experience preparing materials for senior leadership and Board-level audiences.
Experience with Salesforce, Anaplan, Google Workplace and strong spreadsheet/modeling skills; familiarity with Xactly is strongly preferred.
Proven ability to build trust with sales leaders and influence decisions through insight, credibility, and strong judgment.
Experience leading people, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and team development.

Nice To Haves

Has owned sales compensation as a primary responsibility and knows how to balance strategic design with day-to-day operational execution.
Experience building and running capacity and quota allocation models.
Brings a broader sales operations mindset, with compensation as the anchor but enough planning, analytics, and stakeholder range to shape business decisions beyond plan mechanics alone.
Is highly effective in ambiguous, cross-functional environments where success depends on partnership, judgment, and follow-through.
Is an AI power user who actively applies AI and automation to improve workflows, accelerate analysis, and raise the leverage of the team.

Responsibilities

Own sales compensation strategy, plan design, and annual refresh cycles across applicable sales roles, including plan mechanics, measures, accelerators, kickers, SPIFs, and policy guardrails.
Lead the planning process end to end, including project management, timelines, stakeholder intake, decision framing, draft iterations, approvals, and rollout readiness.
Build scenario models and perform pre-plan and in-year analysis to evaluate plan effectiveness, expected payout outcomes, attainment distributions, and cost implications.
Partner closely with Finance to support their commission cost modeling, actuals vs. plan reviews, variance analysis, and forward-looking commission expense scenarios.
Work in close partnership with the commissions team that manage Xactly administration and monthly payout processes to ensure plan design is executable, approvals are clean, and ongoing operations run smoothly.
Partner with Legal and cross-functional stakeholders to draft, review, and finalize compensation plan language, policy documentation, and exception frameworks.
Lead sales compensation rollout and field enablement through presentations, reference materials, leader preparation, and direct communication with sales teams.
Serve as a trusted advisor to sales leaders by building strong relationships, answering field questions, resolving ambiguity, and guiding exception handling with clear recommendations.
Design and manage SPIF programs, including structure design, cost estimation, approvals, operational setup, tracking, and communication to the field.
Translate analysis into influence by shaping recommendations, aligning stakeholders, and presenting clear tradeoffs to senior sales and finance leaders.
Own Sales Capacity planning and modelling, with attention to trends in the data, the underlying business itself and external market factors.
Perform routine capacity planning updates and reporting, as well as ad hoc reporting and scenario modelling.
Own quota allocation and target-setting, including analysis, recommendations, and incorporating sales leader input. Target setting should be grounded in capacity model outputs.
Drive continuous performance management by analyzing rep attainment, payout outcomes, performance distributions, and trends, translating these insights into actionable recommendations to optimize plan design and seller productivity.
Prepare executive and Board-level materials related to sales compensation, quota planning, and performance management.
Coach, and develop team member(s) while building a high-accountability culture grounded in rigor, responsiveness, and continuous improvement.
Leverage AI, automation, and modern analytical tooling to improve planning workflows, speed up analysis, reduce manual effort, and elevate decision quality.