Senior Manager, Variable Compensation

Relation Insurance Services • Overland Park, KS

2d • $125,000 - $211,000

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Variable Compensation leads the execution, governance, and continuous improvement of Relation’s variable compensation programs across automated and non-automated workflows. The individual in this role serves as a senior escalation point for complex compensation matters, owns key compensation processes and controls, supports acquisition readiness and integration activity and partners with Sales, Finance, and Operational leadership to strengthen accuracy, consistency, reporting, scalability, and compliance across the function.

Requirements

• High School diploma or equivalent required. Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or related field strongly preferred.
• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience in variable compensation, commissions administration, financial analysis, accounting operations, or related analytical work, including responsibility for complex compensation programs spanning multiple regions, business units, acquisition integrations, or compensation workstreams.
• Minimum of 3 years of demonstrated experience leading teams and/or people leaders in a compensation, finance, or operational environment.
• Strong knowledge of commission and incentive compensation calculations, reconciliations, reporting, plan administration, and operational controls.
• Experience managing or overseeing complex compensation issues across both standardized and exception-based/manual workflows.
• Working knowledge of accounting principles and U.S. regulatory pay requirements.
• Advanced Excel skills, including pivot tables, complex formulas, and data analysis; proficiency with reporting tools, internal systems, and compensation-related workflows. Must be computer literate with the ability to learn new software/systems.
• Strong analytical, critical thinking, problem-solving, and organizational skills with the ability to prioritize multiple deadlines, projects, meetings, and escalations.
• Strong communication and relationship-management skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across Sales, Finance, operational teams, and leadership.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality, exercise sound judgment, and uphold high standards of data integrity.

Responsibilities

• Leads operational oversight and governance of variable compensation programs across automated and non-automated compensation workflows, ensuring accurate, complete, and timely payouts in accordance with plan provisions.
• Serves as the senior escalation point for complex compensation issues.
• Establishes and monitors operational controls, review procedures, documentation standards, and audit-ready practices to support payment accuracy, data integrity, confidentiality, and compliance with applicable pay requirements and company standards.
• Leads compensation-related acquisition and integration readiness, including review of historical compensation practices, transition risk identification, cutover planning, testing oversight, issue escalation, and post-close stabilization to support accurate and timely compensation payments for acquired teams.
• Reviews and oversees monthly variable compensation calculations, reconciliations, adjustments, and payout reporting across responsible workstreams.
• Ensures strong coordination between automated and manual compensation processes.
• Partners with Sales, Finance, and leadership to support implementation and administration of commission and incentive plans, policy changes, compensation memos, and related communication.
• Identifies, evaluates, and improves variable compensation processes.
• Oversees reporting and analysis from multiple systems and data sources, ensuring data validation, exception research, and integrity of compensation-related information. Develops and delivers compensation reporting, dashboards, and leadership insights that identify trends, risks, and opportunities for improvement.
• Supports preparation and review of commission statements, summaries, dashboards, presentations, and recommendations for finance and sales leadership.
• Leads or supports process, workflow, and system enhancements.
• Supports audits, internal controls, confidentiality requirements, and compliance with applicable pay requirements and company standards.
• Leads hiring, onboarding, coaching, development, performance management, and workforce planning.
• Identifies opportunities to leverage technology, automation, reporting tools, and AI-enabled solutions to improve compensation processing, validation, exception management, workflow efficiency, and leadership reporting.
• Assists with related accounting, finance, operational, and analytical projects and performs special projects and other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Competitive pay.
• A safe and healthy work environment provided by our robust benefit program including family health and wellness programs, 401K, employee assistance programs, paid time off, paid holidays and more.
• Career advancement and development opportunities.

What This Job Offers

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