Sales Compensation Design Manager,

USA TODAY Co., Inc. is a diversified media company dedicated to empowering and enriching communities. As a Sales Compensation Design Manager, you will own the strategy and design of sales incentive programs, partnering with various stakeholders to create compensation plans that motivate behaviors and drive business results.

Responsibilities:

• Design compensation programs that drive results. Partner with Sales Leadership to translate business priorities into effective sales compensation strategies. Design annual and in-year incentive plans, including performance measures, quotas, thresholds, accelerators, decelerators, payout curves, SPIFFs, and role-specific incentive structures. Continuously evaluate whether plans are driving the intended seller behaviors and business outcomes
• Model before you build. Develop financial and behavioral models to evaluate new incentive ideas before implementation. Analyze business impact, cost, seller behavior, pay-for-performance alignment, and ROI. Use data-driven insights to recommend plan improvements
• Own governance. Own governance for all sales compensation programs, including plan documentation, policy interpretation, exception governance, audit readiness, and change management. Ensure plans remain scalable, understandable, equitable, and operationally executable. Partner with operations teams responsible for implementation while maintaining ownership of plan intent and governance
• Be a trusted advisor. Partner with Sales Leadership, Finance, HR, Revenue Operations, and Payroll to shape compensation strategy. Challenge assumptions, present data-driven recommendations, and influence executive decision-making
• Continuously improve. Evaluate seller attainment, incentive effectiveness, plan competitiveness, and business outcomes. Continuously refine programs to improve performance, simplicity, and long-term scalability

Requirements:

• Experience in designing sales compensation plans, not just administering them
• Understanding of how compensation influences seller behavior and business performance
• Ability to discuss financial models with Finance and compensation strategy with Sales Leadership
• Balance innovation with governance and operational simplicity
• Ability to partner with Sales Leadership to translate business priorities into effective sales compensation strategies
• Experience in designing annual and in-year incentive plans, including performance measures, quotas, thresholds, accelerators, decelerators, payout curves, SPIFFs, and role-specific incentive structures
• Experience in developing financial and behavioral models to evaluate new incentive ideas before implementation
• Ability to analyze business impact, cost, seller behavior, pay-for-performance alignment, and ROI
• Experience in owning governance for all sales compensation programs, including plan documentation, policy interpretation, exception governance, audit readiness, and change management
• Ability to partner with operations teams responsible for implementation while maintaining ownership of plan intent and governance
• Experience in evaluating seller attainment, incentive effectiveness, plan competitiveness, and business outcomes
• Ability to continuously refine programs to improve performance, simplicity, and long-term scalability