Specialist, Compensation

Atlanta Hawks•Atlanta, GA

About The Position

The Specialist, Compensation is responsible for the strategic design, implementation, administration, and continuous improvement of the organization’s compensation programs. This role oversees broad-based compensation, job architecture, salary grades, market pricing, sales compensation and commission plan administration, annual compensation cycles, and compensation budgeting and analysis. The Specialist, Compensation partners closely with business leaders, Finance, Payroll, IT, and Revenue teams to ensure compensation programs are competitive, equitable, operationally effective, and aligned with organizational goals. This role also leads compensation analysis and projections, supports organizational design through job description and grading work, and helps streamline and remodel compensation and commission plans as the business evolves.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Finance, or a related field.
5+ years of progressive compensation experience, including broad-based compensation and incentive compensation administration.
Demonstrated experience using Payscale for market pricing, benchmarking, and compensation analysis.
Strong experience administering commissions, including support for complex sales compensation plans.
Experience remodeling and streamlining compensation and commission sales plans while maintaining alignment with business goals.
Experience processing commission payouts in coordination with Payroll.
Experience building or maintaining job architecture, including job descriptions, job leveling, salary grades, and compensation structures.
Experience conducting compensation analysis, projections, and budgeting support.
Strong partnership skills with cross-functional stakeholders, especially Finance, Payroll, IT, Revenue, and business leaders.
Strong analytical, organizational, project management, and problem-solving skills.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain compensation concepts clearly to leaders and employees.
Proficiency in HRIS systems, spreadsheets, and compensation tools.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and administer compensation programs, including base pay, short-term incentive plans, annual compensation planning, and salary structure administration aligned with the companies compensation strategy.
Create and maintain job architecture, salary grades, and pay ranges to support internal equity, market competitiveness, and organizational growth.
Lead organizational pricing and maintenance of roles, job families, grades, and related compensation structures.
Partner with business leaders to develop, review, and refine job descriptions to ensure appropriate leveling, scope, and market alignment.
Conduct market pricing for roles using compensation survey tools and market data sources, including Payscale and the Regional Sports Survey
Create and administer compensation plans for both existing employees during the yearly cycle and for new hires joining throughout the year.
Provide compensation guidance to leaders and People and Culture partners on offers, promotions, transfers, reorganizations, market adjustments, and other pay actions.
Develop compensation guidelines, policies, and governance practices to ensure consistent application across the organization.
Develop and evolve pay for performance programs by management level
Administer commission and incentive compensation programs, including support for employees participating in complex sales compensation plans.
Bring hands-on experience with commissions and complex sales plans, including plan interpretation, payout validation, and issue resolution.
Partner with Revenue and business leaders to assess, redesign, and streamline compensation and commission sales plans while continuing to meet business objectives.
Process commission payouts in partnership with Payroll, ensuring calculations, approvals, and payments are completed accurately and on time.
Work closely with Payroll, IT, and Revenue teams to support systems, workflows, data integrity, reporting, and ongoing administration of commission programs.
Review commission plan effectiveness and recommend plan remodeling where needed to improve efficiency, transparency, scalability, and performance alignment.
Maintain documentation, controls, and audit trails related to commission plans, calculations, exceptions, and changes.
Lead compensation analysis and projections, including modeling for merit increases, promotions, organizational changes, new hires, and market adjustments.
Partner with Finance to develop and manage compensation budgets and forecasts.
Process and manage the annual compensation cycle, including planning, system preparation, manager guidance, analysis, approvals, and implementation.
Prepare reports and insights on compensation trends, pay equity, market positioning, compression, salary movement, and budget utilization.
Manage participation in annual compensation survey’s
Ensure compensation data is accurate, well-maintained, and audit-ready within HRIS and related systems.
Monitor compensation program effectiveness and recommend improvements based on market data, business needs, and workforce trends.