Sales Incentive Manager

USA TODAY Co.

4d • $110,000 - $130,000 • Remote

About The Position

The Sales Incentive Manager is the end-to-end owner of the company’s sales incentive programs within the People Resources Team Compensation function. This individual contributor role is responsible for designing, modeling, administering, governing, and optimizing sales incentive plans that align seller behavior with business strategy and revenue goals. The role partners closely with Sales Leadership, Finance, HR, and Payroll teams to ensure plans are effective, scalable, understandable, and operationally sound. This is a highly analytical and cross-functional role that combines sales compensation strategy, financial modeling, plan governance, process execution, stakeholder support, and continuous improvement. This role is not for payroll or commission processing; it is a strategic business partner role focused on plan design, effectiveness, and business impact. The ideal candidate is a hands-on owner who can move seamlessly between strategy and execution: designing plans, modeling cost and behavior outcomes, documenting policies, partnering cross-functionally, and improving the sales incentive operating model over time.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, Economics, HR, or a related field.
• 5–8+ years of experience in sales compensation, incentive compensation, revenue operations, finance, or sales operations with direct responsibility for incentive plan design and/or administration.
• Experience with incentive compensation platforms and related reporting / planning tools such as Salesforce and Xactly.
• Strong experience with financial modeling, forecasting, and scenario analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities, and operate successfully in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• High attention to detail and strong judgment in plan interpretation, policy application, and issue resolution.

Nice To Haves

• Professional certification in sales compensation is a plus (e.g., Certified Compensation Professional (CCP®), Aon Certified Sales Compensation Expert, AIHR Sales Compensation Certificate)

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and ongoing refinement of sales incentive plans, ensuring alignment with company objectives and desired seller behaviors.
• Develop plan components such as measures, weights, thresholds, accelerators, payout mechanics, and special incentives.
• Evaluate proposed plan changes through scenario modeling and business impact analysis before implementation.
• Analyze plan effectiveness by evaluating seller behavior, attainment distribution, pay-for-performance alignment, and ROI on incentive spend.
• Provide recommendations for leadership based on plan performance trends and business outcomes.
• Own the annual incentive planning cycle and support in-year plan updates as business needs evolve.
• Translate business strategy into practical, supportable compensation plans that can be operationalized with available systems, data, and processes.
• Maintain plan documentation, policy rules, governance standards, and exception management processes to ensure clarity and consistency.
• Partner with key stakeholders to ensure accurate and timely implementation, and operational execution of sales incentive plans.
• Establish strong governance over source data, plan rules, exception handling, policy interpretation, and audit readiness.
• Partner with Finance on investigating and resolving compensation issues, disputes, and discrepancies in a timely and fair manner.
• Develop dashboards on Xactly and PowerBI, regular reporting, and executive-ready materials on plan performance, commission expense, attainment, and incentive outcomes.
• Clearly communicate plan design, changes, and policy interpretations to Sales, Finance, HR, and business leadership.
• Serve as a trusted subject matter expert on sales incentive plan design, governance, and administration.
• Partner with Sales Leadership, Finance, and HR teams to align incentive plans to company strategy and operational realities.
• Improve processes, controls, workflows, and system capabilities to increase efficiency, transparency, and scalability.
• Conduct market benchmarking and external research to keep plans competitive and aligned with industry practice.

Benefits

• The annualized base salary for this role will range between $110,000 and $130.000.
• Note: variable compensation is not reflected in these figures and based on the role, may be applicable.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level