Sales Operations, Associate Director – Global Incentive Compensation Strategy

Wolters Kluwer•Chicago, IL

About The Position

Summary Requires significant specialized depth and/or breadth of expertise, conceptual and practical knowledge of theories and principles, and applies general knowledge of business and industry practices within sales operations. Solves unique problems that have a broad impact on the business. Leads operational support to sales management. Oversees planning and coordination of projects to improve the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the sales force. Develops processes and procedures to support the sales process and participates in the development of requirements for sales support systems. Develops, implements and analyzes compensation programs for sales personnel, including sales plan analysis and design, calculation of plan payments and trend analysis. Leads projects or initiatives across areas with notable risk and complexity to achieve milestones and objectives. Exercises considerable creativity, foresight, and judgment in conceiving, planning, and executing on initiatives. Contributes to the development of functional strategy. Job Description Why This Role Matters: At Wolters Kluwer, we operate at the intersection of deep expertise, technology, and global scale. As our Go to Market (GTM) strategies evolve across businesses, segments, and regions, we are building an Incentive Compensation Center of Excellence (CoE) that brings clarity, fairness, and strategic intent to how our GTM teams are rewarded. The Associate Director of Global Incentive Compensation Strategy plays a critical role in this effort. This is a senior advisory position, designed for someone who combines strong incentive compensation domain expertise with a consulting mindset, financial rigor, and comfort influencing executive stakeholders. This role is ideal for a former consultant and operator who enjoys shaping strategy, guiding leaders through complex decisions, and designing incentive frameworks that align behavior, economics, and long-term growth — without owning day to day processing. This role plays a critical part in ensuring Wolters Kluwer’s incentive strategies reinforce its values, growth ambitions, and commitment to fairness and transparency. The Associate Director of Global Incentive Compensation Strategy helps bridge strategy and execution—ensuring that how sellers are rewarded reflects not only what the business wants to achieve, but how it wants to achieve it.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in Sales/Incentive Compensation, Revenue Operations, Sales Strategy, and/or Management Consulting, with clear exposure to incentive design and GTM economics
Deep understanding of commission structures, SPIFFs, quota mechanics, territory planning, and seller behavior
Strong financial and analytical acumen; able to build or interpret cost and scenario models, and translate to actionable designs
Experience collaborating with RevOps, Finance, Sales, HR, Legal, IT, etc
Executive level communication skills; credible with senior leadership
Known for sound judgment, integrity, and balanced decision making
Comfortable advising without direct authority
Values clarity, fairness, and thoughtful design over complexity

Nice To Haves

Background in consulting, advisory, or enterprise transformation preferred
Experience in growth-oriented organizations with multiple revenue models (e.g. recurring, transactional, consumption, etc)
Comfort operating in global, matrixed environments
Experience with Works Council governing bodies
Working familiarity with Salesforce, ERPs and enterprise compensation platforms (e.g., Xactly), with appreciation for governance and process integrity

Responsibilities

Serve as a Strategic Advisor Act as a trusted thought partner to cross divisional GTM, Revenue Operations, and Finance leaders
Provide guidance on commission plan design, SPIFFs, and incentive strategies aligned to GTM strategy, coverage models, and revenue motions
Help leaders navigate tradeoffs between simplicity, motivation, cost, fairness, and scalability
Shape Enterprise Incentive Strategy Translate priorities into incentive designs that align to guiding principles and design frameworks
Define guardrails that align to best practices for sales compensation across roles, segments, regions, and revenue models (e.g. recurring, transactional, consumption)
Bring external perspective and insight informed by SaaS, technology, and data driven business models from global organizations
Partner with the Incentive Compensation CoE Support strategy and governance that can be enabled by Xactly
Act as a bridge between business strategy and platform execution, without being a system administrator
Lead and/or contribute to enablement, documentation, and leadership narratives that make incentive programs understandable and credible
Adopt Xactly and other technologies to drive efficiencies at scale for incentive comp design
Apply Financial and Scenario Thinking Perform or review financial and scenario modeling related to commission plans, SPIFFs, and incentive changes
Partner with Finance to assess cost, ROI, risk, and sustainability of incentive strategies
Help senior leaders understand implications, not just mechanics; guide to scalable yet effective incentive strategies
Influence Through Credibility Facilitate structured discussions with senior stakeholders around sensitive or high impact decisions
Bring clarity, neutrality, and sound judgment to ambiguous and/or politically complex environments
Operate with executive presence, integrity, and follow through